Dinner at El Bulli was like a dream come true and I am not exaggerating. How did I manage to get a reservation when there are only 8000 places available per year versus to one million ( or two million according to some sources) requests? Well, I didn’t. I’ve never…

Ferran Adrià is a master of illusion.

I think it’s genius what Alain Passard does. Not necessarily because he was the first (or one of the first) to explore salad leaves and root vegetables while other high-end chefs were still heavily relying on animal products.Or that since many years his restaurants L’Arpège (84 rue de Varenne, 75007,…

Address: L’Astrance (3*) (4 Rue Beethoven 75016 Paris, tel. 01 40 50 84 40 ) Chef: Pascal Barbot Have I been there before? Twice. First time when it already had one Michelin star and once when it just got it’s the second star. Ambiance and service: Friendly, professional, yet less…

Harutaka (1*, Kawabata Building 3F, 8-5-8 Ginza, tel. 03 3573 1144 ) – the last sushiya from the sushi from Tokyo series this year. And my favourite so far. Harutaka Takahashi ( left) comes from Sukiyabashi Jiro “school”, so you can see many similarities with Sukiyabashi Jiro Roppongi (and, I…

I missed my plane back to Europe, so instead of waiting at Narita for the evening flight I went back to Tokyo and had lunch at Sukiyabashi Jiro in Roppongi Hills. (The one Michelin English speaking sister restaurant of the three Michelin Sukiyabashi Jiro in Ginza. The sushi chef is…

Before this trip to Tokyo, I agreed with those who were sceptical about other than Japanese food in Japan. Well, after my dinner at 3 Michelin stars L’Osier, I don’t share this opinion anymore. Imagine what happens when the excellence of French gastronomy collides with Japanese perfectionism. It is a…

During this trip to Tokyo I started with Sushi Mizutani, then Sushi Kanesaka and ended up at Sushiko Honten (6-3-8 Ginza, tel. 03 3571 1968 ). Ironically, my favourite of all the three was the latter, the sushi place that has only one Michelin star, the least from all the…

Kaizen (“continuous improvement”) concept is deeply tied not only to manufacturing and business(where it originally comes from) but to Japanese culture in general. Anything Japanese do, they will try to do their best. Whether its service in a hotel, asking directions in a metro station or simply growing vegetables and…