When Italian chef Massimo Bottura arrived in Japan in late July to present a series of meals at the elegant Ritz-Carlton Kyoto, it represented quite a coup for the hotel in only its second year of existence. Just six weeks earlier, Bottura's restaurant, Osteria Francescana in Modena, had been voted into top place on the increasingly influential World's 50 Best Restaurants list.

Although he had presented some dishes in Tokyo last year, this was the 53-year-old Bottura's first time in Japan to offer a full multicourse menu of the inventive, artistic, contemporary Italian cuisine that has also won him three Michelin stars. Demand for tables was intense, with some customers arranging to fly in specially for the occasion from as far away as Singapore.

The setting was well worthy of the occasion. The Ritz-Carlton's flagship Italian restaurant, La Locanda, occupies pride of place on the hotel's ground floor and boasts a remarkable interior. The inner dining room was part of the old villa that formerly occupied this site by the Kamo River. Built in 1908 for the aristocrat industrialist Baron Denzaburo Fujita, the two beautifully preserved rooms boast wood panels and European light fixtures along with traditional Japanese motifs, and look out onto a dry-stone garden that is raked to perfection each morning.

Both the five-course lunch and seven-course dinner (plus nibbles at the beginning and end) comprised dishes from Bottura's most recent repertoire. Some featured intensely vivid splashes of color; others were daring, almost provocative monochromes. All were memorable and, most essentially, unfailingly delicious.

Among the standouts was the dish he calls "Autumn in New York." Named after a Billie Holiday song, his original inspiration was the fall produce he found at New York's famed Union Square farmers market. But, just as Holiday didn't only sing the number in autumn or only in New York, Bottura adjusts his recipe to the place and season. His "midsummer in Kyoto" version featured cooling cucumber, melon and watermelon, all set against an underlying motif evoking the Big Apple.

Speaking after his first lunch service, Bottura expressed both elation and relief, his wonder at the quality of the ingredients in Kyoto and the sophisticated palates of his customers.

"I think the two cultures have a shared obsession for the best produce. I feel so good here in Japan — people understand what I'm doing (in my cooking) without any need to have it all explained for them."

Bottura's event was the second in a series of guest appearances titled "A Tavola con Valentino," named after La Locanda's executive chef, Valentino Palmisano. For information about future events, contact The Ritz-Carlton, Kyoto located at Kamogawa Nijo-Ohashi Hotori, Hokodencho, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto (075-746-5555), or visit www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/japan/kyoto/dining/la-locanda.