Innovative Michelin-Star Chef Yonemura Masayasu Designing Dishes for Restaurant T

Get excited. Chef Yonemura Masayasu, a one-Michelin-star chef who has made a name for himself with restaurants in Kyoto and Tokyo, is crafting a menu for Restaurant T that will arrive this fall. Yonemura plans to make the dishes unique to Beijing, so we had a brief chat with him to learn more about the project.

Restaurant Yonemura has a cult following in Japan and abroad for the way its combinations of French and Japanese cuisine surprise the palette. Food blog Chubbyhubby.net called the Kyoto location "sensational" in 2009 and described a 2007 meal at the Tokyo branch as "easily the best meal" they ate in Tokyo.

Chef Yonemura dropped by Restaurant T last week to deliver a master class on his culinary philosophy to the staff there. With his inscrutable, deliberate and soft-spoken manner, he fit my conception of a culinary mastermind. During the master class, Yonemura outlined his efforts to move beyond tradition and convention in order to make beautiful, delicious new food.

With translation help from Restaurant T's manager, I asked the chef after the class what things will make his dishes for Restaurant T specifically Beijing. He confessed that he wasn't exactly sure yet as he hadn't yet spent enough time here, but he did say that the dishes will be "completely new" and "never been done before."

He also made a point of resisting the label of "fusion" for his food. Rather than simply fusing two things, such as his French technique and Japanese background, together, he concentrates on creating food that draws from his own experiences, the particular season and the restaurant's location. As such, his goal will be to create cuisine that can only be found here.

When asked about the difficulty of obtaining ingredients in Beijing, the chef acknowledged the challenge, but he compared it to some of the issues he faces in Kyoto. For instance, because Kyoto, like Beijing, is not located right on the coast, the area has adapted by using a lot of dried ingredients. Chef Yonemura said he is excited to bring some of those ingredients here to use on his dishes.

Restaurant T says it's hoping to begin serving Yonemura's contributions this fall alongside their own redesigned menu. The plan is for him to design 15 a la carte dishes, including hot, cold and dessert options. They'll also put together set lunch and dinner menus that will exclusively feature his creations.

We'll be keeping a close eye on this project (mostly just because we're excited to eat his food), so you can expect to hear more from us about this in the fall.

Photo: Josh Ong