Eat it to believe it: Vegan haute cuisine at EdiTion Koji Shimomura

If you have a VIP client in town who happens to be a strict vegan and you need to organize an upscale dinner for her, what would you do? Or say you want to impress a vegan friend with an amazing fancy dinner, where to go? Chances are, you’d be stumped. In Tokyo - and actually anywhere else in the world - there just aren’t many top-notch fine dining restaurants that cater to vegan and such special dietary requirements. But now with the following info, you’ll be all set when the occasion arises: EdiTion Koji Shimomura, the elegant modern French in the Roppongi area that has kept 2 Michelin stars for the past seven years, offers a superb, completely plant-based vegan menu.

EdiTion Koji Shimomura is tucked away in a rather unexpected spot on the ground floor of a skyscraper connected to Roppongi-Ichome station, right across the street from the business complexes of Izumi Garden and Ark Hills.

The window to the private dining room faces Roppongi-dori street, so at night from the outside you can see the warm glow of its perfect lighting and silhouettes of the lucky diners through sheer lace curtains. Inside EdiTion, the interior is understated elegance with little details of whimsical charm; curious metal animal objects (which are actually music boxes) sit atop crisp white tablecloth, a little red robin perches under a miniature wire tree, a dash of colored glassware here, a twirl of an organza ribbon there. Chef Shimomura handpicks the decorations and often adds final touches himself, which imbue EdiTion with a warm and personal feel. It’s refined but never stuffy, with a playfulness in everything from the tableware and setting, which seem to reflect the colorful - and somewhat mischievous - personality of the chef.

Chef Shimomura is world renowned for his exceptionally light and sophisticated French cuisine, which hardly uses butter and cream and such heavy ingredients. One of his signature dishes for example, is seaweed-flavored oysters lightly cooked in seawater with citrus and seawater gelee. There is a thoughtful, almost philosophical quality that takes the chef’s culinary creations beyond just delicious and beautiful; it is a story told through food, a work of art. In fact, Chef Shimomura sees the fine dining experience as a whole as needing to be meaningful. “You’re going to feel completely different when you leave the restaurant from when you arrive,” he says. “Otherwise, what’s the point of a three-hour meal?”

A few years ago, Chef Shimomura became interested in creating a vegan menu that is on par with his regular cuisine. The motivation was partly the culinary challenge of cooking with only plant-based ingredients, but even more was the desire to include everyone, even vegans, in the world of fine dining. The chef often travels internationally for his various culinary work, and during his travels had been made aware of veganism, which today is still not a widely known concept in Japan. Five years ago, Chef Shimomura visited cities in Italy, Germany, England and France, and at each location, he tried Michelin-starred restaurants that offered a vegetarian, if not vegan, menu. Frankly, he was disappointed. He says there wasn’t a single restaurant where he thought the vegetarian menu was as good as the regular menu. Hence, his goal became to create vegan cuisine that is as good as his regular offering; a vegan menu not just for vegans, but for all to enjoy.

The amuse bouche of the vegan menu on a recent night was freeze-dried tomato filled with beet puree; a light wafer made with tapioca, olive oil and spice with a taste and texture you could mistake for parmesan; and a thin asparagus stalk with tarragon mustard sesame cream. The chef is highly creative with dishware, often using other objects as dishes; in this case, the amuse was presented on a kenzan, the spiky device used to hold flowers in ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. EdiTion has a top-quality wine cellar, but also a charming selection of non-alcoholic beverages that can be paired with each dish, like the elderflower cordial served with the amuse.

Another dish was avocado and tomato salad with cauliflower espuma, with a green sauce of shungiku, or chrysanthemum greens, and yuzu, which was followed by a plate of various cooked and pickled vegetables, featuring the Japanese leafy vegetable komatsuna, and white shimeji mushroom, with dots of salted lemon sauce for accent. There are several points to make the best of cooking with just vegetable and plants, Chef Shimomura says, which include the perfect use of salt to maximize the ingredients’ natural flavor, the addition of subtle spiciness, and emulsification of ingredients to create creamy sauces, all of which this dish illustrated well.

One of the warm main dishes was caramelized endives in beet sauce, with beet salad and grilled lotus root "cogs." The warm, soft endives dyed a beautiful deep red were sweet and again had just the right amount of saltiness for an impactful, rich, almost buttery taste. Paired with this was the chef’s original polyphenol health drink, the Viola, a lightly fermented, deliciously fragrant drink with that looks like red wine, based on the Peruvian chicha morada, made with purple corn and cinnamon (bottles available for purchase upon request).

The visually dramatic, all-black maitake mushroom frit with a crispy outside batter of French buckwheat with charcoal, was topped with black truffle and purple amaranth leaves. The earthy mushroom flavors and hot, scrumptious crunch made it a hearty and highly satisfying main dish.

There was also a simple plate of broccoli and other vegetables grilled to immaculate perfection, with a green broccoli sauce emulsified with kombu stock, which fully brings out the umami of the tasty vegetables.

Dessert was also a highlight; a "Montblanc" plate of creamy chestnut puree, topped with a huge gorgeous chestnut, with passion fruit mousse on the side. This dessert is actually the same as the regular course, with just one difference; the vegan version has crispbread instead of crispy meringue.

Even though the vegan menu at EdiTion is exceptional, if you’re not a strict vegan, you’d probably want to discover the gastronomical world of EdiTion Koji Shimomura with their regular menu first. Chef Shimomura makes the rounds every night to chat to guests at each  table, so try asking him about his vegan menu and his philosophy of food when you meet him, and think about trying the vegan course the next time. The vegan menu with nonalcoholic drink pairing is perfect for when an occasion calls for fine dining but you have an important event the following day and want to look and feel your best, or just want to try a healthy alternative to the typical fancy dinner. If you’re a foodie that thinks “vegan haute cuisine” is an oxymoron, it will surely get you to change your mind.

EdiTion Koji Shimomura

1F ROPPONGI T-CUBE

3-1-1, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Opening hours

Lunch: 12:00~15:30 (L.O. 13:30) Dinner: 18:00~23:00 (L.O. 20:30)

Lunch course 6,000 yen 〜　(vegan course from 9,000 yen)

Dinner course 15,000 yen 〜

Tel: 03-5549-4562

• External Link
• https://www.koji-shimomura.jp/

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