Craft Champion, Cultural Consol: Chef Yoshi Ishii.
For chef Yoshinori Ishii, food is a Trojan horse — delicious subterfuge, a clandestine means of achieving a larger cultural goal.
“Teaching people about Japanese tradition and culture has been a very, very big passion for me ever since I was a high school student,” says Yoshinori Ishii. “My interest has always been introducing beautiful Japanese culture directly to the people. That’s my passion. That’s why I became a chef.”
After studying at the prestigious Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka, Yoshi spent nine years honing his skills at triple Michelin-starred restaurant Kyoto Kitcho, where he was appointed sous chef aged just 25. Subsequently, for two decades, Yoshi worked outside his homeland, using exquisite cuisine as a tool to proselytise Japanese craft and culture.
He began this ambassadorship, appropriately enough, as head chef at the Japanese embassy for the United Nations in Geneva and New York, before assuming roles as omakase chef at Morimoto in Manhattan, and most recently, helming Umu in London. Serving traditional multi-course Kyoto-style kaiseki cuisine, the Mayfair restaurant held two Michelin stars under Yoshi’s auspices.
Chef Yoshi Ishii says, “I don’t see any border between cooking and pottery.”
Beyond championing kaiseki cuisine — with its emphasis upon thoughtfully sourced, local, seasonal ingredients — Yoshi used his position at Umu to introduce diners to classic Japanese crafts such as pottery, calligraphy and floral arrangement. The restaurant had many regular customers, Yoshi explains, “And maybe that’s why the people kept coming, to learn, to get an experience — not only dining.”
Once the customer achieved a certain level of knowledge of the food he was serving, Yoshi says, “I would start to speak about the culture behind the food, and Japanese craftsmanship.” He’d often refer diners to the Japanese artisans responsible for the craftwork showcased at Umu, and diners would frequently commission the craftspeople’s wares. “I think that is my main job, my most important job, which I will continue throughout my life — connecting people through food.”
An enthusiastic and highly skilled potter in his own right, Yoshi hand-made nearly all the tableware he’d use to serve food at Umu. The same is true at his new restaurant, the fifty-seat Auberge Tokito in Tachikawa, on the outskirts of Tokyo. “Basically, our concept, our style is ‘artisan cuisine’,” Yoshi explains. In keeping with this approach, “Since I came back to Japan, I have made more than one thousand plates, bowls, and so forth,” he says.
“The clay, I took from the land under the restaurant. The wood, we took from a few trees we unfortunately had to cut down to build the restaurant,” Yoshi says. “All the plates, bowls and everything, they were all made here in Tokyo by our chefs, not only myself. We work as artisans, all together.”
Making his own tableware is something that sets Yoshi apart from other chefs, he feels. “For me, cooking and making pottery, they are similar. With cooking, I’m looking at ingredients — how to cut it, how to cook it, the temperature, what I’ll put it together with, the recipe, and so on,” he says. “Everything is the same with pottery — you’re looking for the perfect ingredients, trying to achieve originality. You make it, shape and bake it — but for how long, at what temperature? You’re always thinking about what you can create, to please the customer. I don’t see any border between cooking and pottery.”
Auberge Tokito is situated forty minutes’ train journey from Shinjuku in central Tokyo.
As its name suggests, Auberge Tokito is not only a restaurant but also a small inn, with four spacious, handsomely designed rooms. The ten-seat counter at the restaurant is intended to primarily cater to overnight guests, while visitors can choose from seating in the main dining room or one of several private spaces.
Painstakingly curating every aesthetic and culinary touchpoint, then providing guests with the opportunity to spend the night in graceful surroundings at Auberge Tokito, extending and expanding on the pleasure of the dining experience, dovetails with Yoshi’s ultimate aspiration. “For me, my focus is not cooking. My goal is, I want to make the customer happy.”
This aspiration is central to Yoshi and his partners’ aim for the business. “We don’t need to make a big profit,” he explains. “We just want to do sustainable business, making enough so that we can improve and introduce more things as experiences for the customer, teaching young chefs, teaching kids about food and Japanese culture, craft, tradition, and so on. This is my passion.”
Auberge Tokito is overseen by executive chef-producer Yoshinori Ishii, GM / head chef Kenji Okawara, and head chef Hiroki Hiyama. To reserve a table, go to this link. For further enquires, visit the Auberge Tokito website.