Restraint is the rarest ingredient

Head chef

Cooking as an act of subtraction

“A plate is finished when there is nothing left to remove,” is the line repeated at every service briefing. It explains the menus, which grow shorter each year, and the kitchen, which is unusually quiet for its size.

Trained across three continents, our chef returned with the conviction that hospitality is a craft of attention rather than spectacle — no tableside theatre, no shouting, just precise cooking delivered on time.

1. 2004

   Begins as a commis in a two-star coastal kitchen.

2. 2009

   Four years in Kyoto learning knife work and dashi.

3. 2014

   Opens a twelve-seat counter, closes it eighteen months later.

4. 2018

   Takes over the pass here and cuts the menu in half.

5. 2024

   Second guide star; the seating count stays at thirty-six.