ミシュランで三つ星獲得の小林圭さん、フランス滞在での「変化」語る

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】日本人シェフの小林圭さん（42）が、自身の考えを語る──それはフランスに赴いたからこそ身についたものだという。（写真は仏パリのレストラン「ケイ」の日本人シェフ、小林圭さん）
　格付け本「ミシュランガイド」フランス版で、小林さんが最高位の三つ星を獲得した初の日本人シェフとなってからまだ１日もたっていないが、仏パリに構えるレストラン「ケイ」の電話は鳴りっ放しだ。
　少人数のチームスタッフが清潔な厨房（ちゅうぼう）内を忙しく動き回るなか、小林さんは熱っぽい語り口でＡＦＰのインタビューに応じた。
　「日本人は大抵、とても無口だ。だがそんなふうでは、フランスでは生き残れない」
　ここ数年、十数人の日本人シェフたちが、えり抜きのフランス高級料理界に新風を吹き込んでいるが、その多くは「柔和」を絵に描いたような人だという。おじぎをして、謙虚な感謝の言葉をたどたどしく一言二言述べてからその場を去るような人だ。
　だが、小林さんは違う。三つ星を獲得したミシュランの授賞式でも、自分がいかに気難しく、いかに多くを要求するかということを語っていた。
　金髪をジェルでまとめ、どこかエンターテイナーのような雰囲気のあるこの若きシェフは、チームスタッフに対する要求が非常に高いことを躊躇（ちゅうちょ）することなく認める。
　だが、以前はそうではなかったと述べ、フランスが自分を変えたのだと説明した。
　小林さんは、ＡＦＰの取材に「今はもっとストレートに言う。フランスの人のように、思っていることを口に出す」と語った。そして、広くはないが完璧に設計された厨房の中で大声で指示出しをしながら、「自分はとても難しい」と述べた。
　「自分と一緒に働くのはストレスだらけだ。あらゆることに目を光らせてチェックする」
　決して「親しみやすい」とは言えないフランス人シェフと比べても、「自分は気難しいだろう」と小林さんは笑顔を見せる。
■「フランスには感謝している」
　フランス人シェフを相手に、若い日本人シェフが相手の得意分野で、しかも相手のホームグラウンドで、より大きな活躍を見せているのではとのＡＦＰの質問に、小林さんは事を荒立てないよう慎重に言葉を選びながら、次のように答えた。
　「日本人を受け入れ、活動の場を提供してくれたフランスには感謝している」
　そして、日本人の料理人がフランスの伝統の中で１５０年近く訓練を受けてきたことにも触れた。
　事実、小林さんは新進フランス料理ヌーベル・キュイジーヌのパイオニア、アラン・シャペル氏のドキュメンタリーを見たことをきっかけに、父親と同じ料理の道を歩むことを決心したのだという。小林さんの父親も料理人だ。
　■「お見事と言うしかない」
　小林さんのレストランについては、料理界の最高目標である三つ星を得るのに十分な気品が備わっていないとの見方を示すフランス人美食家もいる。しかし、ミシュランガイドの「最大の敵」でさえも、ミシュランの調査員らの審査は適性だったとの考えを示している。２０１９年に三つ星から二つ星に格下げされミシュランを訴えた、いわゆる「チェダーゲート」事件で知られる著名なフランス人シェフ、マルク・ベイラ氏だ。
　ベイラ氏は小林さんについて、「お見事と言うしかない」と述べ、「小林さんのような人がここにいるのは素晴らしいことだ」と述べている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/01/31-08:42）

Chef Kei Kobayashi is speaking his mind -- something he says it took moving to France to learn.
Less than 24 hours after he became the first ever Japanese cook to win the maximum three Michelin stars in France, the phones are ringing off the hook at his Paris restaurant, Kei.
The last of the lunchtime diners are skipping out of his minimalist dining room not far from the Louvre, grinning from ear to ear.
They have just eaten a piece of history, and at 58 euros ($63) for a set lunch, a bargain into the bag.
Kobayashi is holding forth in his clinically clean kitchen as his small team scurry around him.
Japanese people are usually very quiet. But you cannot survive in France like that, he said.
The dozen or so other Japanese chefs who have been making waves in the rarefied world of French haute cuisine over the last few years are usually meekness incarnate.
They bow, say a few humble halting words of thanks, and are off.
Not Kobayashi. The first thing that the 42-year-old said after getting his third star was how difficult and demanding he was.
With his gelled bleached blond hair, there is something of the showman about the young blade who readily admits to driving his cooks ferociously hard.
But it was not always so, he insisted, claiming France has changed him.
- 'I say what I mean' -
I am direct now. Like the French, I say what I mean, he told AFP.
I am a very difficult guy, he added, as he barked out an order in his small but perfectly designed kitchen.
Working with me means lots of stress. I watch and check everything.
Compared to a French chef -- who are not renowned for being touchy-feely -- I am probably more difficult, he smiled.
But Kobayashi was careful not to ruffle feathers when AFP asked him if he and other young Japanese were beating the French at their own game and in their own back garden.
France has accepted us and given us a place, so I thank France, he said, adding that the Japanese cooks have been trained in the French tradition for nearly 150 years.
And indeed, it was watching a documentary about the nouvelle cuisine pioneer Alain Chapel that inspired Kobayashi to follow his father -- a chef specialising in traditional Japanese kaiseki cuisine -- into the kitchen.
Like his compatriot Yosuke Suga -- who topped the La Liste's ranking of the world's best restaurants this year with his tiny Tokyo table, Sugalab, and who is only a few months his senior -- Kobayashi decided to learn at the feet of his French heroes.
While some French gastronomes have implied that Kobayashi's restaurant was not quite grand enough for the culinary holy grail of three stars, even the Michelin guide's worst enemy believes its inspectors got it right.
French chef Marc Veyrat, who lost his third star last year and took Michelin to court in the notorious Cheddargate case, tipped his toque to him.
- Critics 'transported' -
I say 'Bravo!', he told AFP. It's great that people like him are coming here.
Kobayashi, who was born in Nagano, opened his Paris restaurant nine years ago with his wife Chikako after working under a series of legendary French three-star chefs including Alain Ducasse, one of his mentors.
His pastry chef Toshiya Takatsuka -- who has also been making a name for himself in France -- said he decided to move to Paris to work under Kobayashi after eating at Kei in 2013.
I could immediately feel the spirit of the chef, the concentration -- everything was so absolutely right, he told AFP.
Working with him, however, is no bed of roses, he admitted.
He puts you under the maximum pressure. He always tells the truth, he never hides things. He says what he thinks -- there is no filter, 35-year-old Takatsuka added.
But I think he is harder on himself than he is on others... He has thought everything through in the restaurant, as he keeps saying, it's a theatre.
And its star is Kobayashi's cooking, with the dining room's sparse grey interior designed to point up his startling creations like his Garden of crunchy vegetables which transported the Michelin inspectors.
When asked why there were no pictures on the walls, he replied, My cuisine provides the necessary colour.
As Kobayashi mixes the salad of up to 40 ingredients covered in a citrus mousse, in which every spoonful has a different taste, it's hard to disagree.