Nicolas Le Bec in 2008 in his Lyon restaurant Espace Le Bec. – AFP picLYON, July 12 – Two-starred French chef Nicolas Le Bec said yesterday he was abandoning his restaurants in France to decamp to “bustling and vibrant” Shanghai.

The chef, 40, said he was selling his two establishments in the city of Lyon to launch an 800-square-metre (8,600-square-foot) high-end restaurant in Shanghai’s business district.

“Shanghai is a bustling and vibrant city and I like Asian culture,” he said. “What I felt in New York when I studied there in the ‘90s, that’s what I feel today in Shanghai.”

Le Bec, originally from Brittany, opened a brasserie in Lyon in 2001 and was awarded a first Michelin star in 2003 and a second in 2007. – AFP