Chef
Tony Lu
Executive Chef & Founder, Fu He Hui; Head Chef, Fu Restaurant Group
- Discipline
- Chef
- Based in
- Shanghai, China
Known for
- Head chef of Fu restaurant group, four establishments on a single Shanghai street
- Chef and founder of Fu He Hui, a Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant
- Authentic Shanghainese cuisine with minimal modern influences
- Marinated hairy crab with yellow rice wine signature dish
i. Biography
Head of the Fu restaurant group in Shanghai, China, and Executive Chef at Fu He Hui, Tony Lu works in a register where Vegetarian Chinese fine dining is built from range rather than omission. Seasonal vegetables, grains, tea and mushrooms carry the structure. Leaves, peels and grains are treated as primary materials, with character drawn through control, patience and Chinese culinary memory. “Traditional Shanghai food is actually not very healthy. It’s too sweet, it uses a lot of soy sauce, and then sugar to balance the saltiness.” Tony has said.
The Climb
Professional kitchen discipline in China from 1993 gave Tony Lu the base for a precise culinary language. The work is visible in repetition, taste calibration and the preference for control over display. Shanghainese culinary identity provides the regional ground for Lu’s cooking, while Chinese fine dining supplies the frame. Ingredients often assigned supporting roles — vegetables, fungi, grains and tea — become the working vocabulary, handled through refinement rather than spectacle. The current structure places Lu as head chef of Fu and chef of Fu He Hui, two roles within one of Shanghai, China’s closely watched restaurant groups. The work joins regional continuity with the development of a vegetarian restaurant whose ambition is measured course by course.
At Work Now
The Fu restaurant group in Shanghai, China, carries Shanghainese culinary identity across multiple responsibilities, with Tony Lu leading the group while serving as Executive Chef at Fu He Hui. At the restaurant, vegetable-led fine dining is shaped through Chinese tradition, seasonality and modern composition without turning the format into display. At Fu He Hui, quarterly rotating set menus run to 11 courses at lunch and dinner. Each course focuses on one key vegetable, fruit or flower, with regional tea pairings. The sequence gives the kitchen a strict cadence: one ingredient, one season, one controlled expression of flavor, texture or aroma. Tea functions as part of the architecture of the meal, not as a late addition. Regional Chinese produce, artistic presentation, and time-honoured preparation methods dating to the Ming and Qing dynasties define the working frame. Seasonal vegetables are handled with modern techniques and thoughtful plating, and artisan-made plates are created for each new seasonal menu. Ingredient, method and vessel are considered together. Asia’s 50 Best has cited several dishes as examples of this vegetable-focused cooking: Tofu Skin with cordyceps flower, black fungus, daylily buds, quinoa, spinach and Mongolian leek; Pomelo Peel with olive kernel; and Eight Treasures, made with gum karaya, bamboo pith, tremella, coix seed, lotus seed, honeylocust fruit, yam and almond. The range is textural and aromatic: fibrous, floral, earthy, bitter-edged, nutty, gelatinous and crisp, assembled through restraint rather than excess.
Signature
Signature dishes include Tofu Skin with cordyceps flower, Pomelo Peel with olive kernel, and Eight Treasures. The dishes mark three parts of the Fu He Hui vocabulary: layered fungi and greens, the use of Pomelo Peel as a central ingredient, and the textural composition of Eight Treasures, where gum karaya sits within a broader arrangement. The impact depends on clarification and framing. A plant-based element is not treated as garnish or relief; it is worked until it can carry the course on its own terms.
Peer Recognition
Tony's honors include Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants — No. 15 for Fu He Hui (2025), Michelin star winner for Fu He Hui, Two Michelin stars for Fu He Hui, We’re Smart Green Guide — Top 100, No. 100 for Fu He Hui (2025), and We’re Smart Green Guide — 5 Radishes for Fu He Hui. Those recognitions place Tony Lu and Fu He Hui within contemporary dining as a Shanghai, China restaurant rooted in Chinese tradition and committed to a fine-dining format where vegetables, grains, fungi and tea are central materials.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Tony
What is Tony Lu's current position?
Tony Lu is head of the Fu restaurant group.
What recognition has Tony Lu received?
Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants — No. 15 for Fu He Hui (2025).
What is Tony Lu known for?
Vegetarian Chinese fine dining centered on seasonal vegetables, fungi, grains and tea.
