It’s no surprise that a chef named Massimiliano Ziano is Italian, but the Turin native knows more than just Apennine cuisine. As the executive chef at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, he works with all the hotel’s F&B outlets to create a fantastic dining experience, and he’s ready to wow guests with a new brunch – one that stands out from the sea of midday meals in Shanghai.

“I wanted to create an alternative to the standard hotel brunch and attract the guests to this side of the river for a relaxing day,” Chef Massi, as he affectionately called by his team, explains. “I didn’t want them to have to go back and forth to a buffet or be stressed into selecting from a prix fixe menu.”

So he pulled on his culinary heritage, recalling weekend lunches in Italy. “In my home country, whether you go to a trattoria or a fine dining establishment, they offer a prix fixe menu,” he says. So that’s exactly what he’s offering, but the Grand Hyatt team has given the meal a bit of a twist.

Known as ‘The Grand City Brunch’, the menu changes monthly and revolves around a major city in the Western world – at least for now. Some day Chef Massi might use his previous experience working in Seoul or Saigon hotels, but for now he’s sticking to metropolises in Europe and America. For the brunch’s first outing, it’s heading to the Big Apple, creating a menu full of New York classics.

“Everyone asks me, ‘Why is an Italian doing New York?’” he laughs. But Massi’s been doing his research since they came up with the idea last November, studying American cookbooks and recipes and getting familiar with suppliers who source directly from the US. He relied heavily on the hotel’s general manager, Christopher Koehler, a native New Yorker who worked as a chef before moving up in the hospitality world.

The menu offers classic New York brunch cuisine, starting with appetisers like bagels and lox, latkes, Manhattan clam chowder and Waldorf salad. Served in The Grill, the meal wouldn’t be complete without a New York strip, and the Reuben sliders will surely win over diehard New Yorkers. The savoury portion of the meal is served by wait staff, and guests can have unlimited portions, but should save room for the dessert table.

“Guests might feel quite full by the time they finish the entrees, so a little walk might be nice,” the chef says playfully. The stroll will lead them right to the dessert tables, complete with Hudson Valley cheeses, New York cheesecake and the signature dessert, Baked Alaska.

The brunch launches on 15 May and will run through the end of June, at which time Chef Massi will move the menu on to the next big city. He’s not entirely sure which region he’s going to select, but Paris, Milan, Rome and Zurich are all names he has floated.