Luca
Fantin

01

You grew up in Italy and have now spent more than fifteen years in Japan. At this point, when someone asks you where home is, what do you say?

Italy is where I was born and where my roots are, but Japan became home through the life I built there. I spent more than fifteen years in Tokyo, I built an important part of my career there, my family is deeply connected to Japan, and many of the most important moments of my life happened there. So today, when someone asks me where home is, I would probably say both. Italy is my origin, but Japan is part of my life in a way that will never disappear.

02

When you first arrived in Tokyo, you were focused on bringing Italian ingredients to Japan — until discovering the quality and diversity of Japanese produce began to change your approach. Do you remember the ingredient or moment that first made you think, I can cook my Italian cuisine with what I find here?

I don't think there was just one ingredient. It was more a gradual discovery. What surprised me was how similar Japan is to Italy in the way ingredients change through the four seasons. I started finding not only extraordinary Japanese products, but also ingredients I strongly associated with Italy — artichokes, porcini around Mount Fuji, beautiful tomatoes, olive oil, basil — all grown or produced in Japan. I became so interested in this that in 2016 I made a book about Italian ingredients produced in Japan. The real challenge was understanding how to use them without losing the Italian identity of the dish. A sweet Japanese tomato with soy sauce and shiso can be delicious, but the flavour speaks a different language. The same tomato with Japanese olive oil and basil grown in Japan can still taste completely Italian. That was the important realisation for me: Italian cuisine is not only about where the ingredient comes from. It is about the taste, the balance and the way you use it.

03

I still remember the uni spaghetti I had at your restaurant in Tokyo. We genuinely left the table thinking, how is there an Italian restaurant this good in Tokyo? Looking back, I think that dish captured something very particular about your cooking. How do you preserve such a strong Italian identity while being so deeply influenced by Japan?

Japan changed the way I approach an ingredient much more than it changed the identity of the dish itself. When I first tasted Japanese uni, I fell in love with it immediately. The quality was extraordinary, and with an ingredient like that you don't need to force anything. You need to understand its character and find the simplest way to make it shine. The spaghetti was still very much connected to my Italian background, but Japan taught me to be more precise, more respectful and more restrained. I think that combination became an important part of my cooking.

04

You once shared an important lesson you learned from Heinz Beck: are you cooking for the chef, or are you cooking for the customer? Has your answer to that question changed as you have become a more established chef yourself?

I have enormous admiration for Chef Heinz Beck. He taught me many things, and this is one of the lessons I have carried with me throughout my career. For me, the guest always comes first. Creativity and personal expression are important, but a dish has to give pleasure, create emotion and make someone want to come back. That is something I still believe very strongly today.

05

You have spoken about Japan teaching you respect — for time, for the product and for the process. What Japanese habit or philosophy has become so much a part of you that you now notice its absence when you are back in Italy?

What I notice most when I come back to Italy is the contrast. Japan made me very sensitive to precision, organisation and attention to detail. Italy often feels more instinctive, less structured and sometimes more approximate. But that is also part of its beauty. There is spontaneity, emotion and an incredible sense of life. Somehow, all these imperfections come together and work. I think that contrast is one of the things I love most about Italy.

06

You have travelled extensively around Japan to meet farmers, fishermen and producers, sometimes going surprisingly far for a single ingredient. Is there one journey, producer or ingredient discovery that has stayed with you more than the others?

It is difficult for me to choose just one producer or one ingredient, because what stayed with me most was the experience of travelling through Japan itself. Meeting farmers, fishermen and producers made me understand how much knowledge and dedication there is behind each ingredient. Every place had something specific to discover, but at the same time I was struck by how much the country shares a common culture around food, people and ingredients. For me, this is quite different from Italy, where moving from one region to another can almost feel like entering another country, with completely different traditions, ingredients and ways of cooking. So more than any single discovery, what stayed with me was understanding Japan through the people who produce its food.

07

Tokyo has one of the most competitive and extraordinary restaurant cultures in the world. After more than fifteen years of eating and cooking there, does the city still surprise you?

Absolutely. For me, Tokyo is a little like being married to the woman you love — even after many years, she can still surprise you. That is what I feel about the city. You think you know it, and then suddenly you discover a tiny restaurant, a new chef, a completely different idea, or an ingredient you have never experienced in that way before. That sense of discovery never really disappears.

08

When you are not working, what does your perfect day in Tokyo look like? Where would you eat, drink, walk or disappear for a few hours?

If I had four or six hours completely to myself, I would probably spend them doing simple things. I loved going out on my bike and riding along the river, or going for a run around the Imperial Palace. Then I might stop for a coffee, get my hair cut at Hiro — always with the head massage — or, if I had a little more time, escape to an onsen just outside Tokyo. For me, a perfect day there was never about doing something extraordinary. It was about having a few hours to enjoy the city at my own pace.

09

And when you land back in Italy, what is the first thing you want to eat?

Usually, the first thing I want is my mother's cooking. And if I'm not eating at home, there is a trattoria near my house that I love, Da Procida. After so many years abroad, those are the flavours that immediately make me feel I'm back.

10

You have spent much of your career cooking Italian food thousands of kilometres away from Italy. Has living abroad actually made you more Italian?

Definitely. Living abroad made me understand much more clearly what being Italian means to me. When you are far away, you start looking at your own culture from the outside. You become more aware of the things you took for granted — the way we eat, the importance of the table, family, seasonality, simplicity, even the way we argue about food. In Japan, I probably became more conscious of my Italian identity than I ever was when I lived in Italy.

11

After everything you have experienced and achieved so far, what are you still curious about?

I'm curious about what I can still become. Cooking has given me an incredible life, but I don't want to spend the next twenty years simply repeating what I already know how to do. I want to see where all this experience can take me next — new projects, new people, new ideas, maybe even areas outside the traditional role of a chef. I think I'm still far from finished.