Ichi-go ichi-e

一期一会

"One time, one meeting" is a Japanese four-character idiom that describes a cultural concept of treasuring meetings with people. The term is often translated as "for this time only," "never again," or "one chance in a lifetime." The term reminds people to cherish any gathering that they may take part in, citing the fact that many meetings in life are not repeated. Even when the same group of people can get together again, a particular gathering will never be replicated, and thus, each moment is always once-in-a-lifetime. The concept is most commonly associated with Japanese tea ceremonies, especially tea masters Sen no Rikyu.

Chef Profile

Hideaki Taneda

Friends and family of Chef Taneda knows that his life doesn't consist of many hobbies and passion, but when it comes to traditional Japanese cooking, he becomes an absolute nerd. 

Chef Taneda grew up in the Miyazaki Prefecture in Japan, close to the ocean, and graduated from a local culinary vocational school and started his career in Tokyo in the midst of the Japanese economic miracle.

His first two years of training contained many hardship. His main jobs were chores, such as dishwashing, or cleaning. “The way I learned about the ways of Japanese cooking was by observing the chefs of the restaurant. Still to this day, I firmly believe that the most efficient way in learning a new skill is by visual acknowledgement." 

Seven years later, Chef Taneda moved up the ranks to work at the City Club of Tokyo in Akasaka, where he studied the traditional technique of Sushi Kaiseki. At City Club of Tokyo, guests from all over the world were frequent guests, which was the moment of realization for him in the potential of spreading Sushi and Kaiseki culture around the world.  

He later worked on a world cruise ship as an executive chef, and eventually settled in Seattle with his wife and two children, becoming a head chef at a local Sushi Restaurant.

In the spring of 2019, Taneda purchased a small restaurant on Capitol Hill in Seattle. It was renovated to the style of a Classical Japanese Sushi Kaiseki bar to the best of his abilities.