Te'PAN Le OMUS

In another life, Chef Yoshinori Togawa could have been a stage performer. What brought him to teppanyaki-style cooking was the joy of showing diners the culinary process. He relishes the joy in their eyes as he deftly slices up meat, vegetables and seafood before their eyes, and loves to see their faces light up as they take their first bites of whatever course he slides in front of them. “Witnessing the smiles and contentment as guests eat is the ultimate reward for any teppanyaki chef,” he says. It was what inspired him to start Te’PAN Le OMUS in its current location in Saitama, after a catastrophic earthquake necessitated his family’s move from Fukushima. Tucked away in the historical district of Kawagoe City, colloquially dubbed “Little Edo,” the restaurant’s farmhouse-style storefront blends in seamlessly with the traditional architecture around it. But the interior is where the magic happens, in a private room Chef Togawa calls the Little Edo Chamber. In Te’PAN Le OMUS, he has eschewed the teppan grill on which he built his career for a traditional Japanese open hearth, called an irori. In a multisensory experience that rivals the spectacle of teppanyaki grilling, Chef Togawa masterfully grills the finest ingredients over a bed of glowing charcoal. The crackling of the dancing flames, combined with the mouth-watering aroma of grilling food, meets the immaculate taste of luxury ingredients like freshwater eel, abalone and Tokorozawa beef to make a feast for all the senses. There’s a whole culinary universe in the Little Edo Chamber’s four walls, and Chef Togawa will be your guide.