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Persimmon shira-ae

For the persimmon tofu-dressed salad: simmer all the ingredients to season them through, then dress with the shira-ae dressing. What matters here is…

Cedar-plank grilled with a first-frost egg-white finish, sesame cream bake in a hollowed yuzu shell, beef filet and flower-cut lotus root layered and sansho-grilled, new-season bottarga with leaf-on green daikon kombu-cured, mackerel red-and-white sushi, chestnut shaped as a chrysanthemum, molded rice

For the sesame cream bake in a hollowed yuzu shell, served as a small opening course: the sesame sauce combines 3 parts dashi to 1 part ground…

Hen-of-the-woods mushroom pureed soup with tsukimi-style free-range chicken

Jade Eggplant Surinagashi Abalone Liver Shinjo

As for the clear-soup course's abalone liver shinjo — many guests dislike and avoid abalone liver, so I devised this as a way to use the liver in…

Tilefish and mushroom kenchin, hōshō-yaki; Ise lobster matsukasa-style grill

This is a grilled course. The tilefish and mushroom kenchin hōshō-yaki wraps a tofu-and-mushroom filling in tilefish filleted into three pieces, and…

Daikon mochi and softshell turtle

This is a clear soup. For the daikon mochi, I knead one part kuzu starch with seven parts water. I squeeze grated daikon and add it in, heat it in a…

Butterfish, Saikyo-Miso Grilled; Spiral-Fried Kuruma Prawn; Shrimp Shinjo, Turf-Fried; Abalone Grilled with Liver Glaze

This is the grilled hassun course. For the butterfish Saikyo-miso grilled, I marinate a fillet of the fish in Saikyo miso — a sweet, mild Kyoto-style…

Kombu-Cured Alfonsino; Yuzu-Scented Pickled Daikon; Scallop with Chrysanthemum and Shungiku

This is the vinegared course. The kombu-cured alfonsino could really be served raw as is, but this time I gave it a hot-pot feel — like turning the…

Wagyu and Potato, Autumn Mountain; Grilled Butterfish with Walnut

This is the grilled tray course. As for the seared daikon stuffed with millet that accompanies the grilled butterfish with walnut, I wanted the…

Wind-Dried Beltfish, Dengaku-Grilled Kabocha, Fukusa-yaki Walnut, and Deep-Fried Chestnut with Anchovy Dressing

For the wind-dried beltfish (tachiuo), the flesh from the tail end is sliced thin, salted, braided into three strands, and shaped like a temari ball.

Jade ginkgo nuts, chrysanthemum-cut turnip, kuruma prawn, shimeji mushroom, leaf-cut kabocha squash, maple-leaf-cut carrot, ginkgo-leaf-shaped taro, pinecone-cut arrowhead bulb

Soup Course: White Miso Broth with Seared Matsutake Mushroom

With the theme of the season turning from autumn into winter, we made three recommended dishes using ingredients of the moment. As the weather is…

Miso-style, Chikuma River roe-bearing ayu-koku

This focuses on ingredients from Nagano. Koi-koku is a rich miso soup and simmered dish made by long-simmering carp cut into rounds in miso, and it…

• Serves 1 · ¥340

• Cook time 2 hr

Brothless Okkirikomi

This is a reimagining of local cuisine. It's a simmered dish. I deliberately serve Gunma's classic local dish "okkirikomi" — hand-cut flat udon in…

• Serves 1 · ¥330

• Cook time 40 min

Deboned Hamo, Matsutake, Uni Shinjo

This is a clear-soup course. The uni fish-paste dumpling is something like a half-shelled version of raw sea urchin. Raw white fish paste and mashed…

• ¥820

• Cook time 1 hr

Layered beef tongue, spiny lobster deep-fried in a straw coat

This is a fried course. For the hakata-style beef tongue, only the sinew is removed from the beef tongue, which is then rehydrated in a pressure…

• ¥900

• Cook time 4 hr

Herring kombu roll, shrimp-shaped taro, deep-fried tofu fritter

This is the simmered course. For the herring kombu roll, the herring is cleaned and soaked in rice-rinsing water, then reconstituted in hot water…

Tilefish steamed with autumn colors

This is the clear-soup course. For the tilefish steamed with autumn colors, the tilefish is steamed together with colorful vegetables. The tilefish…

Nankan-age conger eel Hakata-style, yellowtail and daikon, kabocha squash, Kyoto mibuna greens

This is the simmered course. For the Nankan-age conger eel Hakata-style, I used Nankan-age — a thin, crisp fried tofu from Nankan in Kumamoto — which…

Matcha kuzu-starch noodles with black sugar syrup

This is the sweets course. This too is cut into kuzukiri with a knife in front of the guest before serving. Every dish here is themed around being…

Monkfish Simmered in White Miso, Tennoji Turnip Simmered to Absorb the Broth

The simmered course is monkfish simmered in white miso. The monkfish is simmered in a white-miso-based dashi, with a little monkfish liver also…

Higo Cochin Chicken Kombu-Cured and Rolled with Julienned Vegetables, Umasu Vinegar Jelly

As for the Higo Cochin chicken in the vinegared dish, this is an extremely rare ingredient — even within Kumamoto, it's only available in Yamaga.

Grilled barracuda marinated in sweet white miso, small abalone finished with Arima sansho pepper, king crab miso-grilled, grilled matsutake

As for the grilled dish's tokobushi (small abalone) Arima-yaki: I first clean the tokobushi thoroughly, then score it with a fine cross-hatch knife…

Autumn mackerel vinegar-cured with vinegar miso, kombu-cured scallop with egg-yolk vinegar sauce, seared cuttlefish with plum-flesh vinegar sauce

In place of sashimi, I made dishes meant to be eaten without soy sauce. For the autumn mackerel su-jime, the mackerel is firmed with a heavy coating…