Two Michelin-starred restaurant SÉZANNE offers a unique infusion of neo-French flavors with Asian ... [+]
It’s been a year since we sat down with Daniel Calvert, the executive chef behind SÉZANNE in the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi. And what a year, at that. Last May he shared secrets on how to pair wine with his award-winning cuisine. Now his esteemed French-inspired dining room has been named the best restaurant in all of Asia. The recognition came by way of World’s 50 Best Restaurants, which delivers its annual Asia-specific rankings each spring.
Despite the weighty accolade—to go along two Michelin stars already in the cabinet—Calvert remains as humble, and focused, as ever.
“We have a great team, first and foremost,” he says, eager to split the spotlight with his talented cohorts in the kitchen. “The quality of ingredients are super high and the wine is good; the service is good. Everything that should be good about a restaurant is in place. I’m not saying that it’s fool-proof, but I’ve had creative freedom to do anything and that’s made all the difference.”
It’s all the more remarkable considering that it’s happening hidden away on the 7th floor of a luxury hotel. Indeed, SÉZANNE exists as the only hotel restaurant on the current list of Asia’s 50 Best. Calvert contends they’re even the only example of such on the broader list of World’s 50 Best. He points to a fragmented managerial approach, which often hinders execution therein.
“Hotels notoriously can be a lot of different peoples opinions on something, competing against one another,” he adds. “But there’s only one direction here and I do attribute our success a lot to that.”
The proof is in the prizes, as the success of SÉZANNE at this particular Tokyo property is merely the latest feather in the Four Seasons’ culinary cap. A marquee name in international hotels and resorts, it now boasts the most Michelin stars of any luxury hospitality brand.
It might also seem far-fetched that Asia’s best restaurant is one ostensibly committed to French cuisine. But once you’re seated inside the intimate space, buckled up for a daily tasting menu priced at ¥ 50,600, it becomes clear the cuisine here is characterized in this way primarily in regard to presentation.
A “menu” arriving on the table at the onset shows not the courses, but the ingredients of the evening, which rely almost exclusively on delicacies sourced from up and down the Japanese archipelago. An ensuing parade of plates makes it abundantly clear that Japanese flavors, too, will be placed front and center.
“The fire power is local,” the chef points out. “The ingredients are 99% Japanese. The staff are 99% Japanese. It technically is a Japanese restaurant.”
Recent seasonal highlights include a a Megumi Game duck, sourced from a prized farm in Aichi Prefecture. The refined poultry is juicy, tender, and veers slightly towards the umami end of the flavor spectrum, thanks to a 12-day aging at the restaurant, prior to cooking. The same can be said of the amadai, hauled in fresh by fisherman from Yamaguchi. The flaky tilefish contrasts sharply against the crisped skin topping it.
Even the more traditional elements that do come from France are completed under Asian inspiration. The duck foie gras, for example, is sourced from Maison Mitteault in Chalandray, but at SÉZANNE it’s slow-poached with soy sauce.
Crispy skin amadai from Yamaguchi with shin tama negi and sake-kasu.
On the wine side, sommelier Nobuhide Otsuka continues to expand his impressive stable of elegant, food-friendly liquids. When it comes to the French-sourced juice, specifically, it’s one of the most diversely curated lists in all of Tokyo. And Culvert continues to push a preferred pairing: his signature drunken wine, poached in yellow wine, alongside a Chardonnay plucked from the Jura. But you’ll also find admirable examples of sake, allocated Japanese whiskies or even sherries to throw into the ensemble.
The synthesis of these elements occurs by way of a meticulous front-of-house mechanism. Little is said; more is shown—with a laser-like precision that’s all but expected from fine-dining in Tokyo. Which is perhaps why, on any given evening, the dining room is as likely to be filled with locals as it is by hotel guests.
“The amount of support we’ve had locally in Japan and Tokyo is tremendous,” says Calvert. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it without the home crowd. We do things very organically. There wasn’t a huge marketing campaign. We really just tried to focus on the basics, which is cooking great food and serving great wine and making sure that people are happy, plate-by-plate and day-by-day.”
Daniel Calvert, executive chef of two Michelin star, Sézanne.
