A Moving Restaurant with no Set Menu

YOSHIDA Tomonori, a Yokosuka, Kanagawa-born Japanese chef and owner of "Kimagureya," does not focus on any particular cuisine, since he places more importance on seasonal food. Tomonori's restaurant "Kimagureya" is unique and may be called a "whim restaurant," "moving restaurant" or "home catering service."

"Kimagureya" has no menu. Tomonori cooks anything on request from his guests using good seasonal ingredients. Therefore, there is no set price list. Guests can view a sample menu plan and consult with him about the price. He can visit your home, party or event location, villa, company, store, gym, hall and camping site by car with kitchen utensils and tableware. He covers not only Tokyo, but also any part of Japan, and has visited Hokkaido and Kyushu.

Kimagureya's basic menu is based on vegetables. Meat or fish can be added. Because the taste of Japanese vegetables is very delicate, he often steams them to keep the taste of the ingredients. His favorite dish is pasta. He uses different oils and a wide range of pasta in accordance with seasons and ingredients.

As for his cooking style, his experience is rich in variety. After graduating from high school he entered a bread-making school and at night worked at a teppanyaki restaurant where he found he enjoyed cooking in front of guests. This became the first step for him to enter the food business. He obtained a cooks license through self-study and worked at a hotel in Yatsugatake, a mountain resort, where he had an opportunity to learn pasta cooking.

Then he worked at a very popular Western-style restaurant which serves omelet with a filling of ketchup-seasoned fried rice, meat patties, stew, etc. There, he cooked the restaurant's recommended dishes. "Surprisingly, the cuisine I cooked was very popular and I became confident in my cooking ability," says Tomonori. After that he worked at a restaurant, which serves Italian and French foods. There he gained much experience.

Impudent study of home made-cooking in Italy
After that, taking the advice from a respected acquaintance, he decided to go to Italy to investigate food ingredients, agriculture fields and fishermen's ports, and wanted to eat home-made cuisine. "I did not speak any language other than Japanese and had no contacts in Italy, however I was very interested in Italian home cooking," recalls Tomonori.

Tomonori traveled from Milan by train and stopped over at stations he liked and walked around to see agricultural fields, markets and fishermen's ports. He prepared a corrugated cardboard sign emblazoned with the words "I came from Japan to study Italian food. Please serve me your favorite hand-made cooking. In return I will help with whatever you need" in Italian and hung it around his neck. It worked very well and he soon got to taste lots of home-made cooking. In return he helped by picking up beans and potatoes or loading olives onto trucks at agricultural fields, carrying food, sorting fish or peeling shells at markets.

Furthermore, he had a chance to work at a small restaurant, where he was given very important advice from the master. "You are from Japan, where there are many delicious foods. I think you had better create your own cooking style using the ingredients." He decided to study cooking even more.

Tomonori created a new style of cooking and service as mentioned above. It is very important for Tomonori to cook, facing his guests so that he can freely suggest cooking plans. "Everyone has different party styles," Tomonori says. "There are no identical preparation patterns. This method takes more time than ordinary food preparation. I feel like having a duel each time. The best part of Kimagureya is that I can cope with guests' age, condition and taste," He always thinks of his clients first.

In 1996 he received the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award in the creative soup category. Now, his original "Smoked fatty meat of saury" package is popular and sold via mail order service.

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