Masaki Sugisaki, Dinings SW3: Japanese cuisine with a European twist

By his own admission, becoming a chef was not initially top of Masaki Sugisaki’s wish list.

Growing up in Japan, Masaki spent his teenage years working in his parents’ restaurant kitchen.

But a love of British music, the likes of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, saw Masaki follow his dream and head to England, seeking a career in that industry.

He worked in Japanese restaurants in London in the meantime and would eventually pursue hospitality full-time.

Now, 25 years on, Masaki runs Dinings SW3 in Knightsbridge, offering his take on Japanese cuisine, having previously gained experience working at the renowned Nobu.

Reflecting on his early days in the kitchen, Masaki said: “I came over to London 25 years ago. I was born and raised in a restaurant family in Japan.

“The Japanese traditional thing is the son needs to take over the family business. So my parents forced me to work in a kitchen when I became 15, peeling the potatoes, washing the dishes for nothing, while my friends were having the fun outside. So I wasn't so keen to be a chef, but I was also so into music as well.

“Back at that time I was a big fan of British music, so I decided to come over to London, to do something in music. That was the first time for me to get out from Japan.

“I had skills I was trained in, back in Japan, so I started working in a Japanese restaurant. That's how it started.”

He continued: “After I came over to the UK, obviously my main aim was to do the music, but it was not easy and I kept on working in a Japanese restaurant. I was shocked, I thought Japanese cuisine was quite popular outside of Japan, but it wasn't.

“For instance, many cases when I served sushi, the first reaction was like, ‘oh, this fish is not cooked’. Then I took the sushi and they pour soy sauce on top, break everything down and eat it. And the comment was ‘salty’. I wonder why…

“Then my passion towards the food started to really grow. I started feeling it's going to be nice if I could educate them and introduce the beautiful part of Japanese cuisine to the British audience.”

London's love for japanese cuisine

A love for Japanese cuisine in London has been on the rise since, notable by Endo Kazutoshi’s Michelin-starred Endo at the Rotunda topping the recent Harden’s Top 100 best UK restaurants list, with TAKU also in the top 10. It was just the second time in the list’s 15-year history that neither a modern British nor French restaurant came out on top.

This year also saw the Tokyo College of Sushi & Washoku London open its doors in White City, the first of its kind outside of Japan, teaching young chefs how to create authentic Japanese food.

It is quite the shift from Masaki’s first experience in London.

“Compared to 25 years ago, this city is totally transformed,” he said.

“People are well educated and there are lots of varieties of good quality ingredient now available in the city. The things I do needs to be changed together with the people's demand, because nowadays a lot of people travel to Japan, experience genuine Japanese cuisine and then they expect that wherever the city is.

“So my style of food is kind of freestyle, the multicultural kind of mixed style.”

Masaki added: “One of the issues or difficulties London has is for a young chef who's willing to learn proper Japanese cuisine, to find the opportunity to learn. Therefore, this kind of Japanese cookery school to come out from Japan to foreign countries is an amazing thing.

“Especially a city like London, there's the foundation of welcoming other cultures, but there's not much opportunity internally.

“So I think this is a great thing for the school to come out, influencing young chefs with genuine Japanese philosophies. It is going to be a perfect opportunity.”

European inspiration

Masaki is keen to stress how Dinings SW3, which opened in 2017, offers a mix of Japanese cuisine with other influences from elsewhere. His kitchen is full of chefs from across Europe, while he sources many of his ingredients from the UK.

The fine dining restaurant itself features a sushi counter, private dining space, garden terrace and bar area.

“My concept is for guests to enjoy the Japanese cuisine with a European influence,” Masaki explained.

“I try to design everything on the foundation of genuine Japanese cuisine, but translate it into a European kind of cuisine in a way, so that people can actually enjoy it.”

Discussing his relationships with British suppliers, Masaki said: “I try to source local ingredients.

“Especially in the early stage of this project, we struggled to get fresh fish and seafood. And that is the key of sushi and Japanese concepts. I was struggling and thought there's nothing we can do for that.

“But one day I thought ‘this is a country surrounded by the beautiful sea, there must be beautiful produce’. I searched the internet and more than 10 years ago I found a beautiful placed called Cornwall, which I'd never been to. I'm actually so in love with that area.

“I decided to go down there and then tried to be connected with the fishermen. I was literally randomly knocking on doors, then grabbed one or two fishermen to start with to have a drink together, a meal together. And then get a lot of information - how you catch the fish, where you sell it, how you transport it.

“What I found out was that lots of British sea produce is being exported to mainland Europe. And then in the worst-case scenario, the fresh ingredient we can find in the London market is actually re-imported from those big cities, which doesn't make sense.”

Masaki then joined the fishermen on their boat for a day and struck up a deal to pay them double what they were previously earning, if they would transport the fish to him in London.

“Not many fishermen want to take this one extra step to arrange the courier, but a few of them agreed to do it,” explained Masaki.

“As I am going down to Cornwall quite often, I sometimes stop at the local farm, learning what they can get. Even if that's not the common ingredients within Japanese cuisine, such as beetroot. I was learning how to cook it and we are trying to utilise it.”

Global plans

What does the future look like for Masaki and Dinings SW3?

“When we opened SW3, the first two years were quite a challenging time for me. It was like trial and error,” he said.

“But once we started to get to know what the customer wants around this area, it's kind of settled down. So it's okay now I think.

“Outside of the UK, we have a couple of opening plans, adapting to local demands in that city and then also utilising the local ingredients and play the game under this concept.

“I don't know how many, but I want to challenge it. I want to see how far I can go.”