Minoru Hasegawa

The Path

The early framework for Minoru Hasegawa’s style took shape at Ro Hasegawa Minoru Lab in Shirokanedai, Tokyo, Japan, where precision and restraint already defined the work. That starting point points to a chef concerned less with flourish than with repetition, calibration, and the steady sharpening of judgement on the plate. The move from Ro Hasegawa Minoru Lab in Shirokanedai, Tokyo, Japan to Hasegawa Minoru in Tokyo marks a continuation of the same standards rather than a break from them. At Hasegawa Minoru Hasegawa carries that earlier discipline forward, with the same emphasis on detail now expressed with greater clarity.

The Work Today

Chicken sits at the center of the kitchen’s thinking, treated not as a casual ingredient but as one that asks for proper investment before it ever reaches heat. Minoru Hasegawa has said, “Many people think of chicken as a cheap food. But to raise them properly actually costs a lot of money.” The point is practical: quality begins upstream, in the cost and care built into the ingredient itself. That idea becomes technique in the kitchen, where Minoru Hasegawa says, “We specifically cook the chicken meat in its own fat on a hot plate to allow diners to savor this taste.” The method is direct and unsentimental, built to let the ingredient show its own character through heat, fat, and controlled handling.

In Their Words “We specifically cook the chicken meat in its own fat on a hot plate to allow diners to savor this taste.” “Many people think of chicken as a cheap food. But to raise them properly actually costs a lot of money.”