Turning Concepts into Cuisine

Between sketches and dim sum, shoots and restaurant cuisine, Xin Ge Liu is one of the most exciting personalities in Italy's current gastronomic scene. The founder of the Xinge restaurant in Florence combines fashion and food in a way that has long since gone beyond a mere trend.

Text: Janaina Engelmann-Brothánek. Photos: Xinge

Born in 1993 in the Chinese province of Hebei, Xin Ge Liu grew up in a working-class family. Her keen sense of aesthetics became apparent early on: she designed clothes for dolls, spent hours watching her grandmother cook and developed a deep understanding of form, color and composition. "For me, a dish works like a fashion design. It starts with a mood board, an idea, an emotion." At 18, she moved to Florence to study fashion design at the renowned Polimoda. Her first fashion label is ambitious but fails, but Xin Ge sees the failure as a creative new beginning. In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, she founded Xin Ge Gogo, a Chinese takeaway that quickly became an insider tip. Her style is clear, uncompromising and unmistakable right from the start. "I wanted to be free, free to create. I did everything myself - in the kitchen, but also the photos for the website." The next, bigger step followed in 2023: the fine-dining restaurant Xinge. The place is an experience - carefully curated like a fashion show. Light, music, presentation, atmosphere - everything follows a dramaturgical concept. Xinge thinks of its menus like collections: seasonal, limited, creatively condensed: "Today's guests want more than just food. They want emotions, an experience with all five senses." She is not surprised that luxury brands are increasingly focusing on gastronomy: "The fashion industry is weakening. People are buying fewer bags, but they want to travel, enjoy and experience. Lifestyle is replacing luxury products." Xinge's culinary approach has not gone unnoticed. She has won awards from Gambero Rosso, Identità Golose, TheFork and Fortune, which included her in the list of the 40 Under 40 in the Food Industry. Forbes, Vogue, Rolling Stone, Elle Decor and the Guida Michelin also report on the exceptional creative chef with a fashion background. Despite all her successes, Xinge remains curious, tireless and full of ideas. She is currently working on a new after-dinner location with music, a DJ and multi-sensory experiences as an extension of her restaurant and her vision of a holistic, elegant gastronomic concept. If you ask her which ingredients she would use to describe herself, the answer comes immediately: "Salt, sugar and chili - the three ingredients that should never be missing."