Taste of Tokyo hits Phuket to offer a fine dining feast

Two of Japan’s most acclaimed restaurants are to join forces with Thailand’s high-end island resort for a special gastronomic affair from May 2-3.

Sri Panwa, the luxurious hideaway atop Phuket’s southeastern cape, will be turned into a dynamic cooking arena, hosting two world-class restaurants, Wagyumafia and Sushi Tokami, during the two-day pop-up event.

Wagyumafia is a progressive kaiseki restaurant in Tokyo’s Akasaka neighbourhood, devoted to the creme de la creme of Japanese beef. Its founder, Hisato Hamada, is regarded as the master of wagyu.

Over the past several years, he has built a network of winning-grade cattle farmers in Japan, to help protect and promote the heritage of the country’s best-treasured beef. Lately, Wagyumafia notably made a final bid to the world’s most expensive beef, the 2016 Kobe beef champion.

Hamada and his business partner Takafumi Horie -- who cofounded the restaurant -- have been travelling the world as ambassadors of wagyu beef. They have performed in New York, San Francisco, London and Singapore.

Sushi Tokami is a Michelin 1-starred, 10-seat restaurant serving traditional Edomae sushi in Ginza, Tokyo. Dishes are prepared with carefully chosen ingredients at the height of their season, and wild seafood from local seas demonstrates time-honoured sushi techniques.

Its chef-patron, Hiroyuki Sato, though in his early 30s, ranks among the best sushi chefs in the city. What distinguishes the young Sato, educated in the US, from other chefs his age isn’t just the refined culinary quality he offers, but the nonchalant yet gracious way he interacts with his guests, especially those from overseas.