Yusuke Takada is the chef and owner of 2 Michelin-starred La Cime in Osaka, Japan. From growing up on an island to making it big, Takada has led a fruitful culinary journey this far.
Chef Takada grew up on the Japanese Amami Islands, where he was surrounded by nature and endless fresh produce. Nature was and still is his inspiration alongside with his curiosity, childhood memories and the food his mother and grandmother cooked for him.
After finishing school, chef Takada studied at the Tsuji Culinary Institute and after graduation he moved to France where he worked at 2 Michelin-starred Taillevent and 3 Michelin-starred Le Meurice, before setting up La Cime in Osaka’s bustling Hommachi district in 2010 which received its first Michelin star a mere year after opening and the second one in 2016. Then, two years later, it entered the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list at No.17, winning the Highest New Entry Award, and rose to the No.14 in 2019.
The restaurant’s name “La Cime” is the French word for top or peak. The restaurant focuses on three important factors and they are: the cuisine, the guest and the space. For FOUR Magazine, chef said the following about these factors: „We believe that only by bringing these 3 peaks in balance, supporting each other and shaping the perfect triangle, could we come closer to achieving the very best performance at each moment“.
The Chef likes to incorporate ingredients such as citrus from his birthplace (the southern island of Amami Oshima). Even the walls of the restaurant are plastered with sands from his hometown, paying homage to his place of birth.
Interior and plating of the restaurant are all about minimalism and restraint, so the restaurant oozes with a sophistication, which has become chefs characteristic. Serious and intently focused in the kitchen, but with a sense of spontaneity and humour when off duty, Takada has established himself as one of Japan’s most respected chefs and La Cime as an essential port of call for anyone visiting the Kansai region of western Japan.
His burgeoning profile has won him the admiration and esteem of his peers in his homeland, around Asia and even further afield. It was the chefs of the restaurants in the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020 list who voted him as the recipient of this year’s coveted Inedit Damm Chefs’ Choice Award, and it’s easy to see why.
Below are just some of Takadas dishes:
