Introduction of artisans: Menu ----------------------------- Introduction ----------------------------- Introduction "Clothing" Kyo yuzen silk dyeing / Masahiro Ikeuchi Nishijin textile / Takahisa Tamura Kyo yuzen silk dyeing / Ryotaro Hika Kyo Yuzen silk dyeing / Tomoko Fujii Flower arrangement / Michihisa Watanabe ----------------------------- Introduction "Eating and Drinking" Japanese dishes / Takeshi Shinmura Rice / Takashi Hashimoto Sake / Yoshihiro Higashino ----------------------------- Introduction "Living" Synthetic resin / Shigemi Inari Kiyomizu-ware / Hirokazu Kato Woodblock printing / Yuko Harada Jidaigire / Taro Matsumura Folding fans / Takahito Mizukami

Delicious food results from the optimal combination of excellent ingredients and chefs' superb skills. At our firm, we rigorously select the freshest and finest ingredients from around the world, and deliver them in refrigerated vans to our chain restaurants many times a day. Needless to say, we place the utmost priority on hygiene control in our delivery systems.
At each of our restaurants, experienced chefs create each menu item with exceptional skills and the utmost sincerity. We also design our restaurant interiors so as to enable our customers to enjoy our delicacies in an authentic Japanese atmosphere.

I had not planned to become a cook. In my student days, however, I began working as a part-time cook assistant, since the condition of the job, with meals, appeared extremely attractive to me, a hungry student. Through job experience, however, I began to be fascinated by the profession, since tasty dishes make customers happy, and cooks can receive their kind comments in return.

I am working to promote Japanese food culture as a cultural business. Despite the remarkable progress of technologies and cooking machines that can replace cooks, we adhere to the principle of offering handmade delicacies. It is, however, extremely difficult to maintain high profitability in the "slow food" business. In an attempt to resolve this problem, I am planning to innovate out-of-date systems in our industry, while at the same time maintaining the backbone of traditional Japanese food culture.

The founder of our company thoroughly taught me the basics of our business. Of his various teachings, I was particularly impressed by those relating to business ethics, rather than those about management techniques. He told me that the essence of the food business is to gain customer trust and develop warm and reliable relationships with customers. According to him, our profit is the yardstick of customer trust in us. His teachings remain the backbone of my view of business and cookery. I believe that we in the food industry should all develop our cooking skills with a thorough basis in business ethics, and constantly renew our resolve to serve delicious food that pleases our customers to their hearts' content.

Immediately after I became a cook, I made many mistakes in cooking. Gourmet customers sometimes taught me how to cook. I felt it extremely embarrassing and shameful to be taught by customers, since I was a professional cook. I often wondered how many more years I would have to spend before winning customer trust. One such day, I offered a dish whose recipe I myself had created. The customer enjoyed the dish and asked me for the recipe before leaving the restaurant. I have never forgotten that moment, when a dish I had prepared was so much appreciated by a customer. I still vividly remember that scene and my first customer who valued my cooking.

I want to innovate traditional industries. Under the present system, we have to choose either productivity or traditional cookery, since preparing authentic, handmade Japanese dishes entails considerable time and labor. Although we can continue serving such dishes at matching prices, only a handful of wealthy people would be able to enjoy such dishes. I believe that traditional culture should be enjoyed and shared by all people, not just the wealthy. With this in mind I am committed to innovating traditional business methods so as to share with all people the enjoyment of authentic, handmade dishes.