Toshiya Kadowaki

The Path

Restaurant craft often starts before the stove. In Toshiya Kadowaki’s case, the first station was management department staff at Koshi in Roppongi, close to the service machinery before he entered the kitchen there as a chef trainee. The move put administration behind him and replaced it with prep, timing, repetition, and the basic discipline of kitchen work. Japanese cooking is transmitted through close observation and repeated correction. That training deepened when Kadowaki became a chef trainee under Fukuichiro Motegi at Tsukiji Uemura, then continued through work as chef at Nishinippori store in Nishinippori and further study as a trainee / student at Kamogawa and a trainee / student at Kaiyantei. The line of development stayed practical: knife, counter, guest, season, restraint, and the calibrated use of generosity. Leadership in a restaurant requires more than technique at the board. Before opening his own restaurant, Kadowaki served as chef at listed companies, adding operational experience to the cooking. At Azabu Kadowaki, where he is chef-owner / founder, the work keeps the classic discipline of Japanese cuisine while allowing pleasure, surprise, and personal instinct to enter the meal.

The Work Today

Japanese cuisine at Azabu Kadowaki is not treated as a closed system. As Head Chef and owner, Kadowaki works within Japanese forms while using Western ingredients, including truffles and foie gras, in Japanese-restaurant dishes. The balance is the point: the structure remains Japanese, while the ingredient vocabulary is allowed to widen. The method is not fusion as decoration. Western ingredients are used for perfume, richness, and pleasure inside a Japanese framework, rather than placed on the plate as novelty. The cooking can stay quiet and polished, then move into opulence without abandoning its base discipline. The clearest expression is truffle rice. In the well-known version, "Truffles and Rice," black summer truffles from Italy are hand-shaved by Kadowaki, and the dish also incorporates unconventional mushrooms. The construction is direct: warm rice, truffle aroma, and the final hand-shaving at the table. It has become the restaurant’s most direct statement of Western-Japanese fusion, built around rice and finished through gesture. Hospitality functions as part of the technique. Kadowaki’s stated aim of making people happy, and his belief that the customer is the teacher, place the dining room inside the cooking process. The guest’s response is treated as information. At Azabu Kadowaki, the meal is adjusted by attention as much as by recipe.

Signature

Truffle rice, Truffles and Rice, and French-inspired rice with truffles define the most recognizable part of Kadowaki’s work. The dishes keep rice at the center while bringing in the fragrance and richness of truffles. The signature is Japanese in structure, Western in selected ingredients, and aimed plainly at guest pleasure.

In Their Words “Japanese food was created here, and only Japanese know it. How can a bunch of foreigners show up and tell us what is good or bad?” “I thought that the kitchen would be more fun, and that is the reason I became a chef.”

Acclaim

Recognition for Azabu Kadowaki includes Three MICHELIN stars for Azabu Kadowaki (2020), Two MICHELIN stars for more than 10 years, and Selected for Tabelog Japanese cuisine TOKYO "Tabelog 100" (2025). The awards mark a restaurant working from Japanese cuisine while making room for truffles, foie gras, and rice to carry the same service.