Itoi Shota

The Climb

Since 2022, Itoi Shota has held the chef post at Auberge eaufeu. On paper, that is a simple title; in practice, it marks a kitchen where the work has settled into a clearer register. The cooking reads as deliberate rather than declarative, with attention on texture and season before any push toward spectacle.

Today

At Auberge eaufeu in Komatsu, Itoi Shota cooks within a French creative cuisine framework that is shaped by the wider Hokuriku region. The immediate setting is Komatsu; the broader field of reference comes from Hokuriku’s produce, climate, and seasonal character. That geography gives the plate its tension: local in address, regional in scope. The work sits at the point where place becomes method. One side supplies structure, the other supplies source, and the cooking is built between them. Itoi Shota’s food moves, but does not drift; it stays restrained without becoming severe. The dishes are drawn toward clarity, with little left that does not serve the whole. French creative cuisine here acts less as a fixed style than as a way of reading the region closely.

In Their Words “I am making food, but it does not feel manufactured. It puts down roots, drinks water, and breathes. That is the feeling with which I want to cook.” This is a kitchen language built around vitality rather than finish. The point is not just technique, but the sense that the food remains responsive to its surroundings. Itoi Shota frames cooking as something living, not assembled. “It's simple, but profound and complex.” That line gets close to the center of the work. Simplicity is not treated as an endpoint; it is the condition that lets depth show through. The result, as Itoi Shota puts it, is food that keeps its directness while still carrying layers of place and restraint.

Recognition

Itoi Shota's honors include Tabelog Bronze Award (2024) and RED U-35 Grand Prix. The awards place his work within a current of steady recognition, with the cooking defined less by display than by consistency of purpose and a clear sense of where it belongs.