I first came across Alexandre Gauthier last spring, at Opinionated About Dining 100 best European restaurants launch event, where together with some other new generation European chefs he cooked an “8 hands” meal at Saturne restaurant in Paris. The dish Alexander chose to serve was frog legs, one of the…

When my friend, who travels often to Singapore, mentioned that it has the best street food in the world, I didn’t realize to what extent it was true. So the first thing I did after arriving in Singapore was to go to Maxwell road hawker centre, one of many food…

Despite August being my least favourite time of eating raw fish in Japan, Harutaka sushi-ya was as outstanding as always.Harutaka Takahashi, who started his sushi chef career at the famous (or… infamous) Sukiyabashi Jiro, was especially generous this time. The snacks prior to sushi (otsumame) included abalone and three types…

Three months ago I asked a similar question after my visit toL’Ambroisie restaurant in Paris which despite being very classic and, for some, too old fashioned, is a brilliant embodiment of classic French cooking. La Grenouillere is the complete opposite of L’Ambroisie yet also represents the French gastronomy in a…

Before you ask me how I managed to get a reservation at Kawamura steakhouse in Tokyo – I didn’t. There are two Kawamuras which both happen to be in Ginza. The famous one where it’s almost impossible to get into as the chef gives priority to his regular customers (I…

Despite the fact that I’ve been to Japan several times (12 if to be precise), I recently found myself in two situations where, to my dismay, I realized that I had not yet learned, or at least kept in mind, the elementary rules concerning tipping in Japan… The first time,…

I first heard about Restaurant Andre (41 Bukit Pasoh Road, Singapore 089855; tel. +65 6534 8880) in Singapore from San Pellegrino Asia’s 50 best restaurants list. Making it to this list is a huge media kickoff for any restaurant around the world – I doubt that Noma and El Bulli would be…

If young and aspiring chefs in the West might believe that being creative and innovative is the key to one’s first Michelin star, in Japan you can get a Michelin star for being really good in what you are doing, even if what you are doing is deep-frying pork cutlets.…

In the normal world of fine dining 38000 Yen or 290 Euros will buy you a tasting menu containing at least a bit of truffles, caviar or other expensive ingredients. Not in Tokyo’s 3 Michelin starred 10 seat tempura restaurant 7 Chome Kyoboshi (Ozio Ginza Building 6F, 5-5-9 Ginza, Chuo-ku,…

Chef Seiji Yamamoto is fond of dragons. The walls of his restaurant and the 400-year old presentation plates are all adorned with these mythical creatures. Even the restaurant’s name, ryugin, means “singing dragon”, while Nihonryori translates as “Japanese cuisine”. Three Michelin star Nihonryori RyuGin (7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo; tel.03-3423-8006) specializes in…