ESqUISSE

ESqUISSE, established in 2012, quickly garnered two Michelin stars within just five months and has maintained them ever since. However, this meal made me want to fast-forward through it.

Just the night after dining at Q, I visited ESqUISSE for lunch. Comparing these two restaurants, although neither of their dishes quite suited my palate, they each displayed a distinct style - Q, bearing the weight of a crown, had to carry the heavier responsibility due to its fame. It needed to convey Japan's culinary culture to the world-renowned visitors, hence its focus on being "classic" and "flawless," choosing Japanese elements that align with the international tourist's image of Japan.

On the other hand, ESqUISSE, amidst Tokyo's dazzling Michelin stars, seems unremarkable for its two stars (with many seats even empty at lunchtime), evidently not bearing as much responsibility, allowing for greater freedom in cooking. However, this freedom can be a double-edged sword, potentially leading to an excess of self-consciousness. The menu I experienced seemed to exhibit a personal style, fluttering and meandering like a play, unlike any other I've tasted before.

Compared to Q's international approach, the head chef of ESqUISSE, being a Franco-Italian mix in Japan, tends to express more traditional, niche, and seasonal Japanese elements in his Franco-Japanese cuisine, like various wild vegetables and mostly raw or semi-raw seafood, flavors of soy milk, kelp, and a sense of coldness.

This localized exploration can feel conflicted on the plate, as there's a constant undercurrent to prove that as a foreigner, he's integrated into and understands Japan. When this self-consciousness is projected onto the plate, it's hard to either criticize or praise outright - it feels thoughtful yet unpolished, not quite to my taste, leaving me unsure how to comment and just wanting to finish quickly.

The lunch cost 28,000 yen, totaling nine dishes with poetic names, as if titles of a dreamlike sequence.

The first course, "Nudity," was lightly seared striped shrimp with a possible hint of citrus oil on the surface, lending a touch of acidity, served with a segment of lantern fruit. A good, crisp start.

The second course, "Harmony," had a soymilk froth like a milk cap, covering a pea puree hiding several chunks of peas, topped with a spoonful of fish roe. A cold dish that mixed earthy and marine flavors, elegantly refreshing, evoking the budding of early spring under snow, though not quite in season for the warm, sunny late April in Tokyo.

The third course, "The Voice of Silent Things," combined land and sea with green asparagus tops and middles paired with seared akagai clam, bound together with a miso-flavored egg yolk sauce. The combination of ocean embracing the land, sea, and land symbiosis, actually fits the characteristic structure of a Japanese archipelago dish. The first three courses, with similar clear and elegant styles devoid of any greasiness, almost completed the framework of the entire menu.

The fourth course, "Territory," was an attempt to showcase strong Japanese aesthetics through French cuisine methods, looking akin to a hand-held sushi. Barely cooked trout sashimi rested on bitter mountain greens and water celery, with a bit of vegetable and fish clear soup (giving a "dashi" impression), essentially integrating sushi and kaiseki elements into French cuisine, but the flavor design was somewhat discordant.

The fifth course, "Eurythmy," had a thin seasonal feel, with a trout cooked to about 30% doneness, accompanied by sweet peas, bean paste, pickled cucumber, tiny lemons, and a milk sauce - very spring-like in greenery and ingredients but still too raw and cold for my liking.

The sixth course, "South Cape," had a more classical French style, with roasted French pigeon paired with carrots and red wine sauce.

The seventh course, "The Ephemeral Eternal," resembled a meat jelly aspic with crabmeat mixed with a bit of crab roe and interspersed with bursty blueberries, topped with chili flowers. Crabmeat is hard to spoil, but this dish still made me want to skip ahead.

The eighth course, "Intuition," was a soymilk ice cream, topped with what looked like seaweed but likely homemade from flowers of fuki and wood sorrel, slightly bitter and sour.

The ninth course, "The Language of Flowers," featured ice cream and cream paired with sweet crispy flakes and raspberries, garnished with jasmine, chamomile, and violet petals - a likeable dessert.

ESqUISSE is the kind of restaurant I wouldn't want to step into a second time, but such a low assessment is admittedly influenced by personal preferences, like my aversion to raw and cold fish, which is a recurring theme

throughout the meal. Yet, that may not be the restaurant's issue since many people do enjoy that kind of dish.

The restaurant's style is quite interesting, like the stone-curved white plates with an air of wabi-sabi for the opening course, paired with stone chopstick rests and slim, black Japanese chopsticks, along with a small emblematic decorative piece resembling a sprouting stone. However, in subsequent dish presentations, forks and knives were mainly used, and the plates reverted to the classic French white style, suggesting that the Japanese aesthetic was only briefly introduced before returning to the French approach.

Those who can do Franco-Japanese cuisine well in Japan are more likely to be Japanese, with their local upbringing in food structure and cultural aesthetics, coupled with training in French cuisine, they can harmoniously create dishes. On the other hand, European chefs in Japan, as overly conspicuous foreigners who strive to deeply integrate but feel excluded by Japan, present a cultural proposition on the plate that resonates with the Western gaze upon the East, reminiscent of Guangzhou's Lang Panxuan in China. Such restaurants often aren't tasty, but they can be deeply explored as a philosophical, cultural, geographical, and psychological topic, bringing a beautiful narrative. Yet, that narrative is just that - good to listen to from afar, not to scrutinize too closely.