East Meets West

Chef Kazuki Tsuya pushes the boundaries with a Euro twist on traditional Japanese dishes.

- Michael Harden

Saori Tsuya, who owns and helps run Carlton fine diner Kazuki’s with her chef husband Kazuki, pauses when asked to explain the restaurant’s approach. “It’s hard to describe exactly what we do here,” she says of the restaurant where Japanese and European flavour and technique are melded in exquisite combinations. “We are Japanese and we know Japanese food but we are not a typical Melbourne Japanese restaurant. Many of our influences have come from our time in Melbourne.”

The quality and skill of Kazuki’s cooking make it almost incomprehensible that he came to cooking by accident. In 2002 he was running low on money while travelling in Australia and applied for a waiting job at Misuzu’s, an izakaya-style restaurant in Melbourne. Because his English wasn’t great, he was instead offered a job as a dishwasher.

“He was a good dishy, fast and clean” says Saori who was working as a waiter at Misuzu’s at the time.

Others noticed his skills too and began to give Kazuki more to do than washing dishes. Prepping ingredients and cooking was a revelation.

“When I was young, I didn’t care about food – I just ate whatever was on the table,” he says. “But then when I started doing more at Misuzu’s I realised I was good at it.”

He and Saori started doing the research, eating out in restaurants they read about, seeking inspiration. Kazuki did stages at several places and worked at France-Soir and Lake House before opening the first incarnation of Kazuki’s in Daylesford.