What about a drink highlight?
The Four Seasons has an amazing cocktail bar, Virtù. The head bartender, Keith, is a friend of mine. He used to be the head bartender at the Four Seasons in Seoul, and I met him there about five years ago. In Tokyo, especially in the Ginza neighborhood, there are lots of cocktail bars, but they really serve the classics. He uses a lot of different types of Japanese whiskey, or Japanese gin, and some really old stuff too.
Anything you ate that really surprised you?
Sazenka. It’s a Japanese-Chinese restaurant. For me, an always-interesting thing in Tokyo is how they take French, or Italian, or Spanish, or Chinese, and they translate it. At Sazenka, the flavor is very Chinese. But the detail of how they handle the ingredients, and the perfect portions and precision, it reminds me of Japanese kaiseki. There’s a very specific way of how the Japanese handle other country’s cuisines.
There was a steamed eggplant with chili oil—which is very common in Chinese restaurants—but everything was very thinly cut, and lightly steamed, and the sliced pork was added layer by layer. They do tasting menus that change by the season, and this time it was Shanghai crab season, so I had that too. It was marinated with yellow wine, and had a very surprising flavor.
There’s also a French place called Sézanne. The chef Daniel used to work at Per Se and Belon in Hong Kong, then he moved to Tokyo last year and opened Sézanne. The flavor and details are French, but how the ingredients are handled and presented, similarly, remind me of kaiseki.
Did you pack anything to bring home?
We brought some pastries to share with our friends and colleagues in Seoul. At Narita Airport, there are so many amazing pastry spots. Tokyo Banana is one of the most famous ones. We also brought pastries back to New York to share with the team.
Ellia and I love fashion a lot, too. So whenever we travel to a new city, we try to find local designers and shops. This time I found Nubian, and gr8, they have tons of Japanese designers. One of the designers I fell in love with is Saint Michael. It’s a Japanese guy who does collaborations with LA designers as well. I bought a bunch of stuff: Right now, the US dollar is so strong compared to the yen, so it’s the time to buy. By the time I left Tokyo, my arms were full of clothes, and my belly was full of sushi.
