The chefs

Naohisa Hiwatashi · Eri Hazama

Akatcha is, first and foremost, Naohisa Hiwatashi's home. He cooks every day in the open kitchen at the back of the dining room, alongside Eri Hazama, who creates the desserts.

Naohisa Hiwatashi

Chef

Naohisa came to cooking almost by chance, through a part-time job while studying in Japan. He learnt the foundations of French cuisine at OHARA et Cie in Nishiazabu, and trained as a sommelier at the same time. Ever since, plate and glass have gone hand in hand for him.

He arrived in France without speaking the language and joined Abri, a Michelin-starred restaurant. Within two years he rose from chef de partie to executive chef, writing the menus and leading and training the brigade until the restaurant closed in early 2023. He then moved to 228 Litres for a pop-up meant to last a month. He stayed almost two years, until his cooking needed a place built around it. That place is Akatcha.

His cooking is precise, technical and full of mischief. He loves noble produce, surf-and-turf pairings, pastry work and the great classical French techniques, which he reinterprets through a Japanese eye. Umami is the common thread. His notebooks, filled with ingredients and pairings to try, never leave his side.

Eri Hazama

Pastry chef

Born in Osaka, Eri was drawn to French pâtisserie early on. After an internship in Lyon, she honed her technique in Japan, at the Ritz and then at Pierre Hermé in Tokyo, and began creating her own desserts, both for the shop and for the plate. She competed in pastry and sugar art competitions, then learnt to work chocolate from the bean at a company that grows its own cacao trees.

Back in France, she became pastry chef at Granite, a Michelin-starred Paris restaurant. At Akatcha, she wants to “create an experience that exists only at this precise moment”: desserts whose temperature, texture and aromas can only be fully enjoyed the moment they reach the table. She also appears throughout the menu, on some of the amuse-bouches and around the cheese course.

The founders

Akatcha grew out of the meeting between Naohisa and the team behind 228 Litres and La Cave Pigalle: Pierre Renauld, Louis Renauld and Robin Lenfant. Regulars at Abri, they recognised him one day at the wine shop and invited him to cook with them. Wine is their craft: Akatcha's list is built around Nao's cooking, to accompany it without ever overpowering it.

Version française