1. 34| February 2015 | restaurant| bighospitality.co.uk
Words/Joe Lutrario
Photography/John Carey
The
kaiseki
kingUmu’s executive chef is an
accomplished potter, flower arranger,
calligrapher and fisherman. And he’s a
formidable talent in the kitchen, too

2. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| February 2015 | 35
UMU
I
n a tiny but carefully kept first-floor flat
in the midst of Mayfair’s Shepherd
Market a middle aged Japanese man sits
in front of a potter’s wheel. To his side
are a couple of dozen tiny white bowls
waiting to be glazed and fired in a kiln.
Each is a slightly different height and
circumference but – even to an entirely
untrained eye – there is impressive uniformity in
thickness, the curve of the bowl and the fragile
lip from which sake will eventually be sipped.
Given the quality of the work, it may come as
a surprise that pottery is merely one of a
number of sidelines for Yoshinori Ishii, or Chef
Yoshi, as he is more commonly known at Umu,
the Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant he
oversees as executive chef.
This mild-mannered and sensitive polymath
has an impressive number of arrows in his
metaphorical quiver. If he doesn’t spend his
days off astride his potter’s wheel, he’ll likely be
found in the countryside searching for rare
flowers for Umu’s artful flower displays, or
perhaps practising his Japanese calligraphy.
All his crafts feed back into the Bruton Place
restaurant. Umu now houses more than 200 of
Ishii’s pieces including chopstick rests and tiny
grey mukozuke bowls, which are used for the
appetisers on the restaurant’s intricate
multi-course kaiseki menus. Eventually, Ishii
hopes that every single piece of pottery at the
restaurant will bear his mark.
He puts ornate, hand-printed cards under a
piece of glass topped with his impossibly thin
and neat slices of sashimi so that the design is
gradually revealed as you eat. When you’re
done, flip the card over to read one of Ishii’s
regularly changing messages of goodwill. And
then there are Umu’s flower displays, which Ishii
tends to every single morning, sourcing all his
blooms and other esoteric flora himself.
Many chefs would keep such
extra-curricular activities on the
down-low – the floristry especially. The
default position of most restaurant operations is
to declare that the chef never leaves the stove.
But Ishii is comfortable with the fact that a great
deal of his work takes place outside his kitchen,
Eastern promise fulfilled:
Yoshinori Ishii has served
a long apprenticeship

4. UMU
theworlds50best.com | restaurant| February 2015 | 37
which he co-runs with long-standing right-hand
man and head chef Masato Nishihara.
A quick look at Ishii’s relatively short but
impressive résumé at least partly explains why
he chose to take such a holistic approach. After
attending Japan’s Tsuji culinary school, he spent
nine years at Kyoto Kitcho, one of the most
famous kaiseki restaurants in Japan. It would
leave an indelible mark on his approach to
cooking and his general outlook on life.
“In Japan, it’s generally accepted that to
become a culinary master you need to train for
10 years,” he says. “Initially, I only wanted to stay
for five because I was young and felt I had other
things to do, but I soon realised I would not
learn it all in such a short period.”
At the start he was only allowed to perform
and perfect a handful of tasks, and few of them
involved cooking. Ishii was charged with tending
the garden of a neighbouring Buddhist temple,
looking after the three-Michelin star restaurant’s
antique tableware and washing vegetables.
“Training in Japan is totally different to the
UK. It’s tiny little steps,” he says. “You do the
same thing each and every day, and slowly
get better. We had to learn how to treat food
and other objects carefully and with great
respect. This is one of the central mentalities
of kaiseki cuisine.”
This training and general mindset is very
noticeable when watching Ishii work. He doesn’t
move like most chefs. There’s no swagger or
懐石国王
They think that I am
mad. But this is
another tenet of
kaiseki. A holistic
mindset is essential
hurry. Each action is thoughtful and elegant,
whether he’s slicing sashimi or simply sealing a
bag of potter’s clay.
Ishii is used to bemused expressions when he
talks to other chefs about his many duties
outside of the kitchen. “They don’t understand
why I’d want to take responsibility for these
things. They think that I am mad. But this is
another tenet of kaiseki. A holistic mindset is
essential. Everything is connected,” says Ishii,
who sometimes finds it difficult to articulate the
philosophy behind kaiseki, largely because most
westerners lack the cultural touchstones to
understand its more esoteric aspects.
Some of the underlying rules of kaiseki –
which has its origins in 17th century tea
ceremonies – could be applied to most modern
tasting menus. A kaiseki menu demands a
balance of taste, texture, appearance (colours
are particularly important), fresh seasonal
produce and carefully sourced local ingredients.
But before European restaurants rebrand
their tasting menus, they should know that it’s a
little more complicated than that. Kaiseki is a
distillation of hundreds of years of Japanese
culture. It is as much a ritual as it is a meal,
although Umu has clearly worked hard to
deformalise the experience and make it
accessible to western diners.
