What interest me is this strict structure of meal of Kaiseki Cuisine with small portion that keeps you hungry all the time.  I think this is the art of small eating, this emptiness allows you to taste the original flavor of the ingredient, to taste the 4 seasons.  It’s almost like buddhism’s monk’s practice, it’s a meditation and that makes you contemplate.   

     So I took this idea of emptiness from Kaiseki Cuisine as the concept for my restaurant.  I want to create a sense of emptiness that makes people want to slow down to think and enjoy the original taste of the ingredients.   I set my restaurant in New York city, I want to create a city retreat for New Yorker, I want to create an urban forest just like how zen monks always meditate in the nature.