Chef Atsushi Tanaka
The recent reopening of Atsushi Tanaka's restaurant in the heart of Paris’ Latin Quarter features new works of Danish-inspired wooden furniture evoking a Nordic atmosphere. The renovation of the restaurant, situated on rue Cardinal Lemoine, was entrusted to the Parisian architecture workshop OVO with the furniture being designed and produced by the Norwegian duo Sarg&Bein. The tableware, a centrepiece of the chef's work, is the fruit of collaborations between Tanaka and various ceramists, designers, and artists. The Swedish Ann Sofie Gelfius, the Danish Gurli Elbaekgaard and the German Sinikka Harms have all created a number of the plates, dishes, cups, and bowls which contribute to the restaurant’s very specific universe.
The Franco-Japanese chef continues to simultaneously entice and challenge Parisian palettes with the progressive, artistic, and dynamic cuisine that is served at Restaurant A.T.Atsushi Tanaka's cuisine is not Japanese. Neither is it Spanish, nor Scandinavian, nor Parisian—although he spent a large part of his life developing and perfecting his art in these different regions. His cuisine is strongly influenced by many European culinary techniques, including molecular cuisine, Nordic cuisine, and French classicism. When it comes to categorising his culinary identity, the chef simply answers: "impossible."
His impressive cardescribes Tanaka as the "Picasso of gastronomy".
The Cuisine
Chef Tanaka proposes a single taste menu that adapts to the changes occurring in the season. In his gastronomic proposal Tanaka leverages on the concept of permanence and mutability for his gastronomy: the concept of his dishes is stable, but the ingredients used fluctuate based on what nature has to offer. The permanence, persistence and consistency over time in Atsushi Tanaka’s dishes seems to compose a perfectly structured poem. In fact, it reminds of the Haiku poems structure, which traditionally evocates pictures and images of nature. Like Haiku poems, Atsushi’s proposal depicts a precisely structured idea that transports the diner through a bucolic and nature inspired journey.