Voted by his peers as winner of the Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award for Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, Hiroyasu Kawate is a cook with a conscience, a humble nature and a whole lot of talent. Here, the Japanese chef tells 50 Best about his plans to take Florilège to the next level
Hiroyasu Kawate has always been committed to the planet. At Florilège, the restaurant in Tokyo that he opened in 2009, he has wowed both diners and critics with dishes that surpass the finest of French-Japanese cuisine, yet are carefully sourced with ingredients such as beef from re-fattened aged cows and consommé from vegetable scraps. But after more than a decade creating sustainable tasting menus, he says it’s time to go a step further, moving Florilège to a new location and focusing on vegetables.
“Japan is a country with a huge amount of food loss,” says Kawate, who received his award at the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, in Singapore in March. “As a chef, I feel responsible for improving this situation. And as a father, I believe it is really important to think about what I can leave for my children. Until now, I have been emphasising the importance of tackling food waste, but for the next step, it is important to focus on balanced and plant-based meals, centred around vegetables, to leave something for future generations.”
Florilège's upcoming menu will focus on plant-based options
Enter the latest iteration of Florilège, opening this summer in a soon-to-be-revealed Tokyo location. It will still serve a tasting menu with Japanese ingredients and French technique, but the dishes will be primarily plant-based, focusing on locally harvested Japanese vegetables such as sweet potato. Shifting from the current counter-style seating, the new restaurant will have just one long, communal table surrounding the chef, who likes to impart the meaning behind his dishes directly to his customers.
When he’s not working on Florilège 2.0, Kawate will be travelling to broaden his horizons and ensure his approach is the best it can be. “Cooking is freedom,” says Kawate, whose restaurant first entered Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2017 after winning the One To Watch Award in 2016. “If you only stay in Japan, you will be bound by Japanese culture. Through experiencing different cuisines and absorbing the cultures of different countries, we are able to create a broader future. If I can show everyone the way I cook all over the world, I can inspire others to have the courage to be free in their cooking.”
Kawate himself was inspired to cook after watching his father, also a chef, when he was a child. He chose French cuisine because he thought his father’s toque [the traditional French chef’s hat] was ‘cool,’ but instead of further promoting the French techniques he uses at Florilège, he wants others to feel free to explore wherever their cooking takes them.
“My father has dedicated his life to cooking and he always gave his best,” he says. “I always wanted to be a chef like him some day, and now that I have become a chef who can win awards like this, I can repay my father a little for all that he has done for me.”
The next iteration of Florilege will replace the counter with one communal table
Kawate was surprised and honoured to win the Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award 2023, and now he’s using his platform to inspire young cooks to choose their own path while preserving the planet for the next generation. His father – like Kawate’s peers across Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants – is surely very proud.
The list of Asia's 50 Best Restaurants 2023, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, was announced on 28th March 2023 at an awards ceremony in Singapore. To stay up to date with the latest news, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
