About...

Hideaki Matsuo is a master of ‘ryotei’, an exclusive, ultrapremium style of Japanese haute cuisine. He took an unusual route to the professional kitchen, first picking up a degree in theoretical physics from Kansai University before training for three years with acclaimed chef Hidetaro Nakamura at Shofukuro restaurant in Shiga. In 1993 he took over the kitchens of Kashiwaya, the family business set up by his father in 1977.

In 2009, he was awarded two Michelin stars with a third following just one year later. You’ll find Kashiwaya on a quiet residential area in a suburb in the hills of northern Osaka. Ascend a flight of steps from the street, cross the stone path through the moss garden and enter through a sliding door. From there, you’re escorted to your private dining room that’s sparsely decorated in a contemporary ‘sukiya’ Japanese tea ceremony style with sliding doors, paper screens, tatami mats, low level table and floor level chairs.

Matsuo’s seasonally driven, and monthly changing eight-course ‘kaiseki’ (formal, multicourse) menus are inspired by the memory of his first tea ceremony. They are, he says, his attempt to express the ‘Japanese art of living’ in re-worked versions of classic dishes. Served in a succession of beautifully decorated chinaware, lacquered bowls and bamboo boxes, dishes such as grilled tile fish marinated in salted shrimp, puffer roe boiled in sake with turnip soup and whole fried river fish with gingko nuts, spinach and tamago (a type of Japanese omelette) combine colour, flavour, taste and texture in a highly sophisticated way. The meal will also include elements more familiar to western palates such as scallop, snapper and cuttlefish, sashimi and prawn and conger eel sushi.