2025year11month

On November 10, 2025, Toru Okuda, proprietor of Ginza Okuda, received the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Master Craftsman Award” as a Japanese cuisine chef.

This program aims to provide a goal for artisans active in the skilled trades and young people aspiring to enter the field, to secure and nurture outstanding future skilled workers, and to pass on excellent skills to the next generation. Having received this honorable award, Toru Okuda and the team determined to continue striving to pass on the culture of Japanese cuisine to the future.

We express my heartfelt gratitude to all our long-supporting customers, producers, and related businesses.

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【A Japanese Cuisine Chef Pursuing the Evolution of Technique, Connecting to the World and the Future】(From the award introduction for “Master Craftsman”)

Over many years, he has refined traditional Japanese culinary techniques while building his own unique cooking methods, unconstrained by conventional ideas. Notably, he has established original grilling techniques for salt-grilled sweetfish and charcoal-grilled large eel, achieving a truly unique taste expression. Furthermore, in Paris, he popularized the “katsujime” (live-slaughtered) technique, significantly influencing local chefs. Domestically, he has worked to promote Japanese cuisine in school lunches and is dedicated to preserving the culture centered around dashi broth. In recent years, serving as an educational advisor at the Tokyo Sushi and Japanese Cuisine Culinary School, he focuses his efforts on mentoring the next generation, contributing to the inheritance of Japanese culinary techniques and spirit.

【Changing “Something” to Create New Japanese Cuisine】(Comment by Toru Okuda)

Upon turning 50, I imposed many self-imposed restrictions: “Never serve the same menu twice,” “Never use familiar tableware,” and so on. I believed that new “something” could only emerge from within these constraints. The challenge proved far more arduous and demanding than I had imagined. Yet, witnessing the joy and surprise on diners’ faces through the refined dishes I created transformed that hardship into tangible reward. It is within the daily repetition of cooking that room for development exists; new possibilities open up through repeated ingenuity and challenge. My mission is to bring happiness to people through cooking and to pass on the culture of Japanese cuisine to the future. I want to continue being a chef who embraces change, keeps challenging myself, and pioneers new frontiers in Japanese cuisine.