Natsuko Shoji

Chef at Été (Tokyo, Japan)

Shoji has become a dual icon as Asia's Best Female Chef 2022 in The 50 Best Restaurants, and also for her combination of fashion and gastronomy.

Her restaurant Été (Tokyo, Japan) is a symbiosis of cooking and fashion. Decorated with all manner of famous brand items (Cartier, Franck Muller etc.), its sampling menu focuses on beauty and perfectionism with a marked French influence. Initially the restaurant had been conceived as a shop specialising in tarts, but it has now branched out into a dual version of pastry and haute cuisine.

Her interest in cookery emerged in her teens, when Natsuko made cream buns as an assignment at secondary school. When she completed her studies she started work at the French restaurant Florilege in Tokyo, where chef Hiroyasu Kawate was her maestro and mentor.

In 2014, aged only 25, Natsuko Sohji embarked on her own adventure with Été, which won Asia's Best Pastry Chef Award 2020, and went on to take Asia's Best Female Chef Award 2022 in The 50 Best Restaurants.