Jerome Quilbeuf

Jerome Quilbeuf is a French-born chef whose career has moved from France to Barcelona and then to Tokyo, with each step shaping a style defined by movement, discipline, and exacting kitchens. At Ubuka in Tokyo, his work is associated with clear, focused dishes that reflect a cook attentive to structure and essentials. Kuruma ebi fry and snow crab rice are among the strongest expressions of his approach, keeping the ingredient at the center of the plate and favoring restraint over decoration.

Quilbeuf’s career has advanced through a sequence of demanding kitchens and roles that widened his technical range and reinforced his sense of hierarchy. He worked as Head Chef at Hilton Barcelona, then entered an apprenticeship at Sant Pau in Barcelona before becoming sous-chef there. His path continued to Executive Chef at Sant Pau Tokyo, then back to Spain as Executive Chef at Sant Pau in Barcelona. He later became founder / chef at Nonna Maria in Barcelona, adding another layer to a career already marked by range, precision, and responsibility.

The progression from apprentice to sous-chef and then into Executive Chef posts shows a chef formed by structure and repetition, with standards required to hold under pressure. His current work extends beyond a single kitchen. He is also a consultant of local casual dining restaurants and spearheads COOK JAPAN PROJECT. These roles sit alongside his work at Ubuka and point to a career that remains active across several fronts while still anchored in the discipline of cooking.

The movement between kitchens, cities, and responsibilities has given his work a sense of continuity, with each position building on the one before it rather than standing apart from it. Ubuka is the place most closely attached to Quilbeuf’s name today, but it belongs to a longer sequence that includes Executive Chef positions at Sant Pau Tokyo and Sant Pau in Barcelona. Those earlier posts help define the authority he brings to his Tokyo restaurant.

His cooking there reflects an accumulated history of rigor and control, while also answering to a new setting and a new rhythm. The result is a profile shaped less by myth than by steady proof of command in serious kitchens. Across his career, Quilbeuf has returned again and again to the same fundamentals: clarity, pace, standards, and focus. Whether in Barcelona or Tokyo, in roles of apprenticeship or leadership, his work has been built on repetition and exacting execution. At Ubuka, that history comes into view through dishes that are direct and disciplined, allowing the quality of the ingredient to lead.