Toru Kitagawa, the chef and owner of Oimatsu Kitagawa, has a casual air about him that borders on insouciance — an air that belies the imagination, creativity and earnestness of his cooking. Perhaps this equanimity is an Osaka trait, but it could just have easily been cultivated at Gion Sasaki, the award-winning Japanese restaurant in Kyoto where Kitagawa worked for several years. That restaurant's team of mostly young chefs have the kind of self-assurance that only the young can pull off. Inside, Gion Sasaki is casual and refreshing — a reprieve from the studious silence and contemplation typical of haute cuisine restaurants here.
Having dined at Sasaki and now Oimatsu Kitagawa it's clear that Kitagawa left Kyoto with a few valuable lessons tucked inside his chef's apron. This is clearest in his take on the gohan course, the rice dish that is usually the penultimate serving at a kaiseki ryōri (traditional multicourse cuisine) restaurant.
There was a lag in waiting for it — lunch here takes about 90 minutes — but, just as in Sasaki, each customer or group is presented with their own pot of rice. The ingredients were an ode to the season: slivers of gobo (burdock root) threaded together with scallops enfolded in a steaming rice. Despite this weighty combination, the harmony of flavors soared. And as a bonus, you can take home what you can't finish as an onigiri (rice ball). A simple rice ball may never taste this good again.
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