There has never before been a tasting menu quite like it. The first dinner presented by wagyu beef grillmaster Kentaro Nakahara, yakitori supremo Yoshiteru Ikegawa and sushi maestro Takaaki Sugita was unprecedented in so many aspects.
All three are among the finest chefs in their respective fields. Their restaurants range from very hard to impossible to book — Sugita's nine-seat counter in particular is reserved solid through next spring. And it would be virtually impossible to imagine them leaving their kitchens to collaborate, either in or outside Japan.
And yet here they are, launching the first of four landmark dinners with starters of ankimo (monkfish liver) and thin rolls of sardine and green shiso perilla leaf in nori prepared by Sugita; golden tsukune (balls of minced chicken) freshly grilled by Ikegawa; and Nakahara's signature tartare of rich, creamy coarse-cut wagyu topped with a raw quail's egg.