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Restaurant Focus is where you can discover new and upcoming restaurants to know about. This time we’re at Middle, in Kyoto, Japan.
Where is Middle?
Middle is located on the banks of the Kamogawa River close to Kyoto’s Botanical Gardens, in the old residence of the Italian ambassador, which is fitting given who the chef is…
Who’s the chef?
Kansai-born Yasuhiro Fujio was the winner of the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition 2018 and has travelled and cooked all over the world since winning the prize. Before his win, he had lived in the UK and worked in France. At the time he was working at two-Michelin-star La Cime in Osaka and returned there before moving to Kyoto in 2020 and taking a job at Kiyama. He opened Middle in October 2021, when Japan was still closed to international visitors. “I told myself, it can't get any worse than this. I thought the future was bright. It had to go upwards,” says Fujio.
Why is it called Middle?
“Middle is something that is very hard to explain in English," says Fujio. “I always bring up the example of sunset, when the sun is going down, the colour of the sky and the smell of the atmosphere changes over time. Each moment has very different colours and there's no name for that. We call something like that 'middle.'" In the words of the Michelin Guide: “The name ‘middle’ signifies an interval, a single moment in the constant changes of nature.”
What’s the vibe like?
Intimate. There are just three tables with a maximum of 16 covers in total. The dining room is on the second floor of the house, and they are open for lunch and dinner five days a week, offering just a tasting menu. Fujio says he wants diners to feel like “they're coming to their second home rather than a restaurant.”
Okay, let’s get to the food
Fujio cooks Japanese products using French techniques. "Almost everything is from Japan. I wouldn't say they're local [products], I see Japan as ‘local,’” says Fujio. At time of writing, Middle is serving pan-fried matsutake mushrooms with wild bear that's been grilled over charcoal – “They're from the same mountains, they must go well together” – with a sauce made from fermented matsutake. There’s also a chawanmushi topped with a consommé made with ayu fish (an ingredient that was central to his S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition winning dish), a play on dashi, which is traditionally made with tuna.
Why should I visit Middle?
It may give you something slightly different from Kyoto’s predominately traditional Japanese, albeit exemplary, culinary offer. "Because I spent many years abroad, I see Japanese culture how foreigners see Japanese culture,” says Fujio. “There are not so many French restaurants or foreign restaurants here. I try to cook something, for the foreign guests, that feels very Japanese but somehow familiar. And for the Japanese guests, the taste of something different with the ingredients that they're used to.”
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