Hideaki Sato grew up among the apple farms of Nagano, cooked French food for years and joined RyuGin in 2009. He is chef de cuisine of Tenku RyuGin on the 101st floor of a Hong Kong skyscraper.
My name is Hideaki Sato. I am the chef de cuisine of Tenku RyuGin, a restaurant on the 101st floor of a skyscraper in Hong Kong. I love Japanese gastronomy, and with the same love I make dishes that are beautiful to look at and delicious as well.
I was born in 1976 in Nagano, Japan. I grew up in a house surrounded by apple farms and nature. The smell of the apples, their bright color, the rustling of the leaves: nature was a big part of my childhood. Mountains, a forest, a river, a waterfall were not pictures in a book but all around me. The only thing missing was the sea! Well, now I have that too.
I started my career at 19, and I have been working as a chef for more than 15 years. I know two cuisines well, French and Japanese. I became a chef in Nagano, cooking French food, and later I was the chef of a French restaurant again. Although I worked in French restaurants for a long time, my native cuisine caught up with me anyway.
In 2009 I decided to come to RyuGin. Besides my work in the kitchen, I assist chef Yamamoto in designing the food for first class on Japan Airlines. It’s an interesting part of my life!
The most amazing, memorable, magical and cool moment was when RyuGin received three Michelin stars. It’s hard to describe that feeling of pride and happiness. It happened recently and I still remember it very well, but I know I won’t forget a drop of that feeling even in 20 years. And only recently we brought RyuGin here to Hong Kong. For me, this is a very exciting moment!
I like the simple, clean taste of ingredients. It’s not that the other way is bad. I simply believe that simplicity is exactly what impresses people most, and not only in cooking.
I love traveling. Since I have been living in Hong Kong, I have tried to visit as many Asian countries as I can. The colors, smells, character, moods and harmony of different cities and countries inspire a fresh look at my cooking. I don’t wander around the world, but I always take the chance to travel.
Chefs are magicians. Not everyone has the gift of seeing in simple food something that can be combined with other food, with another spice, in another form or at another temperature. I remember very well how the first chef I worked under inspired me. He seemed like a magician to me! Since then I try not to forget that creating gastronomic masterpieces is an art and a little bit of magic. Remember this, and eating will be more pleasant.
In the photo is something sweet: the RyuGin specialty, −196 °C strawberry candy with +99 °C strawberry jam. It’s not as simple as it looks! Five years ago I suggested this dessert to chef Yamamoto, and now it has become one of the signature dishes of our two restaurants. It’s nice that so many guests love it. You can see how it is made on YouTube.
