STAGE FOUR

Star Peruvian chef MITSUHARU TSUMURA is ready to launch a new phase in the history of Nikkei cuisine, writes SARAH ENGSTRAND

THE MOST ACCOMPLISHED chef you may never have heard of is Mitsuharu Tsumura. Tsumura's first restaurant, Maido, is in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list and is a top 10 restaurant in Latin America. He has written a book, presented Master Chef Peru and is considered to be the authority on Nikkei cuisine.

The Peruvian-Japanese chef is coming to Asia. Tsumura's newest restaurant, Aji, will be at the MGM

Cotai when the casino-resort opens in Macau. Other celebrated chefs, such as Mauro Colagreco, Graham Elliot and Janice Wong will be seeking to enthral diners at the new resort, but none is nearly as culturally important as Tsumura.

Nikkei describes both the people of Japanese descent living outside Japan and their cuisine. One of the biggest Nikkei communities in the world is in Peru. Tsumura tells the tale of how the Industrial Revolution in Japan in the 19th century so disrupted agriculture that Japanese crossed

Above: Mitsuharu Tsumura Right: Bonito Porcon Umami features raw Bonito, Porcon mushroom chawanmushi and a potato cracker topped with a quail’s egg