With that said, one of the most intriguing
things about Ishii is that he unashamedly
produces authentic Japanese food that’s not
necessarily in tune with western palates. Dinner
at Umu doesn’t conform to expectations of what
an Asian meal should be like. It’s extremely
delicate, lightly seasoned and with none of the
extremes of spice, sweetness and acidity that’s
All in order: the dining
room at Umu
In bloom: ajisai (hydrangea),
simmered Kamonasu
aubergine, lily shoot
Perfect potatoes: ‘kofuki’ Jersey
potato with white truffle
Clean and clear: soup with
grilled red mullet and
chrysanthemum lotus root

6. UMU
theworlds50best.com | restaurant| February 2015 | 39
found at more casual, Japanese-inspired
establishments (and a few high-end ones, too).
To those that haven’t eaten much high-end
Japanese food before, it may be a bit of a shock.
Just what constitutes a kaiseki
restaurant is a matter of some
debate. Umu’s owner, high-profile
restaurateur Marlon Abela, is of the opinion that
his is the only truly authentic Kyoto kaiseki
restaurant in London – although The Shiori, in
Bayswater, may have something to say about
that. Some Japanese restaurants that major on
sushi and sashimi sometimes use kaiseki as
shorthand for a Japanese tasting menu but this
– as Ishii explains – is missing the point.
“Kaiseki is complex. It is a succession of
courses that need to balance each other out
and the meal also needs to be perfectly in tune
with the rest of the restaurant experience. It’s
many aspects of Japanese culture all brought
together at the same time. It takes a lot of skill
to do it properly.”
This, he continues, is why there are so few
kaiseki restaurants in the UK. “Generally
speaking, chefs that possess enough skill to get
all the different aspects right will want to stay in
Japan. The reason why sushi and tempura have
become global dishes is because they’re
relatively easy to get right and for people who
aren’t Japanese to understand.”
The order of courses within a kaiseki menu
are similar, but each restaurant must have its
own style. Paradoxically, the discipline places as
much emphasis on artful self-expression as it
does on tradition and complying with a set of
rules. Certainly, a proper kaiseki menu will
demonstrate the skill of the kitchen in a number
of key Japanese culinary disciplines, including
the sourcing of high-quality produce, the
preparation of sashimi, making broths and
cooking rice.
At Umu, the menu is arranged into mukozuke
(a small appetiser), nimonowan (a simmered
dish), tsukuri (sashimi), atsumono (a warm dish),
hashiyasume (a one-bite or one-shot palate
cleanser), yakimono (a flame-grilled dish),
gohan (a rice dish) and finally a dessert. Dishes
from the current menu include deep-fried soba
Yoshinori Ishii is the UK’s principle advocate of Japan’s ikejime fish
preservation technique, which sees fish humanely killed
immediately after being caught by severing the spinal cord. This
prevents the fish from panicking, which can negatively affect eating
quality, especially if it is to be consumed raw
When Yoshinori Ishii first lifted the lid of Umu’s
sushi counter he got a bit of shock. Spoilt by
high-quality, sushi-grade fish in his native
Japan and also New York – where chefs can
get catch flown in direct from Tokyo’s Tsukiji
Market – London’s offering simply didn’t pass
muster. “The shellfish and tuna was great but
the rest wasn’t suitable for high-end Japanese
food. UK markets tend to hold on to fish until
it can be sold at a higher price. So on these
shores fish that’s sold as ‘fresh’ has actually
been caught five or six days before delivery. If
you’re serving fish raw, this is not OK,” says
Ishii with uncharacteristic bluntness.
Freshness was only half the problem. As
Ishii saw it, the fish was not being handled
properly after being caught. Most fish caught
in Japan are subject to the ikejime fish
preservation technique – a method of
paralysing fish by inserting a spike behind the
eye, causing immediate brain death. When
done correctly, the fins flare once and the fish
instantly relaxes. Movement of the fish’s
muscles is undesirable immediately before
and after death because it produces lactic
acid, which many believe makes the fish sour,
reduces umami flavours and spoils faster.
Ikejime fish is then drained of its blood,
which further increases eating quality and the
length of time a fish can be stored. Contrary to
popular belief, some varieties of fish are best
served a few days after being caught. Not all
food experts are willing to get behind ikejime,
arguing that there are other ways to drain a
fish of its blood and that the technique yields
very little difference in eating quality if the fish
is to be cooked.
On discovering that the fish available to him
did not meet his standards, Ishii sent out a
hundred or so carefully handwritten letters to
fish suppliers explaining the problem, his
solution and asking if they thought they could
help. Not a single person replied. Unperturbed,
Ishii – a highly skilled and experienced
fisherman in his own right – went to the
source and eventually found a group of
Cornish fishermen willing to work with him.
“I went out on the boats and demonstrated
the technique to some fishermen in Coverack
Bay [on the Lizard Peninsula]. Luckily most of
them got it and agreed to help. We are now
able to request a small number of ikejime
fish,” says Ishii, who agreed to pay 1.5 times
the market rate in order to seal the deal. “I’m
also very aware that each fisherman has their
own way of doing things and that this needs
to be respected. Some aren’t willing to work
with me and that’s fine.”
