Yoshihiro Murata

The Climb

Kyoto refinement and international reach mark the professional arc. Yoshihiro Murata’s role as founder/creator at Japan Culinary Academy in Kyoto, Japan (from 2004), placed education beside cooking: a trade-level effort to define how Japanese cuisine could be taught, understood, and carried forward without flattening its foundations. The Kikunoi name extended through additional rooms as well as through the original house. Roan Kikunoi in Kyoto, Japan, kept the work inside the city whose seasons and customs structure the cuisine. Akasaka Kikunoi in Tokyo, Japan, moved that Kyoto-born sensibility into another setting while keeping the precision associated with the family restaurant. Japanese formal cooking also had to be tested outside the usual dining-room frame. Murata’s service as a member at Singapore Airlines International Culinary Panel put refinement into a travel context, where identity has to hold under different constraints. His collaboration at Tokimeite in London, England, placed Japanese cuisine in an international setting with the same requirement: clarity without dilution. The current titles remain practical as much as honorific. Yoshihiro is Third-generation Owner-chef of Kikunoi Honten and chef-owner of Kikunoi, roles that carry lineage, daily execution, and public advocacy for the form.

Today

Custodianship in kaiseki is active work. At Kikunoi, tradition functions as structure rather than checklist, giving each season a controlled way to register. The meal depends on rhythm and balance, including the relationships among vessel, ingredient, aroma, temperature, and sequence. Modern kaiseki at Kikunoi mixes imperial palace cuisine, tea ceremony tradition, vegetarian temple food, and obanzai. That combination gives the cuisine ceremony without removing warmth, and refinement without separating it from daily life. Each dish reflects nature and the seasons, with emphasis on seasonality and the quality of ingredients; the work is concentration, not display. Kyoto remains the reference point, but the presentation is broader by intent. In Murata’s cooking, kaiseki asks for attention to small changes: the clarity of dashi, the tenderness of wagyu, and the way umami gathers and lingers.

Signature

Yoshihiro's signature dishes include New Style Dashi, Ichiban Dashi, Wagyu Sukiyaki, Wagyu Rei Ribeye Shabu Shabu, and Wagyu steak with wasabi. The signatures center the core tools of the cuisine. New Style Dashi and Ichiban Dashi point to depth built through clarity and restraint. Wagyu Sukiyaki, Wagyu Rei Ribeye Shabu Shabu, and Wagyu steak with wasabi show richness handled through framing rather than excess. The names are direct; the discipline is in how much is left controlled.

In Their Words “I represent Kyoto and traditional, formal Japanese cuisine. Kaiseki (the highest quality Japanese cuisine) came out of the Kyoto prefecture.” “So when I came back to Japan, I made it my life mission to promote high-quality Japanese cooking all over the world.”

Recognition

Yoshihiro Murata has received Asia's 50 Best Restaurants American Express Icon Award (2020). Yoshihiro's honors include Three MICHELIN Stars for Kikunoi Honten (2024), Mentor Chef Award (2024), and American Express Icon Award (2020). The recognition sits across restaurant performance and trade influence: Kikunoi Honten as a standard-bearing room, and Murata as a chef involved in defining, protecting, and communicating formal Japanese cuisine.