Chef Takahiro specialises in the kappou or counter-style of Japanese cooking where the chef and the guest are in close proximity separated only by, you guessed it, a counter – and food is served piping hot from the chef’s pan onto the guest’s plate. This sort of immediacy and intimacy, where the middleman is taken out of the equation and the food maker can communicate with the food devourer as he cooks, is what appeals Chef Takahiro to kappou cooking. “I love customers,” he says with a kind smile and a twinkle in his eye. And while apart from Taste MIGF, festival goers may not get to be in direct contact with him, he promises to let his food speak for him loud and clear.