‘L’aube’ is a French word meaning beginning, dawn, or birth. When two gastronomic artists poured their hopes and dreams into the trail they would blaze together, the story of L’aube began.
The stars of the show are the chef, Hideaki Imahashi, and the pâtissier, Shoko Hirase. Husband and wife, Imahashi and Hirase are also business partners, running their restaurant together and respecting each other as they build their respective realms.
Ever since he was a schoolboy, Chef Imahashi has loved to make things. His choice of a career in cooking arose from a yearning to create things he could only express to himself. In an earlier job at a large restaurant, Imahashi realised that his culinary vision wasn’t reaching his guests, so when he opened L’aube, he incorporated an open kitchen to cultivate a closer relationship between diner and chef.
Shoko Hirase was influenced by her mother, who taught bread-making, so following the path of the pâtissier was a natural choice. Her reason for choosing to work at a restaurant instead of a typical neighbourhood bakery was that she wanted to directly experience the delight and impressions of her guests. In addition, the inspiration she receives from discussions with the sommelier and chef are one of the great joys of her work.
As the couple builds their dreams together, what they prize above all is providing customers with the experience of the perfect moment, with ingredients, aromas and temperatures coming together just right. They want diners to feel everything, including the interior, through all five senses. Chef Imahashi describes his approach as simple yet creative, and somehow charming. The wide array of dishes he creates have an urban feel as well, no doubt deriving from L’aube’s location in Higashi-Azabu, near Tokyo Tower.
Unusually for an SUV, the Audi Q8 oozes elegant refinement. The pulse-quickening feel of driving the Audi Q8 with Tokyo Tower in the background and the awakening of all five senses one experiences at L’aube morph into a kind of sixth sense, one of beauty of form combined with boldness of vision.
