SushiArt has added sophisticated flair to its menu with items curated by Kei Kobayashi, a Japanese chef based in Paris. Kobayashi, who trained in France and has worked under Alain Ducasse, opened his restaurant Kei in the French capital in 2011.
He earned his first Michelin star the following year.
“The challenge of reinterpreting sushi by a Japanese chef who works in the French tradition is both stimulating and a big risk, for me and for SushiArt,” says Kobayashi. “I had to detach myself from what I have always known to reinvent new recipes.”
One of those recipes is the gyu (beef) special roll (Dh40). The roll is topped with carpaccio-style beef smothered in teriyaki sauce, with interest added by peppers, carrots, avocado, rocket, fried onions, mayonnaise, chilli and lime.
“I wanted to play with colours,” says Kobayashi. “This is a very visual creation, very expressive.”
Kobayashi’s other dishes are the gravlax roll (Dh40), which is inspired by his salmon gravlax recipe at Kei; a flavoursome sweet and sour cucumber red miso salad (Dh24); and a garden maki roll (Dh25) where vegetables shine.
“My cuisine is full of vegetables,” he says. “Each vegetable is different and so there are many possibilities. I focused on this for my SushiArt creations.”
Kobayashi’s dishes have been permanently added to the menus of all SushiArt outlets in the UAE. www.sushiart.ae
sjohnson@thenational.ae