[Photo Provided To China Daily]

"We want to refresh the hotel a little but let the great history come out," Thesing says. "Let this grand old lady sparkle again.

"Maintaining the status quo is important - we don't want to overwhelm guests, or the staff, with a wave of change."

Thesing was part of the founding management team at the flagship Nuo, and was excited to recruit chef Eugenio Iraci, who had briefly left the Nuo group, to come back and run the kitchen at Jaan with chef Allen Xu.

"A property like this has so much appeal," Thesing says with a grin over lunch early this week.

Iraci's revamp of the Jaan menu may be the biggest change the new regime has implemented so far, but even there, the mantra was good, simple, easy French food, but at a very high level.

The spring set lunch, for example, offers a choice of three appetizers, three mains and two desserts (145 yuan or $21.50 for two courses, 178 for three).