Sugio Yamaguchi

"I realised that in French cuisine, ingredients are key.."
 
As a child, Tokyo-born Sugio Yamaguchi didn’t eat much. “My mother was a good cook, but I hated the school canteen, and I’d never finish what was on my plate,” he remembers. “It probably wasn’t because I didn’t like eating, but because what I was given didn’t taste good.” At the age of 16, Sugio found a job with a Korean chef, who taught him how to cut up meat, slice vegetables and make sauces. By now he was becoming more enthusiastic about food; the French variety though, rather than sushi. After Catering College, he worked for two years to earn enough money to take him to France, a country that would change his life. 
 
Sugio Yamaguchi has learnt all the basics of French traditional cuisine in Lyon with Nicolas Le Bec. This approach stimulated his desire to go back to the culinary fundamentals, « The cooking that warms the heart! » like he says. « I want to cook dishes with real seasonal food, like it was previously essential, something too often forgotten today.
 
Inspired by French haute cuisine, Sugio Yamaguchi's style celebrates the "terroir" and spirit of the Lyon region whose great chefs have followed him as he builds his culinary identity.