Always a thrill to have a conversation with chefs. This time it was with chef Michael Anthony who is in Tokyo with a special Gramercy Tavern menu at Union Square Tokyo in Roppongi Midtown.

Union Square Tokyo is in the Roppongi Midtown building. It’s a popular restaurant and was busy at lunchtime with a mix of office workers and locals. Lunch was a bright green pea soup, tuna tartare with avocado, and a US size salad, enough to take home a doggy bag (rare in Japan). Dessert was a banana tart. Service is a bit more warm and natural here than at more traditional restaurants.

Chef was kind enough to sit and catch up as I haven’t seen him for a few years. He worked in a kitchen in this same Roppongi neighborhood back in 1991. Chef speaks some Japanese and has a great understanding of Japanese cuisine, ingredients, and technique.

He said that he saw Japan as the next culinary hotspot. That the same that has happened in the past with Italy, Spain, Mexico City, is now happening in Japan. Many are coming here on holidays. Even some non-Japanese chefs are opening restaurants in Japan. He’s right.

I am a big fan of chef’s #VisforVegetables cookbook, cowritten with another friend of ours, #DorothyKalins @dkalins. Was hoping to have him sign it but it’s an encyclopedia and I had a market tour that morning. It would have been too heavy to carry, so he kindly signed a sticker that I have put into the cookbook. 🙂

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