The path I've walked (chef Kazuki Munesada)

I'm Kazuki Munesada, chef at Sillage.

Now that I have been appointed as the chef of Sillage, I would like to share with you my background.

From Okayama to Awaji, and then to Kobe.

I was born in Okayama Prefecture, an area blessed with the bounty of the Seto Inland Sea, and after graduating from high school, I went straight to a local culinary school with the sole desire to master cooking.

There I learned the very basics of cooking, from how to hold a knife to how to make stock and how to fillet fish.

He began his career as a chef at the Westin Hotel Awaji in Awaji.

Here, I learned important things about being a chef and a member of society.

I started off by doing odd jobs as a new employee, and learned etiquette and basic cooking skills in a hotel environment with seniors of various ages.

There is no doubt that it built the foundation for who I am today as a chef and as an adult.

The turning point came when he encountered Loiseau French cuisine at Kobe Kitano Hotel.

At that moment, I truly felt that I wanted to cook like that.

Traveling to France to reach even greater heights

I wanted to know more, to learn more deeply. With that thought alone, I decided to go to France and dive into the kitchen of the one-star Michelin restaurant "Jérôme Nutile" in Nimes, southern France. During my three years under MOF Chef Jérôme, I learned not only cooking techniques but also the attitude of "how to view ingredients."

At first, I was treated like a foreigner who didn't even understand the language, so I couldn't meet the quality the chefs wanted and I was constantly getting beaten up.

However, as I gradually learned the language and became able to do each job one by one, the people around me began to recognize me, and during my final year at Jerome I was promoted to the first Japanese sous chef.

Then, the coronavirus pandemic broke out around the world, and naturally France, where I was, went into lockdown. I was no longer able to work as I wanted, and was forced to return to Japan.

Meeting Chef Kato at L'ARGENT

After returning to Japan, I worked under Chef Kato at "L'ARGENT" in Tokyo. There, I learned about the "sincerity with which one approaches cooking" from a different perspective. From selecting ingredients to finishing the final dish, he never compromises. Seeing him like that, I felt like I was confronted with "what kind of person I want to be as a chef."

The Sillage Challenge

And now, at a new place called Sillage, I have been given the opportunity to express what I have accumulated up until now. To be honest, I feel a lot of pressure. I am still a bit scared about how well my cooking will be received. But at the same time, I strongly feel that I have no choice but to surpass my past self.

In this blog, I would like to write about the behind-the-scenes preparations leading up to the opening, the struggles I faced while creating new dishes, and the little things I notice every day. I would be happy if not only the customers who come to the restaurant, but also people I have never met before, could get to know me, Kazuki Munesada, a person, even just a little.