私たちについて<移>
2022年、夫婦２人で11年ほど続けてきた東京のレストランを閉め、長野に移住しました。
一番の理由は「農業をやってみたい」でした。
実のところ元々は温暖な地域への移住を考えていました。
沖縄とか九州とか瀬戸内とか、、、
でも気付けば、冷涼な気候の信州に移り住んでいました。
当然そこには素敵だけれど、時に厳しい自然環境が存在していて、
特に冬は厳しく(最近は夏も厳しいみたいだが…)、植物も作物も人間も動物も、生きて春を迎えるための
準備と努力が必要な地域でした。
そこで初めて保存食の本当の意味を知り、人が生きていくために食べることの意味を、この厳しい冬から教えてもらいました。
<縁>
最初に移り住んだ東信・佐久地方では、少量多品目の野菜農家さんのもとで野菜作りを修行させて頂きながら、長年の夢であり目標としていた「オーベルジュ開業」(宿泊施設付き農家レストラン)の準備を進めていました。
「古民家を改装してレストランを開こう」と、色々な方に頼ってみたり、空き家物件の内件を繰り返したものの、思うような物件と出会えないまま移住から３年が経過していました。
そんな時、北信の小川村で
「元公民館(更にそれ以前は児童館だった)の物件が出そう」との情報をもらい見に行くと、ひと目でその立地・環境・建物にワクワクしている自分たちが居ました。
そうして元々は「古民家(こみんか)」を探していたのが「公民館(こうみんかん)」になりました。
<食>
小川村は豊かな自然と風土に恵まれています。
中山間地のため田んぼで米が作りにくかった歴史もあるようで、郷土料理として小麦を使った「おやき」や「おぶっこ(太麺うどん)」などが発達したと聞きました。
限られた環境や、決して恵まれていると言い難い条件の中で育まれる、人間の創造力に大きな魅力を感じます。
そうして地域独自の食文化が生まれてきた事は、日本各地、世界各地の優れた郷土料理が証明しているようにも思います。
この土地、この場所でしか体験できない食の時間を提供するために、食材選び、野菜作り、調理...なるべく自然に抗わず、日々の食と向き合ってまいります。
<料理>
食材の華美さに頼らず、「食材になるべく旅させる事なく」。
もぎたて、収穫したての植物の生き生きとした香り、
野菜など作物の一番おいしい瞬間、
素材の持つ特徴や、素朴で滋味溢れる味わいを大切に。
イタリア料理や西洋料理の技法を用い、自家菜園で育てた新鮮な野菜と、地域周辺の生産者さんの食材を中心に、土地と季節を感じる料理を提供いたします。
About Us
Our Journey
In 2022, we closed the restaurant we had run together as a couple in Tokyo for about eleven years and moved to Nagano.
The main reason was simple: we wanted to try farming.
To be honest, we had originally imagined moving somewhere with a warmer climate — Okinawa, Kyushu, or perhaps the Setouchi region.
Yet somehow, we found ourselves settling in Shinshu, a region known for its cool climate.
The natural environment here is beautiful, but at times demanding. Winters in particular can be harsh, and these days, even summers seem to have their own challenges. Plants, crops, people, and animals alike must prepare and work hard to make it through the seasons and welcome spring.
It was here that we came to understand the true meaning of preserving food. The long, demanding winters taught us something fundamental about food: what it means to eat, not simply for pleasure, but to sustain life.
The People and Places That Brought Us Here
In the Saku area of eastern Nagano, where we first settled, we learned the art of vegetable growing under the guidance of local farmers who cultivated a wide variety of crops in small quantities.
At the same time, we began preparing to fulfill a long-held dream: opening an auberge, a farmhouse restaurant with accommodation.
We searched for old traditional houses to renovate into a restaurant, asking for help from many people and visiting countless vacant properties. Yet the right place never seemed to appear, and three years passed after our move to Nagano.
Then we heard that a former community center — which had once served as a children's center — might become available in Ogawa Village, in northern Nagano.
When we went to see it, we immediately felt excited by its setting, surroundings, and the building itself.
And so, our search for a kominka (an old traditional Japanese house) led us instead to a kominkan (a community center).
Sometimes, the place you are meant to find is not the one you were looking for.
Food and the Culture of This Land
Ogawa Village is blessed with rich natural surroundings and a distinctive local landscape.
As a mountainous rural area, it has historically been difficult to cultivate rice in its terraced fields and valleys. We learned that wheat-based local dishes such as oyaki (stuffed dumplings) and obukko (thick wheat noodles served in soup) developed as part of the region's food culture.
We are deeply drawn to the creativity of people who have developed distinctive ways of cooking with what was available to them, even in places where conditions were far from ideal.
The remarkable local cuisines found throughout Japan and around the world seem to tell the same story: unique food cultures emerge from the relationship between people, their land, and the resources around them.
We want to offer dining experiences that can only be found here, in this place, at this particular time of year.
From choosing ingredients and growing vegetables to preparing each dish, we strive to work with nature rather than against it, approaching our everyday work with care and respect for the food this land provides.
Our Cooking Philosophy
We believe good cooking does not need to rely on extravagant ingredients. We want our ingredients to travel as little as possible before they reach the table.
The fresh, vibrant aromas of vegetables picked straight from the garden. The moment when each crop tastes its very best. The distinctive character of each ingredient, and the simple, deeply satisfying flavors that come from it.
These are the things we value most.
Drawing on the techniques of Italian and Western cuisine, we prepare dishes centered on fresh vegetables grown in our own garden and ingredients sourced from producers in the surrounding region.
Through our cooking, we hope to share the character of this land and the changing seasons — bringing a sense of place to every meal.
