Paul Pairet

Paul Pairet is Chef de cuisine at Polux in Shanghai, in a career shaped by movement, repetition, and recalibration. His work is less about a fixed style than about translating what he has gathered across cities and kitchens into a coherent dining language. Shanghai has become a main coordinate for that language, but the method was formed long before he settled there. Training at Hotel school in Toulouse gave him an early base in the practical grammar of hospitality.

From there, the kitchen became his working field: chef at Café Mosaic in Paris from 1998, then chef in Istanbul, Hong Kong, Sydney, and Jakarta. Taken together, those posts show a vocabulary built city by city, by adapting to different rooms, service cultures, and expectations without losing control of the line. Shanghai became a recurring site in that progression. Paul Pairet worked there as chef at Jade on 36 from 2005 to 2008, then later as chef at The Chop Chop Club from 2017 to 2018.

He also led Ultraviolet in Shanghai from 2012 to 2025. These projects point to a practice concerned not only with plates, but with the structure around them: sequence, pace, room, and the way expectation is managed before service reaches the table. At Polux, he works as Chef de cuisine in a setting where experience is treated as part of the craft, not as decoration. He has said, "Sound drives the whole experience, probably more than appearance."

That line helps define the work. It places atmosphere inside the remit of the kitchen, alongside flavor, timing, and execution. The role is therefore more than supervisory. It is about shaping how a meal is received, not only how it is cooked. At Polux, the full dining sequence matters, where a room, a soundtrack, and a plate are part of the same construction. Paul Pairet is also founder-partner and Head Chef at Mr & Mrs Bund in Shanghai from 2009 to present, founder-partner and Head Chef at Ultraviolet from 2012 to 2025, and founder-partner and Head Chef at Polux from 2019 to present.

His signature dishes include Cucumber Lollipop, ULTRA-LUNE, grilled seabass vierge, and steak frites. The list shows range without losing control of register. Cucumber Lollipop and ULTRA-LUNE suggest a chef willing to push form and naming, while grilled seabass vierge and steak frites stay grounded in clearer, more familiar territory. The through line is not novelty for its own sake, but the ability to move between invention and classic order.

His honors include La Légion d'Honneur, The 50 most influential French people in the world, Restaurateur of the Year, Chefs' Choice Award, and Lifetime Achievement Award. These recognitions track a career that moved from kitchen discipline into wider public visibility while staying anchored in the same practical concerns: how to build a dining room, how to run a service, and how to make the work hold over time.