Tuesday, February 25, 2014

CAPO RESTAURANT IN SHANGHAI GETS SERIOUS WITH FARM-TO-TABLE STEAKS SO WHEN YOU ARE NEXT IN SHANGHAI AND FEEL LIKE SINKING YOUR GNASHERS INTO EXCELLENT MEAT, GO TO CAPO!

KEE@FSWMAG.COM


Capo In Shanghai Gets Serious With "Farm-To-Table" Steaks

Capo Italian cookhouse on the city’s Rock Bund is hand-picking quality artisanal steaks from one of Australia's top independent producers

With an eye permanently focused on perfection, Capo Founder and Chef Enzo Carbone is on a mission to ensure that the Italian cookhouse is importing only the finest steaks around. Personally sourced from an Australian family-farm that now provides exclusive cuts to Capo, Chef Enzo’s menu now offers a range of quality organic cuts and marbling scores to rival any traditional steakhouse.

Located on the historic Bund, Capo redefines Italian dining in Shanghai with the city's only "cookhouse." Capo houses custom-designed, hand-built artisanal twin brick ovens overlooking the main dining room for baking authentic Neapolitan pizzas in one and roasting premium imported steaks and chops in the other. The apple wood oven-cooking of the steaks makes for a unique taste, bringing the flavour of the meat to the fore.

With this in mind, Chef Enzo has taken an uncompromising dedication to quality at every step of production, translating directly into the finest steaks possible. It shows in the succulent 9+ marbling of a Wagyu striploin or in the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness of organic Angus tenderloin. For a taste of true perfection, there is the Capo Fiorentina, a bone-in Wagyu rib eye sold exclusively to Capo. It is aged for four weeks on the premises before it is lovingly seared over a fragrant fire of apple wood and imported Japanese binchotan charcoal and then presented for two on a wooden board.

It is these wood and charcoal-roasted steaks that make Capo so unique. “It’s important to me that I know where the meat I cook comes from," says Chef Enzo. This is why he chose to import beef from Australia, one of the world's premier beef-producing countries.

“It took time," he says. "I had dreamed about Capo for about four or five years, and the meat was central to the concept. So during those years I went back and forth to Australia to find the perfect match before getting the restaurant up and running."

Eventually, Chef Enzo chose Jack's Creek as his sole supplier. This family-owned company is one of the first vertically integrated beef producers in Australia. They control every stage of the beef’s production, ensuring the highest possible quality in their steaks.

It all starts with breeding. Jack’s Creek selects cattle from bloodlines with only the highest pedigree: Wagyu bulls from Hyogo prefecture in Japan. They raise the cattle on 60,000 acres of pristine Australian pastureland, where they eat a nutritious diet of grass and a proprietary blend of non-GMO grains (also grown by Jack’s Creek). The cattle receive no growth hormones nor any unnecessary antibiotics. Moreover, the finished product shows no traces of chemical residues.

“The cattle live a beautiful life,” adds Chef Enzo. “The farmers have a lot of integrity and respect for these animals.” He has witnessed the entire process himself and visits the ranch at least once a year to check his product is the very best available.

But for Jack's Creek, quality assurance doesn't stop once the beef leaves the ranch. They even sent a representative to Shanghai to train Capo’s kitchen staff on proper care and cutting techniques and to help set up an on-premise aging room.

But offerings at Capo don't stop at beef. Chef Enzo's oven also roasts succulent organic free-range chickens, imported Australian lamb racks, 12-hour slow-cooked pork ribs and even handmade pork fennel sausage. Diners can see throughout the restaurant and menus Capo’s commitment to quality in combining sophisticated contemporary Italian cuisine with time-honoured cooking techniques.

Capo is located at 5/F, Yifeng Galleria, 99 East Beijing Road, Shanghai, China.

Tel: +86 (21) 5308 8332 / www.caposhanghai.com
Open daily – Sunday to Wednesday from 5:30pm - 1am, Thursday to Saturday from 5:30pm - 2am.

About Capo
Located at the attic of a 1911 building in Shanghai's Rockbund, Capo is a modern take on the Italian rustic "Cookhouse" concept - a room bustling with activity, in a contemporary setting with pizzaiolas, crudo and grill chefs in action, friendly wait-staff putting the finishing touches to signature dishes and expert mixologists concocting classic cocktails.

The meat- and seafood-centric menu created by Enzo Carbone, Executive Chef and partner, features artisanal and organic prime cuts, grills, jet-fresh raw seafood at the Crudo Bar expertly cut by a Japanese chef and seasoned with the finest Italian ingredients, slow-cooked cocotte dishes, gourmet pastas, authentic Neapolitan pizzas and a scrumptious dessert trolley to add even more ‘la dolce vita’ to the Capo experience.

About JIA group
Capo is part of the JIA group which was founded by young entrepreneur Yenn Wong. The group’s other restaurants in Hong Kong include 208 Duecento Otto – restaurant and bar in the art and antiquing hub of Hong Kong’s Hollywood Road, 22 Ships – a buzzy tapas bar in collaboration with Michelin-starred Chef Jason Atherton, CHACHAWAN – Hong Kong’s first restaurant serving authentic Isaan Thai cuisine, and Ham & Sherry, a sherry and jamón bar, another collaboration with Jason Atherton and Duddell’s, an art-focused restaurant with an upper salon and garden terrace in Central which was recently awarded a Michelin-star after only five months of its opening.  A third restaurant with Jason Atherton is scheduled to open in Hong Kong in May, 2014.

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Big Jacks Creek Farm Wagyu Top Rump Cap at Capo in Shanghai
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One of the twin artisanal Capo ovens
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12-hour Slow Cooked BBQ Pork Ribs at Capo in Shanghai







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