Chef Tanaka embodies Toyama as culinary draw

Of the 10 establishments honored each year as Destination Restaurants, the representative Destination Restaurant of the Year has previously tended to be one with an imposing back story that involves engaging with producers or ingredients under difficult circumstances such as limited transportation or natural disaster. In contrast, Himawari Shokudo 2, the Destination Restaurant of the Year 2025, occupies a convenient location just a 10-minute walk fromzand neither runs its own farm nor pastures animals.

On learning that he had been awarded the title, owner-chef Hozumi Tanaka looked perplexed and said: “Do I really deserve it? I don’t even have the kind of deep connections with producers that other chefs do.” Actually, Tanaka communicates closely with a producer who gathers mountain vegetables and hunts wild game, and has even asked farmers to plant Italian vegetables, which are still uncommon in Toyama Prefecture.

But it is true that chefs in Toyama Prefecture have elevated their approaches to ingredients and cuisine to levels that inspire this sort of modesty in chef Tanaka. Last year, Yoshiki Tsuji, one of the judges, said of Destination Restaurants: “The point is not just to praise chefs. It’s to celebrate region-specific cuisine while honoring chefs rooted in the area.”

Actually, Toyama Prefecture is home to two of the restaurants that have been selected as Destination Restaurant of the Year over the past five years — Cuisine régionale L’évo in 2021, the year when Destination Restaurants was launched, and Himawari Shokudo 2 in 2025 — and the prefecture is solidifying its position as one of Japan’s foremost “culinary regions.” This writer has visited various dining establishments in Toyama Prefecture for both work and leisure, and heard Himawari Shokudo 2 praised as a “really great” restaurant by chefs in each location.

Tanaka has a rather unusual biography. Born in Toyama, he had long led a life unrelated to cuisine. “In my 20s I saved up money doing work in the architecture field, and then I wandered around Europe,” he said. “I was traveling on a tight budget and making my own meals. I was such a bad cook that I put an egg in the microwave and caused an explosion. At the time, I was interested in the cultures of different countries — history, architecture, art — and had no interest in food. But when I was 22, I tried bistecca (Tuscan-style steak) in a trattoria in Florence. I was astonished by its delicious flavor, and realized that food is culture, too. At the same time, I sensed that food has a kind of magic that makes people happy, and that was one reason I decided to pursue a culinary career.”

Later, following the death of his mother, Tanaka set his sights on Italy at the age of 27 in order to become a chef. “It turned out that I couldn’t work there because I didn’t speak Italian,” he said, “so I returned to Toyama. But I didn’t know where to work in Toyama, so three days later I went to Tokyo. I worked in Italian restaurants there for about 10 years. The charcoal-grilling methods I learned at Ristorante Terauchi, which was located in Nishi-Azabu, are still a foundation of my cuisine.”

On a recent day, the main dish at Himawari Shokudo 2 was charcoal-grilled roast of Owara Clean Pork, a local branded pork variety. The grilled meat was served as is, accompanied only by deep-fried taranome (angelica tree shoots). It is this very simplicity that makes the chef’s skill and sophistication stand out. In addition to fish and vegetables from Toyama Prefecture, mountain bounties such as wild vegetables and wild game meat also feature in his cuisine.

Tanaka said: “I receive a portion of the wild vegetables and deer meat obtained by Mokutaro, the brother of the restaurant’s sous-chef, Kaede Ishiguro. But at my restaurant I don’t make a particular selling point of food products from the mountains. To me, those are the signature ingredients of L’évo, which is situated really deep in the mountains of Toyama. Many tourists who visit Toyama Prefecture go around to various restaurants in the prefecture, so I try to serve ingredients and dishes that don’t duplicate the ones served at other places.”

Among the Destination Restaurants judges, the following comment was heard in regard to Tanaka, who sometimes takes a self-effacing attitude in relation to other chefs: “He’s a chef with innate talent. Let’s hope that receiving this award inspires him to recognize [his own skills] more and step into the spotlight.” On the other hand, it was only recently that he was able to relocate and acquire a larger kitchen, as well as the latest cooking equipment. “There’s more that I’m able to do now, and the range of my cooking has expanded,” said Tanaka. Indeed, Himawari Shokudo has just embarked on its “season 2” and begun a new story. That story’s culmination is yet to come.

昨年、審査員の1人である辻芳樹が「Destination Restaurants」について「地域に根ざしたシェフたちを表彰すると同時に、その地域特有の美食を称えるものだ」と語っているが、富山県は「Destination Restaurants」第1回目の2021年に『レヴォ』、そして2025年の『ひまわり食堂2』と5年で2軒も、その年を代表する1店である「The Destination Restaurant of the Year」を輩出しており、全国でも屈指の“美食の地”としての地位を確立しつつある。

富山市で生まれ、長らく料理と無縁だった田中はヨーロッパや北アフリカを放浪後、27歳で料理人を目指し、上京。炭火焼など現在の料理の基礎となる技術を磨く。富山に帰郷し、店を開いた田中は富山県産の食材を用いるが、山の食材は同じ県内の「山奥に店を構える『レヴォ』の看板食材」として、あえて売りにすることはない。

審査員たちから天性の才能があると賞賛され、「今回のアワードをきっかけに、もっと自覚をもって表に出てほしい」との声も聞かれた。移転して新たな展開を迎えた『ひまわり食堂2』の今後にますます期待が高まる。

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