Kanji Kobayashi

In Their Words “We must not stand still, we must not be afraid, and we must keep changing.” “We don't need meat or fish in our cooking these days.”

The Recognition The Michelin stars and the Green Star mark different parts of the same kitchen discipline. One speaks to the cooking on the pass; the other to the environmental and agricultural thinking that supports it. In Kanji Kobayashi’s case, they point to a kitchen organized around technique, but equally around the working relationship between field, season, and plate.

The Work

Behind It The authority in this kitchen comes from produce: vegetables, grains, citrus fruits, herbs, and flowers drawn from the surrounding landscape, with many ingredients grown in Kanji Kobayashi’s own fields. The cuisine is Italian-inspired, but the menu is built from regional and seasonal supply rather than from meat or fish. That principle is stated plainly in Kobayashi’s line, “We don't need meat or fish in our cooking these days.” It is less a slogan than a working description of how far produce-led cooking can be pushed when vegetables are treated as the center of the plate rather than an accompaniment. The setting is part of the method. “We are surrounded by vegetables, grains, citrus fruits, herbs, and flowers that inspire us,” Kobayashi has said, and that surrounding landscape sets the rhythm of the kitchen. The menu starts with what the land offers, then moves according to the timing of that supply. Change is also part of the discipline. “Maintaining the status quo is decline,” Kobayashi has said, and follows that with, “We must not stand still, we must not be afraid, and we must keep changing.” In a kitchen so closely tied to place, that approach keeps seasonal cooking from becoming fixed.

The Road 1998 marks the point at which Kanji Kobayashi was already in place at the center of the kitchen, and the current title of owner-chef shows that the project remained under his direction. The career line is defined less by a sequence of addresses than by a narrowing of focus. From that 1998 role to the present, the work has stayed centered in Wakayama Prefecture and on an Italian-inspired, agrarian, seasonal cuisine led by vegetables. The result is a restaurant reputation built through precision and restraint rather than spectacle.