Portrait of Masakazu Taira
i. Biography
Masakazu Taira’s work sits inside Italian cooking as practiced in Tokyo: first in the kitchen of Acca in Hiroo, then in the authorial register of Don Bravo. The line is not novelty for its own sake, but a study of familiar forms handled with precision. Modern Italian cooking with Japanese influence is the frame here, and in Taira’s hands the familiar is not flattened into routine; it is sharpened, polished, and made to read more clearly.
The Path
Owner-chef is the current title attached to Masakazu Taira at Don Bravo, and it carries both sides of the job: the discipline of running a restaurant and the responsibility of setting its flavor, rhythm, and point of view. The path moves from Acca in Hiroo into a kitchen where Taira’s own sensibility now sets the terms. It is continuity rather than rupture, with the restaurant serving as a direct extension of the chef’s working method.
The Work Today
At Don Bravo, owner-chef Masakazu Taira presents the current expression of his cooking in Tokyo. The work is built around recognition and revision: Italian dishes carrying Japanese influence without giving up their original names. Nothing here asks to be decoded before it can be eaten. The force comes from restraint and from letting precision do the talking. The cooking trusts the long memory of a dish. A margherita can remain a margherita; wood-fired pizza can still feel elemental; cold clam pasta can still be cool, clean, and composed. Each is adjusted with enough care to make the familiar feel newly considered. The emphasis is less on rupture than on durability, on making known plates taste more lucid, more balanced, more exact. That same attention extends to the object that receives the food. Shape, surface, and proportion become part of the service, and the table setting reads as a continuation of the kitchen’s approach. For Taira, the plate is not an afterthought but another place where restraint and detail are allowed to hold the line.
Career - Owner-chef — Don Bravo, Tokyo, Japan
Signature
Masakazu's signature dishes include margherita, wood-fired pizza, and cold clam pasta.
In Their Words “I think oval plates are generally used in a more casual atmosphere than restaurants, but I was attracted to the exquisiteness of the texture and curves of the Yumiko Iihoshi porcelain’s Oval Plate, which is refined but not too formal.” “Serving a dish that people have never seen before might result in a brief surge of popularity, but it wouldn’t last long. I want to serve dishes that everyone knows but develop new ways of cooking them to deliver higher quality.”
Acclaim
“Tableware changes the impression of a dish.”
FAQ What is Masakazu Taira's current role? As of 2026, Masakazu Taira is Owner-chef. What is Masakazu Taira known for? Modern Italian cooking with Japanese influence.
