Shohei Yasuda

The Climb

Cooking school set the base for Shohei Yasuda’s method: measured, exacting, and built through repetition rather than display. The early professional pressure points came at Tirpse in Osaka, Japan, where service work would have sharpened timing, control, and the ability to hold a line under load. That run was followed by Kadeau in Denmark, where a different set of tools, traditions, and expectations added another layer to his reading of ingredients. At Kabi in Tokyo, those experiences are carried into a restaurant language that avoids easy categorization. Since 2017, Shohei Yasuda has led the room as owner chef, and the work there reflects an approach formed by movement between kitchens rather than attachment to a single school of thought. The result is a style that stays restrained, attentive, and specific to the ingredients in front of him.

Today

At Kabi in Tokyo, the role is owner chef and Head Chef. Shohei Yasuda’s current work reads in clean lines: clear handling, careful structure, and a refusal to overstate the material. Kabi is built on Japanese ingredients, but it is not framed as a Japanese restaurant.

Signature

Shohei Yasuda's signature dishes include Daikon roll with fermented tomato water. The plate uses a familiar vegetable as the anchor, then changes its register through fermentation. Daikon roll with fermented tomato water sits in that narrow space between recognition and shift: direct in form, but altered enough to show how Shohei Yasuda handles ingredients with restraint and intent.

In Their Words “We may use Japanese ingredients but Kabi is not a Japanese restaurant.” The line is a working statement of position rather than a slogan. It sets the terms for the kitchen at Kabi: Japanese ingredients are part of the material, but they do not define the category. Shohei Yasuda uses that distinction to keep the restaurant open in method, while still grounded in the produce at hand.