When cuisines collide, delicious things can happen. It's a lesson that chef and restaurateur Tina Zhao learned at a young age when her parents took her to some of Shanghai's very early-era foreign restaurants. It stuck with her when she enrolled in culinary school in Australia and went on to ply her trade in big-name restaurants in Melbourne, like Nobu. And now, she's bringing this lesson back to Shanghai, where she's blazing her own trail with Alinta, a casual Aussie-inspired bistro in Jiashan Market. Here, Zhao talks about what she learned about food Down Under, celeb encounters, and how a staff meal ended up on her menu.

CNS: What does Alinta mean?

Alinta is the Australian Aboriginal word for "fire." I chose it because, for me, I think it's pretty easy to pronounce and remember. Also. My name is Tina, all four of those letters are in the name, so it's like I'm hiding my name in my restaurant's name.

CNS: Why did you go to Australia in the first place?

Before I was at uni studying marketing and economics. But before that, I was studying for a career in hospitality. I was in school to learn how to be a chef.

CNS: So, tell us about this first dish.

So the first one we have here is a simple dish of burrata cheese with seasonal Australian peaches, roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh mint, onions, and a bit of lemon. And this dish goes nicely with the burrata. This next one is our salmon crudo. We give the fish a light cure and serve it with a mango and coconut dressing and some fresh mint. It's very light and summery.

CNS: Why did you want to get into cooking?

It's been a part of my life for a long time. My mom used to own a lot of restaurants in Shanghai. Do you know Fengyu Shengjian 丰裕生煎? It's like a franchise. They serve shengjian and xiaolongbao, those kinds of things. I think at one point she had seven shops.

CNS: Your mom is also a cook?

She's not, but she owned a restaurant. Watching her, I thought it would be easy. Then I opened my own restaurant. I was wrong!

CNS: What do you define as Australian cuisine?

Yeah, a lot of Chinese customers always wonder what Australian food is. My explanation is we do modern Australian cuisine. So, we try to use imported Aussie ingredients whenever possible – things like seafood and beef. And then we put an Asian twist on it, which is what's been happening in Australia for the last decade or two. So, what we do here isn't totally Western, but it's not totally Asian either. We meet somewhere in the middle.

CNS: Did you know much about cooking Chinese food before going to culinary school?

None. Zero. I never even entered the kitchen at home before I went to Australia. But when I was growing up here in Shanghai, my family used to take me to a lot of the Western-style restaurants here, like the French restaurant Hong Fang Zi or Xin Li Cha, which is called "New Richard" in English. These are old restaurants. They were how many older Shanghai people got exposed to Western food. So, I learned how to appreciate Western food from a very early age. I've always liked cream, butter, and cheese – the kind of stuff that is an acquired taste for many Chinese people. Honestly, I didn't understand what good food and wine were until I went to Australia. I didn't even know what an avocado was until I got there.

CNS: Obviously, you didn't just open a restaurant fresh out of culinary school. Where did you get your chops?

So, I used to work at Nobu, which is a pretty big name in Japanese cuisine. I worked at another Japanese place called Shoya. What you learn in places like these is maintaining a high level of service, keeping your kitchen functioning at a high level, keeping the quality consistent, and maintaining clear communication between the front of the house and the back of the house. You know, the real nuts and bolts of a successful restaurant.

CNS: Tell us about this dish. It looks a bit like a Peruvian tiradito.

Yes! This is inspired by something we used to do at Nobu. We did it with salmon there, but I'm doing it with scallops here. They're fresh, and we marinate them in a yuzu soy sauce and we top them with ginger, scallion, and some white sesame seeds. Then we add a little black truffle and finish it off with a splash of hot sesame oil.

CNS: When you worked at Nobu, did you ever meet Robert De Niro? He's a partner, right?

Yes, of course! He was my boss! Also, any TV star, singer, or celebrity who came through Melbourne would eat at Nobu. So, I've seen too many of them.

CNS: Like who?

Beyoncé. The entire Real Madrid football team.

CNS: Who were you more excited to see, Beyoncé or a bunch of svelte footballers?

Beyoncé! Haha!

CNS: So, tell us about these noodles.

We call this one "Tina's Special Supper." It's flat noodles, with wagyu beef, an onsen egg, chili oil, and our secret sauce. I'm not telling you what goes into that. This dish has a funny story, actually. One night, we had finished work. We were so hungry and just looking around the kitchen for something to eat. So, I just threw this together based on what he had in stock, and it was soooo good! So, this basically started as a staff meal. Then we tweaked it a little bit and put it on the menu.

CNS: And this one?

And this is our beef short rib. I personally really like this dish. We braise it with a lot of different citrus juices for a really long time to get it nice and tender. We serve it with a creamy carrot and pumpkin puree and some broccolini. This dish is a lot of work! I always tell people, "If you knew how we prepared the food here, you'd realize how much of a bargain our prices are."

CNS: How did learning to cook Western cuisine change the way you think about Chinese cuisine?

Western food is easier than Chinese. If I were good enough, I'd be a Chinese chef, but I'm not. I respect Chinese chefs because I think they are definitely more skilled than most Western chefs. Western chefs use a lot of specialized tools and equipment to do what they do. All a Chinese chef needs to do something amazing is a knife and a wok!

If you go:

Alinta is hidden away down on the Jiashan Market side street. Which, if you haven't been, has quite a few places to discover there.

Address: Inside No. 259 Lane, Jiashan Road, Jiashan Market (Search for "Hanting Hotel Jiashan Road" on navigation apps, enter the lane across from it, go through Jiashan Market, take the first right, and go straight to the end).

For reservations add this WeChat or call: 133-8179-7290