Our Story

Chef & Owner

Yuu Shimano

What defines my approach as a Japanese chef running a French restaurant in New York is a single, deliberate choice: to express French cuisine entirely through a Japanese lens.

Pursuing French cooking as a Japanese chef is a path that has not always been easy to understand in Japan. But New York is different. It is a city where diversity is not the exception but the defining culture — where expression that transcends nationality is recognized and respected on its own terms. That is precisely why my philosophy of bringing a Japanese soul to French cuisine finds its place here.

At the core of my cooking is classical French technique. But layered upon it are the things only a Japanese perspective can offer: the rhythm of Japan’s four seasons, the exceptional quality of Japanese fish and produce, and an aesthetic sensibility rooted in wabi-sabi — the beauty of restraint, impermanence, and quiet attention. Every dish carries the changing of seasons, a deep respect for ingredients, and the space to let simplicity speak.

This extends beyond the plate. Through the cuisine, the environment, and every gesture of service, Restaurant Yuu is built on a single conviction: that French cooking, expressed through a Japanese spirit, can offer something found nowhere else.