Chef Yosuke Suga is no stranger to Michelin stars, having worked to earn and keep them for more than a decade as a protégé of the late, great, Joel Robuchon , once the world’s most Michelin-starred chef. But when it was time to start his own restaurant, Sugalabo, in 2015, he turned his back on the critics.

“I’ve seen a lot of the behind-the-scenes workings of Michelin,” Suga said. “Because of that, both in a good and a bad way, I gradually lost interest … More than that, I developed a strong desire not to be evaluated by others; to not work in a way that seeks validation from a guidebook.”

“We serve for the customers, but don’t make dishes for critics,” he added.

Good luck getting a table, however. Ten years after opening, Sugalabo is inaccessible to nearly everyone.

The restaurant

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