My Favorite Japan：Keisuke Matsushima｜私の好きな日本：松嶋啓介 No.3

Why did you open Sushi restaurant in Nice?

Why did I open the Sushi restaurant in Nice? Because I live in Nice for a long time

Every morning, I often go to marché

All over.

For example, it could be marché in Nice,

Or I go to marché near Italy

Sometimes I receive calls directly from fish mongers or fishermen

In the morning, I encounter with good ingredients by walking around

There, I had a good idea

When I meet great fish

When I meet great shrimps and clams

Why it should be always French or Mediterranean cuisines

My origin, I mean my family was doing Sushi restaurant

About French cuisine and Sushi of Kyushu

Our Sushi style is from southern part of Japan,

That is Sushi of Kyushu

Let us imagine food from southern France

That is Mediterranean food and use lot of herbs

Lots of basil, thyme, laurel, and rosemary

Of course, they use lots of spices

Such as cumin, curry, and hot pepper

That gives accent to your taste

Kyushu is also hot area, same as southern France

Same raw materials from southern France could be found in Kyushu

Because summer in Kyushu is hot like southern France

We need to intake herbs and spices to release the heat out from the body

That is most important thing

Herbs and spices make people healthy

What do you want to tell Nice?

As a chef, I focused on French and Nice cuisines

That is why lots of Japanese visited France

Cuisines have more value than just serving food on plates

In some cases, food can be the opportunity to travel

That is what I learned in France

But now, I want to do something opposite

Together with Sushi chef who is my friend

With our Sushi

I want French people who come to our restaurants enjoy and be inspired

In that way,I want them to end up feeling, “I want to visit Japan” “I want to go to Kyushu”

Our goal is not money

Our goal is to make our customers visit Kyushu

Because we are the ambassadors of Kyushu

We have something to tell customers in Nice through Sushi

I learned a lot from Nice and Mediterranean

Therefore, it is our time now

To tell new culture to Nice, that is what we are planning to do