Meet Singapore's only Japanese female chef helming a fine dining restaurant
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Meet Singapore's only Japanese female chef helming a fine dining restaurant
When she was young, Ichigo Ichie's chef Akane Eno wanted to be an art curator. At present, she tells CNA Lifestyle, she's focusing her creative skills on creating dining experiences for guests.
Chef Akane Eno (Photograph: Aik Chen)
Eleven years agone, finding a female chef behind a sushi counter in Tokyo was unprecedented, much less one who runs her own fine dining restaurant focusing on a specialisation like kappo cuisine.
A little more a decade later, chef Akane Eno is bucking that trend in Singapore, with Ichigo Ichie – the kappo restaurant she opened in February 2020, right at the commencement of the pandemic.
To date, chef Eno is the only female person Japanese chef helming a Japanese fine dining restaurant hither. Her intimate 16-seater – backed by founders of beef specialist The Gyu Bar and one-Michelin starred Sushi Kimura – is located at InterContinental Robertson Quay.
For the uninitiated, "kappo" is a multi-course meal that is left entirely upwardly to the chef. The term ways to cut and to cook, and it is a style that spotlights the chef's preparation of the meal in forepart of guests who go to savour the entire dining experience with all 5 senses.
What may be a petty scrap surprising is that the 43-year-old never even idea virtually becoming a chef – but an fine art curator. It was art history she decided to pursue at university, right after loftier school.
That said, the soft-spoken and cocky-professed gorging foodie told CNA Lifestyle that she ever considered cooking every bit an art. Growing up in Tokyo, she dined out oftentimes and was always curious about how ingredients were sculpted into her favourite dishes.
During her determinative years, meals at steakhouses and French restaurants were family favourites for special occasions. "My mother cooked Japanese nutrient at home, and then my parents and I enjoyed exploring flavours from other cultures," she reminisced.
It was only after earning her degree at the age of 21 that Eno decided to enroll at the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka, armed with the resolve that it was time to pursue a different art class.
And yes, even though the F&B industry is idea of as a male-dominated one, especially in Nihon, Eno shared with CNA Lifestyle that she never felt she was treated differently, be it at culinary school or in the professional kitchen.
According to her, the majority of her classmates were female person and felt that overall, at that place was no gender bias. That said, very few concluded up becoming chefs while others concluded up taking front-of-house roles.
This however, Eno feels has nothing to do with gender but everything to do with ethos and age.
"Cooking can be physically and mentally tiring, so yous need to have the right mindset," she explained. ""Many people want to play and enjoy their immature adulthood."
She would know. After all, she was four years older than her classmates at culinary school. She also concedes to being pretty "serious" when it comes to her studies.
Information technology is definitely a tough manufacture, admitted Eno, noting that the 3 or 4 fellow female chef trainees she worked aslope early on in her career have all left the F&B industry.
At another fine dining kappo eating place in Tokyo, she had two female co-workers who both quit inside a couple of years. And again, information technology's not so much an issue of gender, she reckoned, only the lack of personal time that compels people to leave the industry.
"For example, the youngest staff had to report at 9am and service usually concluded at 2am. It was a practiced environment to learn but information technology was not easy. And these hours are quite normal," Eno said.
"Merely information technology is what it is," she emphasised. "In my personal opinion, if you want to learn something, sometimes long hours are necessary. If you encounter it equally only a job, it's difficult to continue. Y'all demand the passion and dedication to acquire."
All this is non to say that gender differences aren't credible in some aspects. "Most men tin can carry big and heavy stock pots, while for women, information technology is likely to exist more difficult. We just have to split the load into two parts and practise the job equally efficiently every bit we tin can," Eno shared frankly.
And yes, there is ever the odd comment to contend with, particularly from new customers who will come to the eating place and ask where is the caput chef, even when Eno herself is serving them.
"One female customer asked me when will the male caput chef come up out to prepare the food," she shared with a wry smiling. " And I laughed and politely told her that that was me!"
While she does acknowledge that indeed few women chefs make it to the pinnacle in Japanese restaurants, Eno chooses not to let annihilation faze her. Instead, the indefatigable chef prefers to focus on the food and the experience.
