In 2019, I travelled between Japan and Italy’s offices more than a dozen times as well as visiting South America, Israel and other cities in Europe for countless business trips.

Last year, I couldn’t leave Milan due to overseas travel restrictions.

I am a person who acquires inspiration from traveling and communicating with people, rather than just designing on a computer, thus the current situation – the impossibility to travel – is an exceedingly difficult time for me.

In addition, the food and beverage industry – a sector I heavily work for – as you all know, has been affected hardly by the corona storm. Even high-end establishments are trying to survive the lowering of prices, adding bento boxes and side dishes to their menus, organizing take away and deliveries.

My work has been affected by these events and the projects we have worked on have been cumulatively shaping the way I look at my future work.

The project I am developing for a courageous manager – who is trying to open a new store in this difficult period – in a way summarizes what I feel is changing in my work.

The client – owner and chef of a restaurant in Kumamoto area, where I am from – is a long-time friend and studied in Italy from 19 to 26 years old. Upon completing his studies, he returned to Kumamoto and opened a full-fledged Italian restaurant that was particular about local consumption.

He recently asked me to work at the design of his relocating restaurant and, during a prep conversation about the project, shared with me his vision.

He told me that the chef of a two-star restaurant in the suburbs of Florence, where he trained when he was young, taught him that “the role of the restaurant is “to protect manufacturers and artisans”.

I had the chance to eat at that restaurant when my friend was working there.

Local produce as Chianina beef steak, Cinta Senese ham, freshly harvested vegetables, Tuscan olive oil and Chianti wine would be presented on the table as sophisticated dishes; the chef’s husband and daughter – in charge of the dining service – offered me warm hospitality.

Amazingly simple food. When I have asked my friend what Italian food was, he said “hometown”/home food.

the food of Italy is – a bit like the country – it is not ‘Italian’, but rather a cuisine that is defined by a specific environment with the ingredients of the place, it is made with what is there.’  That is ‘Italian cuisine’”

A place fostering relations. A family-owned restaurant – not easily reachable driving across the hills from Florence – that gathered customers and apprentice cooks from all over the world. My friend learned his trade there at a young age and returned to our hometown to start restaurants in collaboration with local producers.

So, my friend did, replicating there the same vision in a far land.

Our hometown of Kumamoto – located in southern Kyushu, of Japan, – is full of amazing nature represented by the active volcano- Also- one of the largest calderas in the world – and Amakusa, – a beautiful archipelago of islands.

There my friend prepares gentle, nourishing and, above all, delicious dishes, using rare native vegetables and livestock that graze naturally on such an abundant land.

Would it be exaggerated to say that one can understand the land of Kumamoto by eating there?

Every time I return to Kumamoto with my family, the chef would take us to his farm. Ripe tomatoes growing on pesticide-free plants, grass fed beefs are, of course, delicious on their own, but in his hands, they turn into even better dishes.

The young man who trained in Italy inherited his master’s vision, became one of the famous chefs in Japan, and represented the Kumamoto area at the 2015 food-themed Expo in Milano.

Living in rural areas of Japan, he is conveying local foods and their culture to various parts of Japan and the world. A globalized local concept.

The design concept of the restaurant in Kumamoto recalls the traditional Tuscan trattoria, and it is executed by using as many Kumamoto-made building materials as possible to incorporate his vision.

Kumamoto has been hit by natural disasters such as major earthquakes and typhoons in recent years.

Although the chef himself was affected by the disaster, he volunteered to prepare meals and contributed to the community.

The success of the restaurant is rooted in such interactions and the trust gained there.

It is said that the local economic activities are conditioned by the natural environment, such as climate, topography and by the culture born in the area, that brings happiness to people.

I think he has proved this with his own achievements.

Ironically, I learned design and became my own person working on the design of luxury brand stores around the world. I travelled to implement one brand making sure it would work in different countries.

This project is exactly the opposite: designing a restaurant that is steadily practicing localization as to preserve local industry and culture. Design a store that can only be found in Kumamoto and not replicated anywhere else in the world. Most of all, a project in my in my hometown, during a pandemic.

A new challenge for me: unquestionably, a sign of changing times.

Different in the way of working. Due to the epidemic of the new coronavirus, there has been little movement of people across national borders, and logistics has been paralyzed.

Consequently, I had to think about the future direction of my work.

Working on the Kumamoto restaurant project while I was in Milan, unfortunately I have not been able to see the property. Yet, it has been possible to design and interact with friends and vendors through online meetings.

Of course, I wish I could visit the site in Japan every day but had to rely on collaborators acting on my behalf. Advances on the Internet have made the world smaller than ever and made it possible to work in this way: a designer who runs a small office in Milan and a chef at a restaurant in Kumamoto can connect and create new works.

Different in the content: a local project connected and sharing a vision with a global audience.

I sense we are witnessing an increase of small, entrepreneurial projects independent from large corporations that are grounded on shared values – a sort of ‘spiritual globalism’.

I believe that if each territory were to highlight its specific uniqueness, there would be more young people like me and the chef who would want to discover it – discover an unknown world.

Perhaps, now that the tools of our works allow us to reach remote territories developing diverse ideas, it would be even more interesting to work on these projects, adapting the design according to different cultures, in different countries and support small company initiatives.