Haruka Katayanagi

Where They Are Now

Formal culinary training at hotel kitchen and three Tokyo restaurants in Tokyo (from 1998) established the habits that would shape Haruka Katayanagi’s later work: repetition, exactness, and the patience needed to keep returning to the same ingredient until it yields more. The value of that early period was not display but discipline, building the kind of kitchen footing that favors timing, restraint, and deliberate movement. Chef / founder at Zen in Nihonbashi Kobunachō, Tokyo (2006–2017) gave Haruka Katayanagi a long stretch in which that training could harden into a recognizable approach. In Tokyo, where small shifts in temperature, texture, and sequence matter, those years marked the steady making of a personal style. The result was a form of cooking with the control of formal training and the confidence to place wagyu at the center. Chef at Hanayagi in Tokyo (2017–2022) continued that same line of work with the focus tightened rather than changed. The progression from one role to the next shows accumulation rather than reinvention: more assurance, same attention to detail, same insistence on precision. Haruka Katayanagi’s path reads as a sustained refinement of a culinary language already built on control. Today, Haruka Katayanagi is chef of Hanayagi (since 2022), while also serving as chef of Oniku Karyu and chef of KARYU. The spread of roles points to a practice that stays consistent across kitchens. At Oniku Karyu, wagyu kaiseki frames beef in different forms without losing coherence, and the menu’s range—from wagyu sushi to beef stew and steak—shows how one ingredient can be worked across several registers and still hold together.

Signature

Haruka Katayanagi’s signature dishes include Wagyu katsu sandwiches, Wagyu sushi, beef stew, steak, and Japanese beef rare cutlet. Each one handles wagyu differently—crispness against richness, tenderness against char, familiarity against luxury—while staying rooted in the same subject. The point is range without drift: beef worked in sandwich form, kaiseki form, and across the rest of the menu without losing its center.

In Their Words “I want to serve the joy of carbs while guests are still hungry.” “I wouldn’t say that I’m a superior chef because I serve wagyu.”

Honors

Haruka Katayanagi's honors include Michelin star.