After all, with now more than than 20 years of experience under her belt, chef Eno has constitute a stage with Ichigo Ichie to showcase her culinary talents using the freshest ingredients of each flavour, exquisitely presented on the plate as she strives to push her creativity and delight the palate of each invitee.
Her mentor c hef Masaru Furusawa, she shared, is someone who has played a fundamental role in her culinary journey. It was Furusawa who recommended Eno for a job opportunity in Singapore back in 2015.
Co-ordinate to Eno, chef Furusawa was always welcoming young, inexperienced chefs on his team to work with him at the counter where guests were seated – front and centre for all to see. Information technology was a custom rather unusual for the industry and very progressive compared to his peers.
It's this very practice – 1 that is regardless of gender and experience – that Eno is adamant to keep at Ichigo Ichie.
"I don't hire young female chefs to piece of work under me because they are female chefs. I hire them because of their willingness to learn and their abilities," she said. "If any young chef has the attitude, work ethics and willingness that fit my working style, I volition hire them – male or female."
Two years afterwards arriving in Singapore, she met chef Tomoo Kimura and joined him at his eponymous restaurant Sushi Kimura as head chef, forming part of the team that garnered a Michelin star.
It was there that the concept of Ichigo Ichie outset emerged in 2019, and her eating house began its roots as a weekly pop-upwards correct at Sushi Kimura itself in Palais Renaissance. Its development into a full-fledged kappo restaurant came the following twelvemonth in 2020.
Named after a famous 16th century tea ceremony saying that means "ane life, one moment", the eating house is inspired by the Japanese philosophies of ichigo ichie and sanpo yoshi – the latter being a 17th century concept that means "three fashion satisfaction" – the belief that business should do good all parties involved.
Supporting industry partners has ever been of import to Eno; earlier this year, she designed special menus that highlighted Iga wagyu and sake from Kitajima Brewery.
Further inspired past this philosophy, Eno has spearheaded a new initiative to constitute a wheel of giving and gaining with her suppliers and guests. The countdown project featured Azumano Fumoto Sake Brewery in Yamagata.
A portion of the gain from the sanpo yoshi carte was used to purchase rice from farmers. The sake brewery will utilise this rice to craft a private label bottle of sake sectional to Ichigo Ichie, slated to be ready in the first half of 2022. Eno has also been discussing ideas for the bottle characterization with students from the Tohoku University of Art & Pattern.
And so how practise her Singapore guests benefit? Those who had made bookings for the sanpo yoshi menu will receive a complimentary full-sized bottle of the sectional sake when they return for dinner once the sake is shipped to Singapore. Every guest will also enjoy a complimentary welcome glass of the sake while bottles are still available.
For Eno, starting a restaurant during a pandemic wasn't easy. And it was quite a feat to pivot to takeaways during Singapore's circuit breaker.
"It was the first time in my entire career that I had to do takeaways, and I had only just opened my offset eating house," she shared. "Of class I was worried and stressed! Just you know, there was no pick but to expect ahead – everyone was in the aforementioned boat and we simply had to focus on creating a takeaway menu.
"Since everyone was stuck at domicile, I idea we should offer comforting flavours with dishes like Japanese donabe rice. It's one of my favourites."
"Ane of my biggest worries was that I couldn't run into or hear the expressions of my customers when they take our takeaway food. I would always wonder what they call up well-nigh the flavor, the texture? Practice they like my cooking? Not existence able to interact with customers was something I really missed during that period."
Indeed, interacting with customers is 1 of the about important aspects of the chore that chef Eno enjoys. And she advises the next generation of young chefs wanting to bring together this tough industry, male or female, to relish in that.
"Believe in yourself and keep pushing on," she said. "There is nothing meaningless most what happens in your life."
Ichigo Ichie is open for lunch and dinner Mondays to Saturdays at one Nanson Rd, #02-07A, Intercontinental Robertson Quay. The restaurant is closed on the first Monday of each calendar month.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/women/singapore-kappo-japanese-restaurant-ichigo-ichie-chef-akane-eno-286666
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