PARIS • Chef Kei Kobayashi is speaking his mind – something he says it took moving to France to learn.
Less than 24 hours after he became the first Japanese cook to win the maximum three Michelin stars for his restaurant in France, the phones are ringing off the hook at Kei.
The last of the lunchtime diners are skipping out of his minimalist dining room not far from the Louvre, grinning from ear to ear.
They have just eaten a piece of history, and at €58 (S$88) for a set lunch, bagged a bargain.
Kobayashi is holding forth in his clinically clean kitchen as his small team scurry around him.
"Japanese people are usually very quiet. But you cannot survive in France like that," he said.
The dozen or so other Japanese chefs who have been making waves in the rarefied world of French haute cuisine over the last few years are usually meekness incarnate. They bow, say a few humble halting words of thanks and are off.
Not Kobayashi.
The first thing the 42-year-old said after his restaurant got its third star was how difficult and demanding he was.
With his gelled bleached blond hair, there is something of the showman about the young blade who readily admits to driving his cooks ferociously hard.
But it was not always so, he insisted, claiming France has changed him.
"I am direct now. Like the French, I say what I mean," he said.
"I am a very difficult guy," he added, as he barked out an order in his small but perfectly designed kitchen. "Working with me means lots of stress. I watch and check everything."
"Compared to a French chef" – who are not renowned for being touchy-feely – "I am probably more difficult," he smiled.
But Kobayashi was careful not to ruffle feathers when asked if he and other young Japanese were beating the French at their own game and in their own back garden.
"France has accepted us and given us a place, so I thank France," he said, adding that Japanese cooks have been trained in the French tradition for nearly 150 years.
And indeed, it was watching a documentary about the nouvelle cuisine pioneer Alain Chapel that inspired Kobayashi to follow his father – a chef specialising in traditional Japanese kaiseki cuisine – into the kitchen.
Like his compatriot Yosuke Suga – who topped La Liste's ranking of the world's best restaurants this year with his tiny Tokyo table, Sugalab, and who is only a few months his senior – Kobayashi decided to learn at the feet of his French heroes.
While some French gastronomes have implied that Kobayashi's restaurant was not quite grand enough for the culinary holy grail of three stars, even the Michelin guide's worst enemy believes its inspectors got it right.
French chef Marc Veyrat, whose restaurant lost its third star last year, took Michelin to court in the notorious "Cheddargate" case. He tipped his toque to Kobayashi, saying: "I say 'Bravo!' It's great that people like him are coming here."
Kobayashi, who was born in Nagano, opened his Paris restaurant nine years ago with his wife Chikako after working under a series of legendary French three-star chefs including Alain Ducasse, one of his mentors.
PARIS • Chef Kei Kobayashi is speaking his mind – something he says it took moving to France to learn.
Less than 24 hours after he became the first Japanese cook to win the maximum three Michelin stars for his restaurant in France, the phones are ringing off the hook at Kei.
The last of the lunchtime diners are skipping out of his minimalist dining room not far from the Louvre, grinning from ear to ear.
They have just eaten a piece of history, and at €58 (S$88) for a set lunch, bagged a bargain.
Kobayashi is holding forth in his clinically clean kitchen as his small team scurry around him.
"Japanese people are usually very quiet. But you cannot survive in France like that," he said.
The dozen or so other Japanese chefs who have been making waves in the rarefied world of French haute cuisine over the last few years are usually meekness incarnate. They bow, say a few humble halting words of thanks and are off.
Not Kobayashi.
The first thing the 42-year-old said after his restaurant got its third star was how difficult and demanding he was.
With his gelled bleached blond hair, there is something of the showman about the young blade who readily admits to driving his cooks ferociously hard.
But it was not always so, he insisted, claiming France has changed him.
"I am direct now. Like the French, I say what I mean," he said.
"I am a very difficult guy," he added, as he barked out an order in his small but perfectly designed kitchen. "Working with me means lots of stress. I watch and check everything."
"Compared to a French chef" – who are not renowned for being touchy-feely – "I am probably more difficult," he smiled.
But Kobayashi was careful not to ruffle feathers when asked if he and other young Japanese were beating the French at their own game and in their own back garden.
"France has accepted us and given us a place, so I thank France," he said, adding that Japanese cooks have been trained in the French tradition for nearly 150 years.
And indeed, it was watching a documentary about the nouvelle cuisine pioneer Alain Chapel that inspired Kobayashi to follow his father – a chef specialising in traditional Japanese kaiseki cuisine – into the kitchen.
Like his compatriot Yosuke Suga – who topped La Liste's ranking of the world's best restaurants this year with his tiny Tokyo table, Sugalab, and who is only a few months his senior – Kobayashi decided to learn at the feet of his French heroes.
While some French gastronomes have implied that Kobayashi's restaurant was not quite grand enough for the culinary holy grail of three stars, even the Michelin guide's worst enemy believes its inspectors got it right.
French chef Marc Veyrat, whose restaurant lost its third star last year, took Michelin to court in the notorious "Cheddargate" case. He tipped his toque to Kobayashi, saying: "I say 'Bravo!' It's great that people like him are coming here."
Kobayashi, who was born in Nagano, opened his Paris restaurant nine years ago with his wife Chikako after working under a series of legendary French three-star chefs including Alain Ducasse, one of his mentors.
