Inside a 23rd-floor restaurant overlooking Yokohama Bay, diners are contemplating a chawanmushi (steamed custard), silky smooth and topped with thin slices of asparagus and smoky sea urchin. It would seem like any other Japanese meal, but the tables are decked with Swedish maypoles, and Swedish beer and cider feature prominently on the drinks menu.
This is not dinner as usual at the Westin Yokohama’s Iron Bay restaurant — instead, it’s a special collaboration to mark the hotel’s one-year anniversary. Cooking this evening is the restaurant’s executive chef Shota Yamashita and the guest of honor: Sayan Isaksson, who heads Stockholm’s Michelin-starred Nour where he blends Nordic and Japanese cuisine.
The menu weaves Swedish, French and Japanese dishes and techniques together with locally sourced ingredients at every opportunity. There’s dry-aged buri (amberjack) sashimi with white ponzu and wasabi, a pitch-perfect combination that elevates the accompanying thin slices of raw daikon to new heights. Kinmedai (golden eye snapper) grilled over charcoal, pillowy softness encased in crispy skin, is served with umami-rich miso butter and white asparagus, all bathed elegantly in a light dashi. The meat course is a decadent parcel of stunningly pink wagyu and anago (conger eel) wrapped in charcoal bread. The meal is rounded off with a dessert that sees shiro-an (white bean paste) mousse combined with ice cream topping both grilled and frozen peaches — textural perfection