‘These days I’m into adding new value to familiar vegetables like eggplant and daikon’, says Hiroyasu Kawate, owner-chef of Florilège, a French restaurant in Tokyo’s Jingumae district .
Born and raised in Tokyo, Kawate seems to have been destined to open a restaurant in his city. He advocates an urban version of sustainability; one he has a unique ability to implement. At a joint event he held with a restaurant in New York, Kawate expounded his approach to sustainability in the very heart of Manhattan. ‘Finding kindred souls around the world inspires me’, Kawate enthuses. ‘Nothing stimulates me more.’
‘The trend in sustainability today is toward regional focus’, Kawate explains. ‘The idea behind that is to have guests visit a shop set up somewhere that allows you to offer vegetables gathered fresh from the field. But I think there’s also a kind of sustainability that can be practiced precisely because we’re in Tokyo.’
Kawate aims his appeal at the broad majority of people who have started to develop a sustainability mindset. If he can stir this segment to action, he reasons, big changes in the world are possible.
There’s no need for special foodstuffs, he says. If you can fire people’s imaginations by taking familiar vegetables and elevating them using your own technique and creativity, you can play some small part in changing the world.
Chef Kawate’s perspective dovetails neatly with that of the e-tron Sportback, the electric vehicle from Audi built with the future of the Earth in mind.
Two MICHELIN Stars: Excellent cooking, worth a detour!
