Gochiso-sama Desu!

For high school students waiting to for the semester to end, one month seems like an eternity. For three women organizing a pop-up dinner in Tokyo, it’s a different story entirely -- particularly when the three women involved have no background in the restaurant industry. I'm a writer; I deal in words and spend most of my time working alone. My partners, Chihiro Moriyama and Eriko Miyagawa, are in graphic design and film production respectively. There is no logical reason why we should be hosting guerrilla-style gastronomy events in a city where rules abound and form really matters.

But that’s what I love about Tokyo. It’s a megalopolis built on impossibility and contradictions, a place of blinding vertical infinity and dense electric warrens, one of the last corners of the globe where people can still get lost and reinvent themselves.

We had a solid concept: to use pop-ups as a platform for emerging culinary talent. We wanted to collaborate with creative people from different fields to stage events that would challenge perceptions of fine dining and reconnect chefs with their artistic side. We decided on the name Gochiso and started marking our calendars. All we needed was a chef…and a venue.

Fortunately, my friend Robert “volunteered” his house -- a stunning three-story flat in Shibuya -- after a little gentle prodding. In the following days, he’d become the driving force behind the project (the man wanted to eat). And once we started talking about it, Gochiso developed a momentum of its own. We soon found the perfect chef. Eriko had met the lovely and talented chef Maria Suzuki through a connection with the Tsuji Cooking Academy and had heard that she was back in Japan after three years at Bouley in New York City. Maria had been working in Nara at the highly acclaimed restaurant Akordu (whose chef had been at Mugarritz in San Sebastian) but quickly tired of the Japanese system and left to pursue a career as an independent chef and food consultant. Thanks to California wine importers WineInStyle, we had the perfect wines to match with Chef Suzuki’s creative fusion of classic French, modern Spanish, and North-American Raw Food.

Within a few weeks we were live. We entitled the event Make Yourself at Home and turned Robert’s house into a restaurant for one night only. 14 fabulous guests. 16 bottles of delectable wine, and 2 outstanding bottles of sake. But the star of the show was Maria’s stellar summer menu. Here’s a taste, pictured above:

Fluffy foie gras and avocado terrine drizzled with cocoa sauce and dotted with fresh apple vinaigrette. The acidity of the vinaigrette matched the brightness of the Rudd Mt. Veder Sauvignon Blanc ’09 that we served with it.

I’ll be writing more about the event here and also on Umamimart (if you don’t already know about this awesome blog, shame on you), so stay tuned. In the meantime, read what the WSJ has to say about us here and check out our Facebook page for more photos and updates. Oh, and you can help us out by clicking on the Like button.