At Jade on 36, chef Paul Pairet revisits some of our most basically held beliefs about food by approaching ingredients without prejudice, pairing them in unexpected ways, presenting them with creativity and a dash of humor, and always, always adhering to the guiding principle that the result should be delicious.

In this Adam Tihany-designed aerie, 36 stories above Shanghai, Pairet innovates with taste, textures and shapes, sometimes reconsidering familiar ingredients in new ways, sometimes inspired by a single element – or purely by the imagination.

Born and trained in France, his innovative cuisine has created a stir in virtually every restaurant in which he was worked (including Michelin-starred establishments and five-star hotels), and Jade on 36 is no exception.

The chef has cooked — and wowed critics — in cities from Hong Kong to Paris and Istanbul to Sydney, and borrows enthusiastically from these (and other cultures) to create an avant-garde cuisine with elements and influences that could be classified as “ethnic, classic, cross, twisted, caricature, exaggeration, surrealist, Ducassien, supermarket, natural …” But in the end, Pairet’s cuisine is something quite personal.

“Sometimes, a new taste is the focus, sometimes a texture, perhaps a play on shape,” he explains. So beef tongue, because it is shaped like Italy, becomes a pizza. Foie gras is a natural foil for chocolate, so a chocolate foie gras is presented as a classic Opera cake — in taking the flavour, it had to wear the costume, too.

Pairet’s creations bring out new flavors and dimensions, with the whole dish divinely more than the sum of its parts: Beef Irish Coco Strata pairs a steaming hot beef consommé with a coconut “chantilly” with a luxurious topping of XO “caviar” for an avant-garde Irish coffee. BLT chic takes the flavours and elements of this favourite sandwich, and returns it to the plate. It is an adventure on a plate, to be sure, but taste always triumphs over adventure.

Jade on 36 is best experienced through a series of perfectly orchestrated degustation menus: there are four degustation menus in three sizes each (“small” consists of four courses, “medium” has six, and “large” is an eight-course menu.) The Jade menu journeys from the unusual and unfamiliar –for example, Cuttlefish Noodles — to the more familiar and comforting — BLT Classic — and just as diners are settling back into their comfort zone, finishes up with a flourish like the Strawberry Coca Cola Spaghetti.

Flavors are not the only thing Pairet explores. He plays with visual perceptions, too, with presentations that are eye-catching and conversation-stopping, and just plain beautiful. “Breakfast” appears: duck a l’orange, with a trompe l’oeil “yolk” (actually an orange) in the centre of the plate. A single noodle, presented in a concentric circle, made of fresh cuttlefish. A beef short rib, glistening on an oversized bone. A lemon tart appears as a whole lemon, remarkably taken apart and recreated so that the entire lemon is edible — the skin is actually a confit — and the taste is unmistakably that of a fresh-baked lemon tart.

Pairet is a globalist in the most literal sense of the term, a chef who selects ingredients and techniques without regard for national boundaries or class. What matters most is taste, he insists: there is no “better” or “worse” when it comes to flavor, there is simply a universe of flavors, a palette that he uses to paint with liberal doses of imagination. “It is about the taste of the ingredient in its current form, not about what the original taste was.”

Pairet calls this the “newborn eye”: tasting something as if it was being tasted for the first time, and perceiving without prejudice. “A tinned sardine" is not a lesser sardine than the fresh one, but simply a different product. Even something like “industrial” chicken — tasteless — has a paper-soft texture that might be perceived as a [desirable] quality.

The chef is wide open when it comes to technique, as well, using methods that best achieve his goals – whether it’s a particular flavour, texture or presentation — regardless of where that method may have originated. Jumbo shrimp, steamed (and served) in a Mason jar with a medley of citrus and vanilla bean, infuses the shrimp with a delicate, yet flavorful taste and a remarkably soft texture. The technique was inspired by the classic Cantonese “drunken shrimp”, and perfected with science. Beef tendon is roasted and puffed, almost miraculously, until it has the consistency of a potato chip, something between crispy and crunchy.

“Ultimately, what counts is the immediate emotion the dish evokes and what a diner remembers,“ says Pairet. “To do that, a dish has to be: interesting, new, daring — perhaps shocking — beautiful, maybe comforting, even funny.” Come and be seduced, surprised and amused by Paul Pairet, only at Jade on 36 Restaurant.