What It Takes For Chefs To Rise To The Top!

Akane Eno is the chef-owner of Ichigo Ichie and the only Japanese female to helm a fine-dining kappo restaurant in Singapore. She reveals what it takes for chefs like her to rise to the top.

- Priyanka Elhence

Art has always been a passion of chef Akane Eno who was born and raised in Tokyo. Her family would celebrate special occasions at French restaurants and Western steakhouses where she often wondered how her favourite dishes were created as she dined. With a natural interest in painting and culture, Eno considered cooking a form of art, and although she pursued art history at university, the then 21-year-old ultimately chose a culinary career.

Eno embarked on an intense one-year programme at the renowned Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka, one of the top cooking schools in Japan. After graduation in 2001, she underwent a one-year apprenticeship at a kappo restaurant in Tokyo. It was here that she met her mentor, masterchef Masaru Furusawa and under whom she trained for over eight years in the art of kappo (meaning “to cut and cook” in Japanese). While it was conventional for junior staff to be assigned minor, often tedious tasks such as mise en place, Furusawa allowed Eno to stand beside him at the counter to watch and learn.

In 2017, Eno joined Sushi Kimura in Singapore as head chef and was part of the team which achieved one Michelin star in 2018 and 2019. Working under sushi master Tomoo Kimura, she honed her understanding of fish as an ingredient, that while sushi chefs trimmed a whole fish into different parts for sushi and sashimi, kappo chefs viewed the fish as a source of inspiration and the starting point for a variety of dishes.

Her insights from working with two experts in their fields led Eno to develop her own refreshing style of omakase.