Food History of Shanghai

Key eras

Benbang cooking (Ming and Qing dynasties, benbang beginnings)

Shanghai cuisine is the youngest of China's major regional cuisines, yet its benbang, or local, style goes back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. It grew from home cooking and small stalls in the walled old city: vegetables, beans and rice, with soy sauce and sugar giving braised dishes their red, glossy finish.

Sixteen kitchens (1843 to the 1930s, the treaty port)

After the port opened in 1843, sixteen regional catering schools set up in Shanghai. Anhui cooking caught on first, followed by the Suzhou and Wuxi style, Cantonese, Huaiyang and Beijing kitchens. By the 1930s Suzhou and Wuxi cooking filled almost half of the city's restaurants, and benbang dishes grew more complex as they borrowed from each.

Xiaolongbao (1871, the Nanxiang soup dumpling)

In 1871 Huang Mingxian, who owned the Ri Hua Xuan pastry shop in Nanxiang, now part of Jiading district, made the steamed meat bun smaller and thinner-skinned and added meat jelly to the filling, so each dumpling released hot broth. Nanxiang xiaolongbao spread across Shanghai and became the city's best-known snack.

Little Russia (1917 to 1937, Haipai Western food)

After 1917, Russian emigres opened more than 40 restaurants on Avenue Joffre, today's Huaihai Middle Road, and their cheap borscht and buttered bread caught on. By the end of 1937 the city had more than 200 Haipai Western restaurants, most on Avenue Joffre and Fuzhou Road, serving a local mix of French, Russian, British and German dishes.

Joint management (1949 to 1978, the lean decades)

After 1949 most Western-style restaurants closed; only 18 remained in Huangpu district under public-private joint management. Supplies were short, so cooks improvised with local ingredients, such as mitten crab in place of sea crab and crushed soda crackers for breadcrumbs. During the Cultural Revolution the Red House restaurant was renamed Red Flag and served Chinese dishes.

Reform and opening (1978 to today, reform and the guide era)

Reform and opening from 1978 brought authentic foreign restaurants back, and many older Haipai rooms closed in the 1990s. Shanghai's first Michelin Guide appeared as the 2017 edition, and the 2026 selection covers 153 restaurants in the city and its surroundings, from benbang houses to Cantonese and innovative tasting rooms.

Immigrant influences

• Anhui (Huizhou) cooks: The first regional style to catch on in the treaty port after 1843. Yanduxian, the spring soup of salted pork, fresh pork and bamboo shoots, is widely believed to have come from Anhui.
• Suzhou and Wuxi cooks: Their Suxi style filled almost half of Shanghai's restaurants by the 1930s, and borrowing from it helped make benbang cooking more complex. Suxi xiaolongbao run larger and sweeter than Nanxiang's.
• Cantonese: Guangdong restaurants were popular with both local residents and foreigners in the treaty-port years, and Cantonese dim sum and roast meats remain a pillar of the city's dining.
• Russian emigres: Arrived after 1917 and opened more than 40 restaurants on Avenue Joffre. Their borscht became luosong tang, a tomato-sweet soup, and the breaded pork chop became a street food.
• Huaiyang and Beijing cooks: Among the regional kitchens that followed Anhui, Suzhou and Cantonese cooks into Shanghai after 1843, adding their banquet dishes to the city's mix.

Signature innovations

• Nanxiang xiaolongbao with meat jelly (1871): soup sealed inside a thin steamed dumpling
• Shengjian mantou with thin, crisp bases: in Shanghai's tea houses by the 1920s
• Nong you chi jiang: dark and light soy with sugar for the city's glossy red braises
• Luosong tang: Russian borscht remade with tomato paste and sugar instead of beetroot
• Fried pork chop with la jiangyou, a local Worcestershire-style spicy soy sauce
• Shanghai salad: the Olivier potato salad reworked with local sausage and dressing
• Savoury fresh-meat mooncakes for Mid-Autumn, where most of China eats sweet ones
• The Four Heavenly Kings breakfast: dabing, youtiao, cifantuan and soy milk