A warm light envelops an interior appointed in the stately Taisho Romanticist style. The shop’s name and the certificate of mastery are in the handwriting of the chef’s mentor. The chef studied theories and techniques from one of the world’s foremost practitioners of tempura. Tempura pieces, such as the irreplaceable Edomae standards of shrimp, sillago and conger eel, seem almost grilled rather than fried in hot oil. While obsessively following his mentor’s teachings, the chef is pursuing ‘a new way of tempura’ with innovations he learned as an apprentice, such as serving some fish that are not deep-fried.