Let's Eat vol.2
A casual line of a well-known store that goes with fashion.

When one hears the words "wood-fire," the image that comes to mind may be a bold dish in which meat is suspended over a pile of wood and roasted over a fire. But at SMOKE DOOR, a new wood-fired restaurant that opened in 2022, such a scene is rarely seen.

I think people have a strong image of wood-fired cooking as a dynamic way of cooking, but in fact it is very delicate. （It is very rare to cook over an open fire (i.e., direct flame to the food). There are three types of wood-fired cooking: smoking, far-fire, which uses far-infrared rays to cook food, and okibi, in which the wood is ignited and the core of the wood is burning bright red without flames. Wood-fired cooking requires skill in controlling the temperature of the fire and the extent to which the food is cooked."

Ryu Amemiya, the representative of the company, told us this. For example, cauliflower is cooked over a distant fire for several days, which gives it an interesting texture with a crunchy outside but moist inside. Another example is the shrimp, which is cooked instantaneously over a fierce fire, allowing the shrimp to be both raw and grilled at the same time.

The man behind the wood fire is Chef Tyler Burgess, a chef with a wealth of experience. He was the executive sous chef at Saison, a three-star Michelin wood-fired restaurant in San Francisco. Amemiya, who has visited Saison, describes the restaurant as follows.

I have visited the 50 best restaurants in Asia and the 50 best restaurants in the world, and I felt that "Saison" had the highest quality and was doing innovative things. I think the image of America is that of a big taste, but I found it to be the exact opposite. Even Japanese people, who are said to have a sensitive sense of taste, were surprised by the level of quality. Nevertheless, the price per person was about 80,000 to 100,000 yen."

Of course, it is not only about price and cosmetics, but the ability to enjoy the technology and taste of high-priced products at a reasonable price is a major attraction of "SMOKE DOOR".

The unit price is around 6,000 to 7,000 yen. In order to keep prices low, we don't use high-end ingredients, but rather what we call the "sweet spot," which is when the ingredients are at their peak of flavor. If you do this, you can enjoy the food even if it is not high-end.

For consumers, being able to enjoy high quality food at a reasonable price through the efforts of a restaurant is nothing but a plus. For Mr. Amemiya, on the other hand, a sense of mission and will, not just profit, seem to be the driving force.

I have been involved in upper-class restaurants for a long time, and with Tyler, for example, it is not so difficult to open a high quality restaurant that seats 10 people and is difficult to reserve. But here, I want to challenge myself to see how far I can go at this price point, and with this many seats (134), I want people from all walks of life to enjoy the restaurant. We chose the hotel dining format because it is open to the community. If we can communicate the charm of this region from this location, I think it would be meaningful for us to be involved in the food business.