La Biographie

French Technique with Japanese Precision in Kyoto, Japan

La Biographie, visited August 2024 at lunch. They received their first Michelin star in 2024.

Turns out we were the only patrons who showed up for lunch, so we had the chef's full attention. It was him (Masahiro Takimoto), and two apprentices. He had started learning French Cuisine in Japan before moving to Switzerland and France for a number of years before returning to Kyoto to start La Biographie 14 years ago.

He apologized for his poor English, but we suggested that his English was much better than our Japanese, so we really appreciated him being willing to explain things to us.

The restaurant is fairly small with 8-9 seats, and a minimalist design with a full show kitchen with everything in full view. The finishing of each dish was done in front of us, just like sitting in front of the chef at a sushi counter.

There's one choice for lunch, and with added drinks, the damage ended up being 38k JPY for 2 people.

The "Five Tastes", starting from the left with some charcoal encrusted wheat gluten (bitter), melon soup with spicy chorizo (sweet), mackerel on a potato blini (umami), tomato rolled in olive (sour), and soba noodles with caviar (salty).

Two fusion - smoked trout on a really compressed rice ball (like a nigiri, but much denser), and a deep fried ravoli.

One more fusion - a green pea puree jelly with cold potato foam.

The hot-cold soft boiled egg. Soft boiled egg yolk with an slightly sour cold egg white foam with maple syrup on it. I was skeptical, but a mix of textures was really interesting. This was a biggest hit of the day.

As with many other fine dining establishments, they used JL Coquet Hemisphere dishware. I commented that I'd never seen a Hemisphere magnetic egg cup when I was on their site and they said it's because they had them custom made exclusively for them.

Horsemeat tartare, with caviar, quail egg and wasabi. Another big hit, wouldn't have known it was horsemeat if he didn't tell me.

Pike Conger in a concentrated fish consommé.

Confit Ayu Sweetfish with a samosa and melon foam. The only miss of the meal. Samosa was good, fish was very bitter. Apparently, some people think Ayu taste like watermelon. I just tasted bitter.

Smoking Kyoto beef

Wouldn't be Japanese beef without a certificate of authenticity. Apparently, the chef prefers Kyoto beef over Kobe because it's less fatty and more flavourful.

The tenderloin served with tempura vegetables, a Shishito pepper and pumpkin puree. The tempura was extremely light, and some of the best I've ever had.

Not my favourite cut, but delicious nonetheless. Like he said, not as fatty as Kobe, but still rich and full of flavour.

A risotto with puffed rice, green onion, and matcha powder. Interesting.

Fermented rice ice cream, on beet and plum sauce, with honey drizzled on top. The fermented rice was a bit tangy, so tasted a bit like frozen yoghurt. Big hit.

Wheat gluten Taiyaki with red bean paste inside with white chocolate ice cream on top of fruit. The wheat gluten Taiyaki didn't work well for me - just the normal one looks a lot better, more like a fish and less like a blob. Tasted pretty good, but real stand out was the white chocolate ice cream.

Tea, a grape and some watermelon. In Japanese fashion, at the peak of season with juicy sweetness.

Petits Four

One of the apprentices - I assume he was watching water boil.

Overall, extremely well-executed. French techniques with Japanese ingredients and precision. I would like to return for dinner someday. It reminds me a lot of Ta Vie in Hong Kong, which is another French/Japanese fusion.