Haute Season

Kaiseki chef Tomoomi Oikawa brings culinary artistry and cultural insights to the Nihonbashi Club this month.

September blooms with the Chrysanthemum Festival. October sprouts with matsutake mushrooms.

And November blazes with the fiery colors of autumn leaves.

Japanese culture revolves around seasonal moments, and the same holds true for kaiseki cuisine, notes Tomoomi Oikawa, chef and owner of Nihonbashi Oikawa restaurant.

“We use lots of those leaves to create the atmosphere of the mountains, for example, things that change every month. It’s our job to express these seasonal things through food,” he says of kaiseki chefs.

His colorful, creative and conversational approach to crafting and sharing traditional fare has made him a cherished part of the community. Members can see why this month, as the Nihonbashi Club offers a weeklong selection of lunch and dinner options inspired by his dishes, and Oikawa himself caps off the event in 1673 with a full-course dinner on November 8.

Born and raised in Nihonbashi, where he runs his recently renovated restaurant, Oikawa became interested in cooking when he was 17. After high school, he began a series of apprenticeships at several small restaurants, starting with a sushi shop. Then he moved on to kaiseki, a Japanese style of haute cuisine in which numerous small dishes are served.

“In short, it is a specialized food,” Oikawa explains. “A craftsman of Japanese food must be able to do everything. You have to arrange flowers, study tableware, charcoal, even eel, and you must be able to make sushi. You have to be versatile yet refined.

“I wanted to study high-end kaiseki cuisine,” he continues, “and the master at the place I went to was a Kyoto chef, so I worked there because I thought he was cool. I was fascinated by Kyo ryori (Kyoto-style cooking), and I have been visiting restaurants which serve that cuisine ever since.”

Oikawa finished his last apprenticeship at age 36 and opened his own restaurant. Now 48 and in his 13th year of restaurant ownership, he enjoys chatting with customers. “Nowadays, you can’t find bad food at any restaurants,” he points out. “It’s delicious everywhere. It goes without saying.”

Eating out, he says, should be an experience that goes beyond that.

“[Chefs] shouldn’t just explain the dish and the ingredients, but also give you trivia about it. They should leave you thinking: ‘Ah, that’s why I’m eating this. There’s value in eating it now.’ If they feel, ‘Oh, so this is how Japan is,’ then sesame tofu is no longer just sesame tofu.”

Although not fluent in English, Oikawa loves chatting with foreign customers at Nihonbashi Oikawa with the help of a translation app.

“If you visit and eat at the counter, we can talk about Japanese culture. I feel that, at the counter, I can explain about Japanese culture in a way that is not possible at other restaurants.”