Zaiyu Hasegawa

DEN

Tokyo-born Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa was immersed in Japanese cuisine and fine dining from a young age, watching and then working with his geisha mother, who would entertain customers in a traditional high-end Japanese restaurant, named Uotoku Kagurazaka.

He quickly began developing his own style and felt driven to diversify away from Japanese cuisine’s generic ‘one size fits all’ philosophy and wanted to cook something for every customer. His inspiration came from the Japanese spirit of hospitality, omotenashi – an organic desire for the happiness of others.

An early success since opening Jimbocho Den in Tokyo in 2007.

Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa has created a culinary buzz within the capital with his awarded restaurant Jimbocho Den, giving Japanese fine dining a playful and skill-filled name. The cuisine at Den is his personal vision of Kaiseki ryori, Japanese fine dining, focusing on pleasing the customer with every dish and conveying the beauty of Japan. Chef Hasegawa is notoriously creative and inventive, using seasonal ingredients to reinvent classic dishes and flavours, using the contemporary influences on Japanese culture.

“I Consider the Entire ‘Den’ Team my Family”.

“The taste of home cooking is different for everyone, yet it is all prepared with the same wish, which is to make others happy. It brings warmth and closeness to one’s heart, making us want to eat it every day.

Homemade food is food prepared while thinking about others being happy.

Every day, I think about the people who come to the restaurant and cook with the ingredients that arrive each day. For a homemade dish that brings a smile.”

Instagram: @zaiyuhasegawa
Restaurant web site: https://www.jimbochoden.com/en/
Restaurant address: Architect house hall JIA, 2-3-18 Jingumae, Shibuya Ku, Tokyo, Japan