I recently attended an extraordinary dinner fittingly entitled “Too Many Chefs – 10 Plates 10 Chefs 5 Courses” at the multi-functional venue for dining/music recording/fashion/media/experimenting/free-for-all that is the new Factory, located right across from 1933 in Hongkou District. Sean Jorgenson was the host chef in his new restaurant located on the first floor of Factory.

The kick-off for the new space was this culinary extravaganza (check the link for some entertaining vids of Sean introducing the menu) which brought together some of Shanghai’s most talented chefs with some of the city’s ravenous eaters, like me. Our long night of culinary abandon (the courses were spread rather far apart due to there being, well, too many chefs in the kitchen) included these delights:

Course 1

Rougie Foie Gras duo – a root beer ‘float’ and Rougie’ Cromesquis with vanilla calvados

Shaun Anthony – Napa Wine Bar and Kitchen

&

Surf and turf “tower” chipotle roasted game hen and langoustine croquette with strawberry mango

Chef Sean - Factory

*Course 2 *

Yuzu marinated beef tenderloin sashimi wrapped enoki mushrooms with edamame mash and warm sake

Eric Brown, Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse

&

Kingfish sashimi with cucumber, yuzu and togarashi

Jason Oakley - Laris

Course 3

Poached Halibut in Osmanthus Cream Sauce, White Balsamic & Soy Gelee

Kelley Lee – Boxing Cat Brewery

&

Soy-Braised Pork Belly ginger-daikon salad, black vinegar 'pudding'

Dan Segall – M1NT restaurant

Course 4

Confit goose leg in Sichuan stock, Goose foie gras croquette / porcini chips

Emmanuel Souliere – Disciples of Escoffier

&

Peppered Lime Scallop Sous-Vide-Che potato causa and beef flauta

Brad Turley – Maya

Desserts

Assorted bite size delicacies

Brian Tan – House of Flour

Jim Fricker – Mon Reve Desserts

I mean, can you believe that line up? The food was so fun and delicious that it's hard to pick favorites. I absolutely loved Sean Jorgensen's unique surf & turf, the "surf" part of it was like an exalted crab cake bursting with fresh briny flavors and with a terrific chewy yet tender bite. I often find crab (or in this case langoustine) cakes to be too dry and mixed with too much filler, this one was moist, and full of meat.

Another hugely successful and flavorful dish was Kelley Lee's Poached Halibut in Osmanthus Cream Sauce. Whew, the fish was rich and luscious, the flesh cooked to the perfect degree for fabulous texture. Dan Segall’s pork belly? Wow, I love pork belly, Segall confirmed this for me. The confit goose leg by Emmanuel Souliere was absolutely loaded with fat, in a stupendously enjoyable way. Several people told me they loved that one. And the same goes for Turley's giant scallop dish--the mollusk was so huge it was almost cartoonish and the potato causa (which was beet purple, were there beets involved?) was a lovely textural foil, plus I loved the colors.

We ended the evening, around 11pm with the talented Jim Fricker's meticulously-crafted desserts; I particularly enjoyed scarfing down the mini chocolate "cappuccino" cups. Meanwhile, Brian Tan really won me over with his chocolate cake bites based on his "Death by Chocolate" concoction that were gloriously moist and had these magical little crunchy bits inside that made it hard to stop eating them.

Factory tells me they are considering putting on another "Too Many Chefs" event, and if so, I highly advise you to partake. The evening was a total steal at 280 rmb.

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