The Spanish cuisine has come to be the most creative and innovative, replacing French as the world wide benchmark. At this time, six Spanish restaurants have three stars in the Michelin Guide. This fact is just an example, more importantly, in the last 20 years many Spanish chefs have reached the global elite. We talk about people like Ferran Adrià, Juan Mari Arzak, Martin Berasategui, Pedro Subijana, Santi Santamaria, Quique Dacosta … a select group of men, in the midst of which the brilliant Carme Ruscalleda has made herself a place.

Managing the restaurant Sant Pau, located in Sant Pol de Mar (Barcelona), Carme Ruscalleda has been reaping success after success, very prestigious awards, Michelin Stars and widely sold publications. It seems that everything this woman touches turns to gold, delicious gold. After reaching the peak of her career in Spain, Carme Ruscalleda decided to explore a market as demanding and different as Japan.

On April 1st, 2004 Carme Ruscalleda and her team opened the restaurant Sant Pau in Japan, specifically in the Coredo-Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. The most fascinating thing about this adventure is that the restaurant is a full-blown replica of the Sant Pau, preserving the same external appearance and the inside atmosphere as well as Carme Ruscalleda’s gastronomic and culinary philosophy. The Tokyo Team is comprised of Rie Yasui as head of the room, and Jérôme Quilbeuf in the kitchen.

The Japanese are renowned for their spirit of sacrifice, their taste for perfection and almost divine respect for tradition. Japan’s defeat in World War II forced the country to open up to Western trends. Since then they have copied many things from abroad, albeit with the intention of improving it. The concept of imitating isn’t perceived as bad in Japan as it can be in western cultures. In Japan, if you copy something it is to improve it, and that is what is expected of this replica of Sant Pau de Carme Ruscalleda in Tokyo.

The philosophy of the Sant Pau at Tokyo  is the same as that of Barcelona. Catalan seasonal cuisine inspired by Carme Ruscalleda’s discourse. The Japanese touch is given by Japan’s fresh products merged with delicatessen like olive oil from Siurana and salt from Mallorca. Replicating the formula for success between two such different cultures could give very different results, but Carme Ruscalleda has managed to get it right. And we love it.