What makes kaiseki haute cuisine? Zeniya’s chef explains

Tall and quiet, Shinichiro Takagi is the chef and owner credited with the success behind his restaurant, Zeniya, a two-Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant in Kanazawa, Japan.

Kaiseki is a traditional Japanese cuisine, which can be enjoyed either in the form of a tea ceremony or as a multicourse meal (usually dinner). Whichever the preference, the level of quality is always consistently high and is influenced by the local seasons. It is comparable to haute cuisine: only the finest of seasonal ingredients are sourced to create a beautifully executed meal that goes beyond what is presented on the plate.

Kaiseki enthusiasts agree that everything that is seen, heard and touched during the meal is as much part of the meal as the food itself. Even the quality of the cutlery, they argue, is as important as the quality of the ingredients.

Connoisseurs appreciate the extreme attention to detail given to the preparation of the food, as well as the bespoke service provided for each customer. As such, kaiseki dinners command top dollar, which patrons are eager to pay.

Takagi will alter his menu to suit the culinary needs of each group of patrons in his restaurant. His restaurant is open for lunch or dinner by reservation only.

“We don’t have any menu in my restaurant,” Takagi told his guests during a kaiseki dinner hosted by the Asia Society Hong Kong. “So if … a guest from Hong Kong, Beijing [or] New York [orders a tasting course], it’s very easy to prepare the same menu for all of them. [However,] since my father’s generation, we [have] always prepared [a separate] menu for each guest, because I cannot find any reason to prepare the same menu for them.”

We stopped by at the Hong Kong Asia Society centre for a chat with Takagi, who was in town for a dinner event titled “Kaiseki Journey: An Insight Into Japanese Culture Through Food”.