On July 2024, Junichi Moriyama, who has served as sous chef at Apicius for 11 years, will take over as the fourth chef of Apicius, a long-established grand maison in Yurakucho, Tokyo, following three generations of chefs who have spun a history of about 40 years. While inheriting the good old traditions, he will pass on the baton to a new future.

 

Founded in 1983, "Apicius" opened with the aim of becoming "Japan's best French restaurant" at a time when there were almost no restaurants serving French cuisine in Japan. The restaurant was named after the ancient Roman gourmet Apicius, and the Art Nouveau-style space retains the original appearance of the time, creating a stately atmosphere reminiscent of an adult social gathering.

Apicius's authentic French cuisine can be said to be the origin of French cuisine, which has come to be mainstream in various ways in modern times. In order to create the "best dish," the chef's uncompromising commitment to ingredients means that at a time when many ingredients, including surf clams and blackthroat seaperch, were not widely available, the chef himself took the lead and traveled all over Japan to unearth local ingredients, even going so far as to create a ranch (now closed) in order to obtain delicious game meat.