Our guest is Yoshinori Ishi who is the executive chef and producer of Auberge TOKITO https://www.aubergetokito.com/en/ in Tachikawa, Tokyo. Chef Ishii’s background is unique and spectacular. He worked at one of the top Kaiseki restaurants in Kyoto called Arashiyama Kiccho as a sous chef and moved abroad to cook at the United Nations Ambassador's Residence in Geneva and New York. Then he moved to London to open Umu, which earned two Michelin stars—the first two stars by a Japanese restaurant in Europe. After 10 years of success at Umu, he decided to open Auberge Tokito in the suburb of Tokyo.

In this episode, we will discuss how Chef Ishii’s philosophy of Japanese cuisine transitioned and expanded over the last 35 years of his career in Japan and abroad, why he decided to go back to Japan to start a new project, the innovative concept of Auberge TOKITO, which focuses on the Japanese cuisine that never existed before and much, much more!!!

The documentary film TOKITO: https://www.tokitofilm.com/en

Our guest is Isao Yamada who is the chef-owner of Yamada https://www.yamadanewyork.com/ in New York. He was classically trained in Kyoto as a Kaiseki chef and opened his own restaurant at the age of 25 in his hometown Fukuoka. He could have successfully built his career in Japan but he decided to move to the U.S. in 2006 to pursue new challenges.

Chef Yamada’s career in the U.S. evolved as he worked closely with the legendary chef David Bouley in New York. He earned a Michelin star as the executive chef at Chef Bouley’s Kaiseki restaurant Brushstroke. In April 2025, Chef Yamada opened his own beautiful restaurant Yamada in Manhattan.

In this episode, we will discuss Chef Yamada’s unique career, how he collaborated with the legendary Chef Bouley, his Kaiseki dishes at Yamada that seamlessly merge authenticity and creativity, his joy and challenges in cooking in America, how Japanese cuisine in America has changed in the last two decades and much, much more!!!

Follow Chef Yamada on Instagram @chef_yamada.isao, as well as his restaurant Yamada @yamadanyc!

Our guests are Rahul Saito and Mitsu Nagae. Rahul is the owner and Mitsu is the co-owner and executive chef at l’abeille https://www.labeille.nyc and l’abeille à côté https://www.labeilleacote.nyc/ in Tribeca, New York.

The duo opened l’abeille in March 2022 and shortly after, they won a Michelin star, thanks to Mitsu’s unique and outstanding culinary background as a Japanese chef classically trained in Paris, Tokyo and New York as well as Rahul’s sound management despite being new to the industry.

Mitsu’s menus are characterized by a seamless merge of French and Japanese cuisines, which seems to have become a relevant genre in places like Paris and Japan as well.

In this episode, we will discuss how Mitsu got into French cuisine from a young age in Japan and eventually trained under top chefs like the late Joel Robuchon, why the seemingly opposite French and Japanese cuisines can go so well together as you can see in Mitsu’s menus, the keys to run successful restaurants in New York and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Takatoshi Kadowaki who is the chef-owner of Sushi Kadowaki https://sushi-kadowaki.jp/eng/ in Tokyo. He started his sushi-chef training at 17 and after his master retired, he moved to the U.S. and developed a global mindset. Now he serves authentic Edomae-style sushi in the Ginza area of Tokyo, where every sushi chef dreams about opening a sushi bar.

Chef Kadowaki is known for his meticulous sourcing of his fish and his skills in maximizing umami through careful aging, which is a part of the Edomae-sushi traditions.

In this episode, we will discuss what Edomae-sushi is compared to other styles of sushi, the key to maximizing umami in fish through aging, his unique beverage pairing philosophy, including red wine and sushi and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Daniel Bennett who is the sake sommelier at Sushi-san www.sushisanrestaurant.com and The Omakase Room at Sushi-san www.theomakaseroom.com in Chicago. Both are a part of Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants, which is an independent, family-owned restaurant group that owns, manages and licenses more than 110 restaurants nationwide with over 60 concepts ranging from fast casual to fine dining.

Daniel is a certified sake sommelier and has approximately 15 years of deep experience working in Japanese food and sake.

In this episode, we will discuss how he built his career in sake, what types of sake people are drinking in America now, his collaboration with a 200-year-old sake brewery to make a private label for his guests, how he trains his staff to get certified as sake sommeliers and much, much more!!!

Our guests are Régis Camus and Carl Hirschmann, co-founders of Heavensake https://www.heavensake.com/, which was founded in 2016.

Heavensake is truly unique. It is the first sake producer that introduced the blending (assemblage) technique to the traditional sake-making process. The mastermind behind Heavensake is Régis Camus who led the renowned Champagne House Piper-Heidsieck as the Chef de Cave for 28 years. Another key point of Heavensake is that Régis and Carl and their team work closely with traditional sake brewers.

In this episode, we will discuss how the blending techniques that are used in Champagne production work in sake brewing, how its collaborations with top traditional sake breweries inspire the sake industry overall, and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Hilo Mahelona who is the chef and founder of Hilo Beverly Hills https://www.hilobh.com/ in Los Angeles, California.

Growing up in Hawaii under Japanese and Hawaiian parents, Hilo has a unique yet authentic sushi-making philosophy. And the moment you step into his restaurant, you will feel his bright, warm hospitality. The combination of the two makes the restaurant very popular among sushi lovers and Hollywood celebrities alike.

In this episode, we will discuss how Chef Hilo got into sushi at a very young age, his earnest efforts to pursue deliciousness such as controlling the pH of his water for sushi rice, his principle of pairing sushi and wine and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Thomas Frebel who is the creative director at Noma https://noma.dk/. Noma is the famed restaurant in Copenhagen with numerous accolades, including three Michelin stars and The World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ No.1 spot.

Since its opening in 2003, Noma’s chef/owner René Redzepi has been inspiring the world through his strong philosophy of cooking with Nordic traditions and his never-ending pursuit of creativity. Noma’s landscape has reached far beyond Nordic countries and Redzepi and his team have been actively exploring various food cultures in the world, including Japan.

Since Thomas joined Noma in 2009, he has been working closely with Chef Redzepi and served as the executive chef at Noma’s restaurant project in Tokyo called INUA. He joined us in Episode #338 and discussed his experience at INUA, Noma’s pop-up dinners in Kyoto in spring 2023 and many other topics.

In this episode, Thomas is back to talk about Noma’s latest pop-up dinner in Kyoto that ran for 10 weeks from September to December 2024. He will share with us the new discoveries and flavor development by the Noma team in Kyoto, this time in the fall, and also what is the future of Noma going to be after the pop-up up and much, much more!!!