Online influencers shape food scene

Digital drivers

A timeline of the major events in Shanghai's food scene in 2017

February - Master Bao

Master Bao, which hails from the capital, is embraced with enthusiasm when it arrives in Shanghai with its plain looking palm-sized buns topped with meat floss right after the Spring Festival - a time that usually marks a low point in the food and beverage industry as people are fed up with holiday feasts. Queues extend hundreds of meters starting before sunrise and lasting till midnight at the outlet near People's Square when it first opens. At the peak, people have to wait up to five hours to get a bag of the buns, which sell for between 38 yuan ($5.8) and 58 yuan per kilo, depending on the type of floss. As the brand, which started in a quiet hutong in 2009, expands nationally, the buns are becoming as ubiquitous as McDonald's burgers.

February - Heytea

The Guangdong-brand called China's Starbucks by industry watchers arrives in Shanghai and breaks Master Bao's record. People wait up to seven hours for a cup of its cheese-foamed tea, requiring police to keep order and bringing cash to scalpers, who charge twice the price of the 20-yuan-or-so drink to wait in line. Rumor has it that the brand's marketing team is hiring people to wait in line to create a sensation, but its founder, 26-year-old Nie Yunzhen, later describes the long lines as the company's "Achilles' heel".

March - Farine

Shanghai's homegrown bakery chain Farine, which means flour in French, is accused of using flour past its expiry date by a former employee. Founded in 2012 by French entrepreneur Franck Pecol, who has had a slew of eponymous restaurants, cafes and ice cream stands, the bakery has for years been the go-to place in Shanghai for authentic croissants for residents, expats and even tourists, as it is recommended by almost every food guide. After the scandal, all locations of the chain close down, the owner flees China to avoid criminal charges and eight employees are detained, although some are later released.

September - Lady M

On the third day after opening its first China store in Shanghai, the New York mille crepe shop is shut down for being too popular, due to fears crowds at its location - floor B2 of a 53-story shopping mall - pose a danger. The shop reopens the next day with 10 security guards to keep order, and receives its first customer who has waited outside the store for a slice of its 68-yuan cake since 3 am. Two weeks later, the brand introduces an online reservation lottery system, limiting sales of cakes from the store to winners.