Where can you do poem tracing, where you carefully transcribe the words of master poets of the Meiji era, to imagine the gestures of those who lived over 100 years ago and then take a stroll next to Hozu riverthe Arashiyama with a bottomless glass of Japanese wine. Or take…

Hyoteiis a traditional kaiseki restaurant located at the entrance of Nanzen-ji Temple in Kyoto. It also boasts 3 Michelin stars. Crossing the doorstep of Hyotei is like traveling back in time. The restaurant has been owned and operated by the same family for 450 years, with the current chef-owner, Yoshihiro…

If you’ve ever had the good fortune to visit Japan, you’ll doubtless have been left with the same wealth of feeling I have, as I write from my home in London. The chaotic modernity of Tokyo versus the historical richness of Kyoto, to the Idyllic countryside, kind gestures of the…

“Originating from the tea ceremony, kaiseki is a multi-course meal in Japan that highlights the skills of the chef and the finest seasonal ingredients. The kanji characters to write “kaiseki” (懐石) literally mean “breast-pocket stone” and are thought to have been incorporated by Sen no Rikyū , to indicate the…

As part of our deep dive into Japan, Luxeat has the joy of meeting with a Japanese ceramics legend to better understand the history and importance of cups, plates and bowls across the nation. Robert Yellin is an American Japanese ceramics specialist who has been living in Japan since 1984.…

As part of a special issue about rice, we talk with Kayama San, who comes from five generations of ancestral Japanese farmers in Northern Kyoto. Beyond continuing the family legacy, he feels a sense of mission and purpose in protecting Japanese food culture, as well as helping maintain the beautiful…

Chef Kunio Tokuoka has been working in the kitchens of KITCHO, the legendary Japanese haute cuisine restaurant for close to 40 years and is now running the show. He follows in the hefty footsteps of his grandfather the founder of KITCHO Teiichi Yuki. Born in 1960, Kunio Tokuoka has brought…

Suzue, 2 Michelin stars and currently number one in Kyoto on tabelog.com is a traditional kaiseki restaurant serving very minimally prepared dishes from the best seasonal ingredients. Even if I loved my past meals at Matsukawa and Ishikawa in Tokyo, I’ve always found kaiseki flavours a little too bland and…

I first read about Tempura Matsu in Matt Goulding’s book “Rice Noodle Fish“, an excellent study on the Japanese food world and culture. Different than the name suggests, Tempura Matsu is not solely serving tempura, but modern kaiseki from the most incredible ingredients one might outsource in Japan. The second…

What do Tokyo’s top steakhouses such as Shima, introduction only Kawamura and Ginza Hirayama have in common? Their chefs all come from Yutaka in Kyoto (1 Michelin star), now second generation steakhouse run by its founder’s son Mamoru Takada. Thus, the formula of these four über steakhouses is similar. French…