In a side-by-side taste test, sashimi made
with ikejime fish has a brighter, more saline
taste and a lot more bite. But the reception to
ikejime at Umu was mixed. Some customers
didn’t immediately take to the firmer texture
because westerners tend to associate a
yielding tenderness with freshness and
quality, whereas in the east, it’s normally the
opposite for seafood. “It’s entirely
understandable and I’d never hold it against
anyone. It’s just a cultural thing. Some people
complained it was too chewy so I went over
and showed them difference between ikejime
and normal fish, and most people understood
straight away,” explains Ishii, who now slices
some of his sashimi marginally thinner than
he would in Japan to reduce the likelihood of
new customers struggling with the texture.
He takes his status as the technique’s
primary ambassador in the UK seriously,
describing ikejime as his life’s work. “It’s not
just the quality. There is an important
sustainability angle too. Fish handled in this
way are less likely to be damaged because
fishermen need to carefully handle each one.
And, because they’re drained of blood, they’ll
last longer.” Currently Umu is the only
restaurant in the UK offering UK-caught
ikejime fish but Ishii is hopeful that more
chefs will follow his lead.
懐石国王A good clean death
Catch of the day:
only high-quality
ingredients make
the grade
Fishing skills: Ishii
demonstrates the
ikejime method
A cut above: raw fish sashimi

8. UMU
theworlds50best.com | restaurant| February 2015 | 41
noodles with grilled crosnes (Chinese
artichoke), enoki mushrooms, salsify and yuba
sauce; red deer tataki with truffle and wasabi;
and rice with clams, ginger and seaweed sauce
accompanied by red miso soup and pickles.
Umu is a very different restaurant
now to what it was when Ishii
arrived in 2010. The restaurant has always
placed the emphasis firmly on authenticity and
carefully sourced ingredients (the name
translates as ‘born of nature’) but when it
opened in 2004, the majority of its ingredients
were flown in from Japan.
Ishii has overseen a switch to UK produce and
– in some cases, at least – has gone to astonishing
lengths to ensure quality. In Abela’s view, his
work with Cornish fishermen on the ikejime fish
preservation technique (see A good clean death)
sets Umu apart from its competition in the
high-end Japanese space.
“A central aspect of Umu’s success is its
ingredients. I realise a lot of chefs and
restaurateurs have the same rhetoric but what
we do is quite different. Ikejime is probably the
best example. There is nobody else serving fish
handled in this manner in the UK,” says Abela,
who also owns two Michelin star-rated Mayfair
restaurant The Greenhouse. “We also try to
avoid middle men where possible. Increasingly
we’re dealing with the producer directly.”
Fish and fishing have been an important part
of Ishii’s life since his early teens. Indeed, his
decision to learn how to cook and become a
chef was largely driven by the desire to handle
his catch with skill and respect. Fishing
paraphernalia lines the walls of his flat.
There are rods, antique fishing reels and a
huge embalmed trout takes pride of place
above his mantelpiece.
As Umu started to switch to UK produce,
Ishii made, at the time, a highly controversial
decision to remove some more far-flung fish
from the menu, including Japanese
restaurant classic black cod, which is normally
sourced from in and around the Pacific. Even
more bravely, he replaced them with lesser-
known UK-caught fish, including the
flamboyantly coloured cuckoo wrasse, a fish
almost entirely ignored by his peers. Now only
a handful of species – including tuna, which
isn’t found in UK waters – are sourced from
foreign seas.
Abela and Ishii first met in the US. Following
his long stint at Kyoto Kitcho, Ishii had been
working for the Japanese ambassador to the UN
in Geneva. When his employer was reassigned
to New York, Ishii followed him over with plans
to open his own restaurant. Green Card
complications required him to seek work, and
Ishii ended up on the payroll of famous Japanese
chef Masaharu Morimoto at his eponymous
restaurant in Chelsea.
The pair hit it off immediately. “I already
knew he could cook because he was running the
omakase bar at Marimoto but it turned out our
culinary philosophy was completely aligned,”
Abela recalls. “He cooked for me in my London
flat, which sealed the deal. He made something
extraordinary with a piece of very high quality
veal I happened to have in the fridge, even
though he’d never cooked with it before.”
Ishii and Abela have been on the hunt for a
New York location for Umu and say they have
visited more than 100 potential sites.
“We’re quite particular. It’s hard because
there’s no equivalent to the back streets of
Mayfair in New York. We’ve looked Uptown,
Downtown, Midtown and in all the villages but
nothing has been quite right yet,” says Abela,
who already operates several venues in the US
including Italian restaurant A Voce, which has
two locations in Manhattan.
If and when a second Umu opens, Ishii, whose
wife currently lives in New York, will split his
time equally between the US and the UK. While
this might cut into his artistic endeavours a little,
one suspects Ishii will find a way to keep both
restaurants in tune with one another and
well-stocked with his handiwork.
懐石国王
What we do is quite
different. There is
nobody else serving
fish handled in this
manner in the UK
Fukiyose: crispy root
vegetables on a
Welsh slate plate