Hotel IL GRANDE Umeda

The chef interprets the seasons through kaiseki, adding twists and tricks that make the cuisine his own. To express each season, appetisers are accompanied by leaves collected on hill and dale and a slim strip of paper is inscribed with a seasonal phrase. White rice, cooked in clay pots, is specially selected and treated. Rice grown in serpentinite soil, with its rich mineral content, is seasoned with salt and soy sauce to bring out umami and flavour. In a unique touch, scorched rice is served like a rice cracker. The basics of Japanese cuisine are safely guarded, yet imagination has room to r

In Italy, the chef experienced the fierce pride the Italians have in their home regions. Deeply impressed by the unique cuisines of people who produce and consume locally all their lives, he set his sights on combining Japanese sensibilities with Italian cooking. One example is anago carpaccio: deboned conger eel accompanied by tomato and bagna càuda. The focus on seafood derives from his love of the bounty of the sea, learned at his grandmother’s house in Okinoshima.

The purely Japanese interior, with its orderly row of lacquer trays, is a setting fit for a kappo. The chef’s kaiseki experience manifests everywhere in the restaurant’s offerings. The name-brand chicken he uses is tender and richly flavoursome. Salt is used with restraint; instead, a light dipping sauce brings out the native flavour of the chicken. Breast meat fried with crumbled rice crackers and rice cooked with seasoned chicken mince are ideas that spring from Japanese cuisine. The restaurant’s name means ‘chicken artisan’, and it’s not hard to see why.

This restaurant explores the possibilities of Chinese cooking and wine. The name of the shop incorporates the phrases ‘Chinois-Fume’ and ‘Chinese Futurism’, announcing a cuisine that fuses the two. This spirit is reflected in the amuse-bouche arranged on a display shelf for tea utensils, tofu skin and vegetables in Peking Duck style, sauces fragrant with Shaoxing wine. Applying French techniques to Chinese fare, the house experiments with wine pairings. The menu, enigmatic and poetic, lends a playful mood.

Over half a century since he opened his restaurant, Yoshifumi Mori remains vigorously engaged in food preparation. His passion seems unquenchable: with rice flour and salt, he created a seasoning that melts away like snow. He makes wine and even grows rice. Scouring every region of Japan, the chef seeks out unknown ingredients and introduces them to the world. All this has led to Mori being honoured by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Like a steel plate polished until gleaming, he continues to sharpen his culinary sensibilities.

Great ingenuity is poured into the menu to fill it with creative cuisine. Sashimi is garnished with condiments such as deep-fried onions and coarsely grated daikon. Fish cuisine is accented with sauces of mushrooms and vegetables. As a born-and-bred Osakan, the chef gravitates toward Naniwa’s traditional vegetables. The meal wraps up with three types of rice dishes: white rice and several accompaniments, pickled fish on rice and seasonal mixed rice. The generosity of free refills ensures that guests leave satisfied.

Tempura is simple: coat food in batter and deep-fry it. Yet from that very simplicity arises the subtlety and difficulty of the craft. Green asparagus spears are plump with flavoursome moisture; drop the spears into hot oil and their moisture quickly heats up, turns to steam and leaps from the fryer. The role of the coating, and the essence of tempura, is to capture that delicious moisture and concentrate it. Experience cultivated through training turns tempura from good to magnificent.