Marie Chiba

Training at the National Research Institute of Brewing gave Marie Chiba the technical base that later defined her approach to hospitality. The emphasis shows in the way her work reads now: exact, disciplined, and attentive to the specific character of sake. Since 2015, she has been founder/operator of GEM by moto, while also serving as consultant and sommelier of Eureka!. Those roles sit on the same line of practice: tasting, adjusting, and making small decisions that change how a pairing lands.

At EUREKA! in Tokyo, the current focus is the pairing program that comes with being both owner/operator and Sake Sommelier. The menu’s range is deliberate, giving sake room to meet Japanese, Western, and Chinese dishes without being flattened into a single style of service. Here, the drink is worked as a counterpart, not an accessory. The sake list is anchored in rare brews, including many that Chiba has helped to blend, so the program feels made from inside the category rather than assembled around it.

The dishes are chosen to test that range. Onyx-colored oeuf mayo presents a soft-boiled egg wrapped in squid-ink mayonnaise, with the dark surface setting up its gentler richness. Deep-fried ham katsu stuffed with blue cheese brings enough savory force to hold against sake. Bamboo shoot and kumquat, topped with fried enoki mushrooms, are matched with a sweet, aged sake from Akita Prefecture, moving between earth, brightness, and depth.

Shiokoji-marinated fried chicken meets a viscous doburoku with a yogurt tang, a pairing that stays playful without losing precision. Across the menu, the work stays centered on sake and food matching, handled with a collector’s attention and a host’s sense of balance.

Marie’s signature dishes include blue cheese ham cutlet, oeuf mayo, deep-fried ham katsu stuffed with blue cheese, bamboo shoot and kumquat topped with fried enoki mushrooms, and shiokoji-marinated fried chicken.

Marie’s honors include Sake Samurai (2019).