At Auberge Tokito, Delight in Exquisite Pottery and Japanese Cuisine with a Starred Chef

Auberge TOKITO: a New Beacon of Japanese Culture is Born

Auberge TIKITO opened in April of 2023 in the west Tokyo city of Tachikawa, modeled on the boutique auberge inns of the French-speaking world, and quickly caught the attention of foodies and culture aficionados across the globe. The enchantingly rustic and tranquil garden that greets visitors inside its gates feels a world apart from the gargantuan Tokyo metropolis, and the facility’s roughly 3,700 square meters house guest rooms, a restaurant, and a tearoom. It's elegant Japanese atmosphere and intimate personal touch has enchanted both domestic and international visitors.

A number of buildings are nestled within the auberge’s immaculate gardens

Yoshinori Ishii is the head chef and general manager of Auberge TOKITO. After breaking through as sous chef at Kyoto’s famous Ryotei traditional fine dining club Kitcho Arashiyama Honten, he worked as a chef in United Nations ambassadorial residences in Geneva and New York before helming kaiseki restaurant UMU in London – taking that restaurant to its second Michelin star win. Amidst the fertile perspectives this global experience yielded him, the germ of Auberge TOKITO took root – a desire for a place to truly articulate the richness of Japanese cuisine.

Head Chef Yoshinori Ishii has served up authentic Japanese cuisine in Switzerland, the U.S., and the U.K.

One of a Kind Ceramic Tableware Available Nowhere Else

Not content simply to rest on his michelin-starred laurels, Ishii is also an accomplished ceramics artist, and while you may find the occasional piece made by a select number of other skilled potters at Auberge TOKITO, the vast majority of the tableware is Ishii’s own work. “Tableware is the dress food wears,” as Ishii’s mentor was fond of saying during his days of training as a young cook – a quote originally uttered by the illustrious multi-hyphenate artist and noted epicure Rosanjin Kitaoji to observe the role that dishes, cutlery, and glassware play in bringing out the charms and attractiveness of a meal. For Ishii, this means that it is just as essential to pay meticulous care to tableware as to the food itself – as such, he not only curates his tableware selection but makes most of it himself by hand.

Ishii first took up ceramics while he was still in culinary school

Ishii, who has extensively traveled in the name of ceramics research, knows that local soils plays a key role in defining the unique properties of each regional kind of pottery, so he mixes earthen clay from the grounds of the auberge into his works. Moreover, he recycles his cooking charcoal and ash from used-up chopsticks into the pieces as well rather than throwing them out. In this Wabunka plan, you can fashion one-of-a-kind ceramic vessels using unique local clay and Ishii’s original glazes in his private pottery studio.

Choose your desired vessel shape as well as your preferred glaze

After viewing the samples and visualizing your finished piece, place your clay on a hand-cranked potter’s wheel and rotate it slowly to give it shape. Your group will have Ishii’s attentive guidance, so even absolute beginners can throw their clay without worry. You will shape your piece and choose your glaze during the experience, but the actual glazing and firing will be performed at a later date before the finished work is delivered to your address.

Learning to create dishes from the literal ground up under a chef known for his particularity about the tableware that accompanies his food is a rare treat

After Working Your Clay, Sit Down to a Relaxing, Sumptuous Meal

The dining room of Auberge TOKITO offers table and counter seating – the latter of which provides an unobstructed intimate view of the chef’s delicate work. While this space is normally only available to dinner guests, participants in this experience are welcomed to enjoy their exclusive lunch here.

The counter, cut from a single block of cypress, gives the space a distinguished elegance

The theme of Auberge TOKITO’s fare is “artisanal cuisine.” Craftsmanship and passion abound at every link in the chain of growers, fishers, hunters, cutlery makers, and tableware potters. Ishii has cultivated this chain into a unified team arranged around the singular goal of delighting guests, one dish at a time. Savor the fruit of Ishii’s hard work to make this vision a reality through a lunch of six signature courses.

Guests can choose from one glass of sake, wine, or non-alcoholic beverages included in the course lunch

Seasonal Ingredients and Bespoke Tableware Come Together for an Unparalleled Dining Experience

Seasonality is a cornerstone of the auberge menu – such as the course on one late-winter’s day combining winter crab and spring vegetables, enhanced with winter kumquat, to encapsulate and celebrate the ephemeral passing of winter to spring on a single plate. The dish is served in a vessel ornamented with a rope motif, hand-made by the chef himself. Ishii hopes to harken back to Japan’s prehistoric Jomon era and invite diners to experience these ingredients as if for the first time, without preconceptions getting in the way.

Nagori (ingredients on their way out of season) and hashiri (ingredients just coming into season) melded into a singular liminal work culinary art

The next dish on this day features spring fish and shellfish from the island of Niigata Prefecture’s Sado Island alongside spring vegetables in a fish bone stock – showcasing the chef’s commitment to wasting nothing. Japan is an archipelagic nation, so island ingredients are commonplace. Delight not only in the food and tableware, but the stories behind them.

A soup of fava beans and other spring vegetables, whelk, and a grilled fox jacopever – a member of the rockfish family known in Japanese as soi

A dessert of blood orange and chocolate with an aromatic touch of tea tree

Relax and Savor the Rich Depth of Japanese Cuisine

Take a step away from the big city hubbub and luxuriate in the tranquility of walking in lush manicured gardens, kneading soft clay in your hands, and tasting seasonal ingredients sourced from all over Japan. Expert chef and experienced international culinary ambassador Ishii and his seasoned staff are on hand to explain everything, giving enriching context so that even guests with no foreknowledge of Japanese culture can get the most from the experience. Just relax and take in the prolific scope of Japanese cuisine at its finest through all five senses.

Enjoy a personal chat with a Michelin-starred chef of world renown to your heart’s content