Daniel Calvert Would Love It If You Were Hungry When You Visit Sézanne
During the week of this year's World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony, Daniel Calvert of Tokyo's Sézanne was at a Meet the Chefs event to discuss how dining preferences are shifting. Sézanne, of course, is one of the world's most celebrated restaurants. In 2024, it was named the Best Restaurant in Asia. And in this year's list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants, Sézanne rose from No. 15 to No. 7.
At this point in his storied career, at the helm of the three-Michelin-starred Sézanne in the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Marunouchi, Calvert knows he's already conquered the mountaintop. Like many of the chefs on the World's 50 Best Restaurants circuit, he's ready to speak candidly.
So I ask if he's really seeing dining preferences change at Sézanne or if it's still more about guests submitting to a bucket-list experience.
'Most people come to us, and they're open to what we're going to do, rather than trying to change it into their own experience,' he says. 'We don't accept dietary restrictions. We don't accept any special requests. So they kind of have to be submissive to that. I think that's the sustainable way to cook. If we start opening ourselves up to allergies and restrictions and likes and dislikes, then it's not really what we do. But I think there's a big problem with people who are overindulgent.'
Even when guests plan a trip around a bucket-list experience, they're often looking to check off many other things on other lists. (As a bang-bang instigator who has often planned multiple dinners in one night, I'm as guilty of this as anyone.)
'Especially when people come to Japan and Tokyo, they want to eat in a million different restaurants within a short period of time,' Calvert says. 'So I think they've forgotten what it's like to be hungry. Sometimes people come for lunch, but then they're going to another restaurant for dinner, so they don't want to eat too much. They just want to taste things, and I think that's not really acceptable. I think that people who are dining too much have been spoiled, and that's changing people's preferences.'
For Calvert, it's about wanting guests to have an optimal experience. And the point he's making is that this isn't just in the hands of the restaurant.
Sézanne riffs on a tarte tartin with Japanese ginger.
'If you haven't eaten a fine dining meal in a whole week and you are really ready for your meal, your excitement level is higher than someone who just had dinner wherever last night,' he says. "I think, of course, that it's down to the chef and the restaurant to provide a great experience. But I think the guests have to play their part in not over-spoiling themselves and being excited.'
Calvert understands that a lot of overindulgence is driven by FOMO-inducing social media. But obviously, lists like World's 50 Best Restaurants also create FOMO and encourage guests to stack fine-dining meals when they visit certain cities.
'There's a certain group of restaurants that everybody wants to try, but then there's so many other restaurants that don't get as much attention that are also worthy,' he says. 'I think that's a fundamental issue with the [World's 50 Best Restaurants] list itself. There shouldn't be a restaurant that's on this list for 10 years. It doesn't make any sense. I think we need to be more open to other restaurants.'
Calvert thinks about when he cooked at Hong Kong's Belon.
'We were empty most nights,' he says. 'Four covers on a Saturday. It was my first head chef job, and we were dying because we had certain people who enjoyed it but it was not commercially popular. We were very close to closing the restaurant, but then we got the 50 Best and it turned my career around. So who am I to keep staying on this list when there's other people who need this as well? Some of the restaurants who have deserved to be on the list probably closed. So it's up to you, the media, to put them on the map. like you did to me and not just keep voting for me.'
He's making some good points. It's exhilarating when you find a bucket-list meal that hasn't received the spotlight yet. And you'll enjoy it more if you're hungry when you discover it.
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