I visited one of Japan's top 100 Italian restaurants, located a 20-minute walk from Keisei Sakura Station. This experience transcended the mere concept of Italian cuisine, presenting a symphony of flavors in five movements conducted by the chef. With unique multi-fermentation techniques and a respect for other culinary genres through an Italian lens, this is the pinnacle of Italian cuisine.**First Movement: Getting to Know Sugi** **Dish 0:** Prologue of the Earth Course. Though it’s just water, the ice shaped like the Earth, created using complex freezing techniques, embodies the concept. **Dish 1:** The chef's first gift - SUGI's signature, the fixed-point tomato candy. Encased in a crisp, thin sugar coating, the essence of tomato's acidity and sweetness bursts in your mouth, delivering a calculated surprise. **Dish 2:** Surprise #1 - Sawara Ham Roll. A delightful surprise not listed on the menu. Homemade ham made from low-temperature cooked Sawara, wrapped around seasonal vegetables. The concentrated umami of the fish harmonizes perfectly with the fresh acidity of the vegetables. **Dish 3:** Blessings of the Earth. A simple dish featuring honey from Japanese bees and homemade buffalo milk, yet the lingering taste of the earth's blessings is remarkable, a characteristic of Sugi's cuisine.**Second Movement: Playing with Sugi** **Dish 4:** Shin-Gun Mochi!? Visually resembling traditional Japanese Shin-Gun Mochi, this avant-garde dish subverts the concept of foie gras and toast. Foie gras is frozen into a block and served with a homemade sauce reduced with red wine and two types of mulberries. The acidity, sweetness, and saltiness are perfectly integrated, eliminating any heaviness typically associated with foie gras, achieving an extraordinary level of completion. **Dish 5:** The Charm of Chiba. The structure of this lobster tart is simply astonishing. A jelly made from the lobster's head broth, finely chopped lobster meat, and at the bottom, a hidden layer of white chocolate combined with fermented lobster miso. After chewing four times, the warmth of your mouth melts the white chocolate, enhancing the overwhelming freshness and flavor of the lobster. **Dish 6:** Exciting School Lunch. The chef recreates the texture of the "fried bread" he loved as a child using croissant dough. The butter content is minimized, and the surface is coated with black sesame, black beans, and a generous amount of cicada larva powder. Within the crispy texture lies a unique, high-protein, wild umami flavor distinct from kombu and spices. **Dish 7:** Charm. One of the most surprising dishes of the day, elevating simple cauliflower to divine status. The base is an incredibly light mousse made by whipping cauliflower with butter for three hours, incorporating air. The middle layer features cream with fermented cauliflower powder, and the top layer is a jelly made from cauliflower cooking water. The sweetness of the cauliflower expands in deep, layered complexity, challenging your perception of flavor. **Dish 8:** Surprise #2 - Seabass Ham with Caviar N25, Tomato Jelly, and Basil Oil. The elasticity of the aged seabass ham beautifully complements the saltiness of the premium N25 caviar. The clear acidity of the tomato jelly and refreshing basil oil elegantly tie the dish together. **Dish 9:** Rice. The "rice" served here, topped with two types of homemade karasumi, resets the palate as an essential intermission before the next movement.**Third Movement: Fishing with Sugi** **Dish 10:** Fermented Monkfish. The fibers of monkfish are filled with fermented high broth and deep-fried. Topped with fermented red onions and asparagus, it completely eliminates any heaviness from the oil. Despite being white fish, its texture is as juicy and resilient as top-quality scallops. A triumph of overwhelming technique. **Dish 11:** GV Bonito. Using vacuum pressure technology (GV), the excess fishy smell of bonito is removed. From the ruby-like beautiful flesh, only the pure umami of the bonito rises. When paired with fermented beets, it creates a beautifully integrated Italian dish. **Dish 12:** Surprise #3 - Seabass Wellington. Unlike the typical French Wellington that pairs red fish with a rich white sauce, the chef reconstructs this with a light Italian philosophy. By pairing a white sauce based on fermented vegetables with white fish, the acidity enhances the sauce's latent sweetness and the freshness of the fish in a bold manner, perfectly compensating for the structural flaws of French cuisine. **Dish 13:** Sugi Sushi Type-R. The sharpness of the red vinegar rice, the fatty fish, and the harmony of homemade fermented soy sauce create a punch of flavor. **Dish 14:** Ice Candy. A palate cleanser. The coldness and acidity of fermented berries beautifully cleanse the palate of the fish oils.**Fourth Movement: Sugi's Specialties** **Dish 15:** Fugu Flan. The definitive highlight of today's course. A smooth flan made from fugu broth combined with fermented cheese and eggs, topped with charcoal-grilled fugu flesh and lavishly finished with white truffle. The moment it touches your mouth, the rich collagen of the fugu, the depth of the cheese, and the wild aroma of the white truffle unite, delivering a lightning-like shock to your taste buds. **Dish 16:** Cube. An exquisitely baked square bread, made with homemade cheese and smoked olive oil, proving that even simple bread can be this delicious! **Dish 17:** High & Low Steak. Using local fillet meat, the pure specs of the ingredients are covered with insane precision. The meat's moisture is perfectly locked using Italian pickling techniques, then water-bathed to prevent temperature rise, and rapidly cooled to -2.5 degrees before being caramelized over high heat. The aroma of seven types of smoked vegetables directly adheres to the meat, elevating it to perfection with fermented tomato red wine sauce. **Dish 18:** Sugi Sushi Type-S. Italian risotto topped with grilled seabass. The top features a sauce made from fermented black truffle and seaweed, while the entire dish is drizzled with a special sauce made from fermented umeboshi, and the bottom layer consists of risotto with fermented red onions and cheese. The smoothness of the umeboshi sauce is extraordinary, transforming from sushi to risotto with each bite, and finally to a sublime texture reminiscent of rice topped with raw egg as you swallow, shaking the foundations of rice dishes. **Dish 19:** Sugi Farm on a Plate. Concentrating over 40 types of local vegetables, herbs, and the essence of fermentation onto a single plate. After the main meat and rice dishes, it perfectly prepares the stomach for the next course. **Dish 20:** Today's Pasta. Having eaten pasta at numerous renowned restaurants, this is undoubtedly the most incredible dish of my life. The ultra-high-hydration handmade noodles are boiled for an astonishing 35 minutes to achieve the ultimate chewy texture and mouthfeel. The sauce uses luxurious karasumi, combined with shiso and topped with a frothy seven-spice blend. The spiciness of the seven-spice and the saltiness of the squid roe emulsify perfectly, possessing a magical power that makes you slurp it down instantly, even after having eaten over 20 dishes.**Fifth Movement: Sugi's Sweet Time** **Dish 21:** Air Ice. Ice cream that incorporates air to the limit, feeling weightless. Paired with freshly baked mint, it disappears the moment it touches your mouth, leaving only coolness and sweetness. **Dish 22:** Wood & Strawberry. A sorbet infused with the scent of forest trees, paired with a sharp fruit-acid jelly made from wild strawberries, creating a perfect dessert to accompany the candy art. **Dish 23:** Looks Inedible but Edible. Visually resembling a real stone, yet it spreads the aroma of butter like a financier.**Post-Meal Beverage:** Espresso. Though it looks inedible, it’s surprisingly edible: souvenir soap.This experience completely shatters the traditional concept of a course meal, encapsulating respect for cuisines from around the world through fermentation techniques and Italian cuisine. It is undeniably a pinnacle of creativity, and even the potential for future iterations is endearing. Objectively speaking, it can be confidently declared as world-class, a solid yet astonishing Italian feast. It was a great meal!