LOCAL JAPAN Odawara - Hakone

Masayuki Isono, Head Chef and Owner

Not yet many people in Odawara know about the unique style of our Restaurant..
I started my career in Tokyo in a French Restaurant, although, I always had a passion for Italian food. When I was young, I used to live in Cambridge (England) for about 3 years. A friend of mine introduced me to the Italian kitchen when he cooked simple Pasta with fresh tomatoes in the dorm. At that time there were not many Italian Restaurants in Japan. I was used to eat Japanese-American style Italian food which was basically just tomato ketchup based pasta. So I was blown away by the taste of this pasta with fresh ingredients that my friend had made for me. Since then I have a passion for the Italian kitchen.
About 15 years ago, me and my wife found this building here in Odawara and ultimately fell in love with. Hence, we decided to move from Tokyo to Odawara and to start a restaurant business. I picked all the Restaurant interior by myself. Most of the furniture are English antiques or made upon special order. At first, when we started, I used to cook only Italian food. Later, I added some of the French Haute Cuisine flavor as well as of my own style to it. Therefore, our Restaurant has the unique characteristics of Italian-French food in a British atmosphere. That’s when the style of Trattoria L’Officina del Cibo was born.