Hailing from Saitama, Japan, chef Ryôdô says he was first inspired to get into the culinary world after watching Iron Chef as a youngster.
Having been trained in hotel school after high school, he started working in Tokyo at age 18 and has worked at a number of award-winning Luxembourg restaurants before opening his own establishment, Ryôdo, in March 2020, just before the pandemic. The work has paid off, and he was named Gault&Millau Chef of the Year 2022.
“Every two months, our menu changes,” chef Ryôdô explains. “Our clients want a discovery.”
And he’s eager to share his own twist on the fine dining experience with some Japanese essentials: through the quality of products he uses but also through hospitality. “In Japan, most people believe that others are more important than myself,” he says.
The restaurant’s décor and plating appear simple and sleek, a celebration of natural elements. Chef Ryôdô compares his personal interpretation on cuisine to a tree--one with multiple leaves, but the roots--what’s below the soil, unseen--are Japanese. “The decorations are very simple, but these aren’t easy things,” he says, citing tuna maturation as merely one example. “Simple and easy are not the same.”
