/ Shoji Natsuko’s struggle: how Asia’s Best Female Chef 2022 is breaking Japan’s strict culinary gender norms with Été, her Michelin-starred, six-seater Tokyo restaurant – interview

Oct 24 , 2022

Shoji Natsuko, winner of Asia’s Best Female Chef 2022. Photo: Été

Famous for her impeccable cakes, Shoji Natsuko has served A-listers including footballer David Beckham, artist Murakami Takashi and Noma head chef René Redzepi

She was working at Tokyo’s two-Michelin-starred Florilège when her father tragically died – so she poured her heart into her own name-making venture, Été

Japan’s Shoji Natsuko – Asia’s Best Female Chef 2022, according to the scene-making 50 Best – has become famous around the world for her impeccable cakes inspired by the craftsmanship and attention to detail of the great fashion houses. She sees herself as a craftsperson, just like the specialist artisans who work for haute couture houses “pouring their passion and their sweat” into the tiniest details. All in the service of her customers, that have included footballer David Beckham, artist Murakami Takashi and Noma head chef René Redzepi.

Her most well-known creation is her mango cake, topped with luscious roses shaped from delicate slivers of the fruit. Sometimes she also studs the top with strawberries or blueberries draped in gold leaf, or perches a transparent sugar butterfly on one of the mango petals.

The cake is so vibrant and exquisite that it is difficult to imagine that it has its origins in tragedy, but it was a moment of existential crisis after the death of her father that motivated Shoji to open a tiny tart shop in her hometown of Tokyo in 2014, at the precocious age of 24.

The rose mango fruit tart has become a Shoji signature dessert at Été

She had been working gruelling hours in Tokyo’s two-Michelin-starred French restaurant Florilège, helmed by chef-owner Kawate Hiroyasu, which at the time had a kitchen team of only three. She was so focused on her work that she was unaware that her unwell father had been hospitalised, and by the time she made it to the hospital, he had already died. With her mother at home looking after Shoji’s mentally disabled sister, his death left the family in a precarious position.

Shoji Natsuko overcame personal tragedy to found her own restaurant Été. Photo: Handout

“I felt I couldn’t go back into such a pressured restaurant kitchen. Perhaps I could’ve resigned and worked elsewhere, but my father’s death was a deeply shocking experience, so I quit entirely,” says Shoji via a translator, in her gracefully confident manner.

The shock of her father’s passing, and the regret of not being able to dedicate more time to be at his side, compelled her to resign from Florilège. She took out a 10 million yen (US$70,000) bank loan to start her own bakery business, and a life insurance policy for the same amount. If the business failed, she says she planned to take her own life, so her family would not be saddled with the debt.

“I didn’t want to leave my mother in a difficult position, and I thought that if I could build my own business, and do well and become famous, maybe I could make it up to chef Kawate at Florilège one day, seeing as I quit so suddenly with no notice,” she added.