Leaf
That what seemed finished can hold another fragrance.
Stay for the table.
Chef Makoto Fuse, honed in the kitchens of France and Tokyo,
weaves the very time of this land into thirteen plates.
This cuisine was not born at a desk.
The thinking at the root of Né’s cuisine was not made at a desk.
What came first was what this land taught the body.
To catch a life, to dress it, to watch it become meat.
Trees bear fruit. The fruit falls and decays; branches wither, and new buds emerge.
Snow closes the land — and you learn that without preserving, one season cannot reach the next.
At that moment, cooking stopped being merely making ingredients taste good.
It became loosening what was once alive, and receiving it into the body —
giving what is about to vanish a form a person can receive, for just an instant.
To land a philosophy not in words, but in fire, ferment and salt, upon the plate.
That is the way of Né’s cuisine.
Chef — Makoto Fuse
Chef Makoto Fuse served as chef de partie under Antoine Westermann in France,
then as head chef and executive chef in Tokyo,
before moving to Shibata in 2025.
The ingredients that define the course come from Niigata —
wild vegetables, river fish, seasonal game, the gifts of the sea.
Even cuts usually discarded, and invasive species called a nuisance,
take centre stage on the plate.
For a single group each day, he finishes each dish before you,
handing over the meaning of a plate as words are exchanged.
To eat time itself.
Snow country never simply ate the season on the spot.
Niigata fermented, dried, pickled, smoked and salted its harvests,
handing them forward across time.
Preservation is a technique born of scarcity —
this land’s culture for handling time.
Fermenting, drying, aging, smoking, salting, pickling —
the snow country’s accumulated wisdom draws out each ingredient’s true power,
and gently loosens the fleeting idea of “season.”
What we trace is not the turn of the seasons, but time itself —
layering, plate by plate, the depth of time that preserving has grown.
Niigata ingredients, reimagined
The heart of the cuisine is Niigata produce, joined by sake and wine chosen from Niigata breweries and wineries.
Rather than relying on distant rarity, a new expression of flavour is built
from what this land already holds.
Seasonings drawn from wild plants; dashi built on fermented vegetable brine.
Each plate holds a discovery born of these singular techniques,
carried further still by wine and sake pairings.
The Thirteen
Thirteen plates, thirteen ways to see the world.
The theme of the course: “from ending to beginning, until an instant becomes eternity.”
A plate is not an explanation of a dish.
It is one entrance — a way to see this land and its lives from another angle.
01 / 13
- Leaf — That what seemed finished can hold another fragrance.
- Fire & Ferment — That humans put their hand to nature’s change, and turned it into culture.
- Bee — That a swarm of small lives builds an unseen order.
- Flying fish — The single instant of trying to cross a boundary.
- Sea bass — To lay, once more, the memory of the sea over a body that swam it.
- Abalone — That time, dried and sealed away, can open once again.
- Bear — That the forest’s great body crosses to the table through fire and time.
- Deer — That the heat once running is held, for just an instant, on the plate.
- Invasive species — To not erase what people brought, forgot, and called a nuisance.
- Rice — That water, soil, human hands and the season’s repetition return to the body in everyday form.
- Green tomato — That what was not chosen can hold another light.
- Milk — Something born not for itself, but to keep another life alive.
- Jam — To hold a vanishing season, just a little longer.
── What do we receive from this land,
and what do we pass on to the next season?
* The menu changes with each day’s catch and season. The above is one example of the course’s structure and themes.
Niigata-made. Every plate takes the lead.
With the sole exception of sugar, every ingredient is sourced in Niigata.
From the first plate to the lingering finish, each is given the leading role —
a once-only course that could exist nowhere else.
Through thirteen plates, one full round of the time this land has stored away.
The dining room
Nature filling the windows.
A long table of solid wood, and soft indirect light.
A quiet, immersive room for up to six —
to focus on the food, and now and then, to talk.
The meal
- Course
- Thirteen plates / theme: “from ending to beginning, until an instant becomes eternity”
- Dinner
- From 18:00 / about 3 hours
- Seating
- One group a day (stay: 2–4 guests / dining only: up to 6)
- Pairing
- Wine · Niigata sake
- Breakfast
- 8:00 next day — the morning of this land
Restaurant
Dinner alone is just as welcome.
The season and the land in a single course,
served in a dining room made for tasting Niigata.