Tomoya Kawada

Tomoya Kawada, born in 1982 in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, is the chef and owner of Sazenka in Minami-Azabu, Tokyo, which he opened in 2017 and which became Japan's first Chinese restaurant to earn three Michelin stars in 2020, retaining them since. His cuisine embodies 'wakon kansai' (Japanese spirit, Chinese talent), fusing Sichuan techniques with kaiseki precision, dashi, and gong-fu tea service. Prior to Sazenka, he trained for about 10 years at Azabu Choko (or Azabu Nagae), a Cantonese-Sichuanese restaurant, followed by five years at Nihonryori Ryugin under Seiji Yamamoto, including time as sous-chef at its Taiwan location.