One of the naughtier things I learned a decade ago, in London, was to whisper “carte blanche” to a chef. I had just interviewed Mikael Jonsson and hadn’t been to his Michelin-starred Hedone. So I called, emboldened glutton I was: Would Jonsson cook his heart’s desire, price no object? “Come tonight,” he replied. “Alone.”

Three trains later, having crossed from Zone 3 East to Zone 3 West, I found one empty seat and an expressionless Jonsson pulling out a barely skinned hen, its neck as long as a baby’s forearm. “Capon de Bresse,” he announced proudly. His expression shifted when he asked if I’d like black truffles with the capon, and I declined (price no longer an object). But the bird needed no accoutrements. It was glorious, the purest distillation of a prized bird: so silky that it surrendered under a fish knife.

It also added £100 to a £240 menu.

I spent the weeks after being haunted by this bird, as expensive chickens are entitled to do, and I’ve found myself chasing its likeness ever since. Lately, I’m happy to report that at @torikaze.hk, the chicken is alive and well. Poultry purists may argue that this Hong Kong outpost of Tokyo’s famed Torishiki doesn’t use the breed befitting its progenitor, but local three-yellow birds have their virtues, especially with Kishu charcoal and Ryo Matsui, Ikegawa’s protégé, at the grill. The best thing besides savoring the 11-ish skewers — plus the small plates, donabe and dessert — is watching the itamae turn skewers singed and coaxed by charcoal behind three panes of glass, under a beast of a range hood that erases any whiff of gastronomic spelunking on a Monday night, as I did in March, on the 45th floor of an office building in Central.

At times the fattiness gets out of hand, as it did with a few offal pieces. But in almost every regard, the handsome char on the oyster, gizzard, heart, and inner thigh — highlights of the gently-priced $780 HKD omakase — made me swoon, as did the juices gathering beneath blistered skins. The sweet potato and golden beetroot sing, too.

Not every expensive memory deserves a sequel, but this one did. Thank you, @theforksandspoons852 for paving the way.

📍Torikaze
🍽️ Mar ‘26 Less