........................................ It's no surprise to see the top ranks of Japan's Red Guide populated by tiny sushi bars and extravagant kaiseki restaurants, but each year there are also more and more non-Japanese restaurants earning stars for their creative cooking. One of Tokyo's three-star establishments—an honor awarded to only 15 restaurants in the main cities of Europe but to 16 in Tokyo alone—is Quintessence, which serves contemporary French food created by a young Japanese chef named Shuzo Kishida.
The place, located in the tony, mostly residential district of Shirokanedai, is small, inconspicuous and unpretentious—everything that three-star restaurants in France generally aren't. The heavy black menus offer no dishes, only a short manifesto from the chef explaining that he will choose what we eat. After taking away the menu, the maître d' returns bearing two small white bowls containing goat-cheese bavarois, made from Kyoto goat's milk......
