The private course is a leisurely stroll through ten dishes that showcase Shoji’s skills and demonstrate how fortunate you are to be the only ones enjoying her delicious just-made cuisine. Arriving perfectly arranged on exquisite tableware by modern artist Mao Wadayama, the presentation in dish after dish is your entertainment, richly enhancing the delicious cuisine. While most restaurants change their menus monthly, Shoji does that just four times a year. Staying with the same dishes over a longer period, she says, allows her to get to know them better and perfect them.

The amuse is an important reference to Shoji’s beginnings as an exclusive cake maker, using an exquisite salted tart that has emerged from its chilled state just steps away from your table. Hokkaido sea urchin tops the salted tart with plenty of finely shaved mimolette cheese, all accented by delicious aromatic flavor from a homemade mix of seven spices including cumin and garam masala.

Next, freshly-baked brioche bread makes an appearance. You’ve been smelling it baking and now here it is. Removed from the oven, Chef Shoji cuts through the crisp, aromatic surface at your table to reveal a soft, deep yellow middle with mouthwatering steam and aromas. The result of plenty of egg yolks and butter, it is warm, soft, and luscious.

The traditional Japanese summer favorite ayu sweetfish takes on a totally new face as tacos in one appetizer dish. Thin pastry is filled with filleted sweetfish and zucchini and topped with an original salsa and sweetfish liver sauce. It is sometimes difficult for foreign visitors unaccustomed to devouring fish bones to appreciate this Japanese favorite, so Shoji recreated it as tacos to make the fish a more approachable ingredient, still with all its delicious savory flavor.

Tilefish is another seasonal fish, this one best enjoyed with the delicious texture of its crisp-fried scales. It is plunged à la minute into a seemingly simple soup of just white asparagus, salt and water, and topped with kegani crab meat and sliced asparagus. The beef on this occasion is chargrilled Akagyu beef from Kumamoto, with egg yolk and black truffle sauce and bone broth jus.

For dessert, the same mangoes from the signature Fleurs d’ été cake appear as the stunning flowers found in the black cake box, but this dish surprises anew, prepared differently to allow for the fact that the fruit will be devoured immediately.

INGREDIENTS
Chef Shoji entrusts the procurement of ingredients to suppliers at Tsukiji, many of whom she has known since her high school days. Much of the fruit comes direct from orchards around Japan: peaches and muscat grapes from Okayama and Satonishiki cherries from Hokkaido. Shoji seeks out direct suppliers from around Japan for new fruits she is especially interested in. Her wine collection shows a distinct preference for California wines, which grew even stronger after the devastating forest fires in the harvest season of 2017. Shoji is more than happy to design a personalized wine pairing course for her guests.