Nature’s Premiere
Keiichi Hashimoto:
About the Chef
Born in 1975 in Shunan, Keiichi Hashimoto first studied design with ambitions toward architecture before turning fully toward cooking. After gaining experience in restaurants, he returned to formal training and graduated from the Abeno Tsuji French culinary college in Osaka.
From 2002 to 2012 he trained in French restaurants in Tokyo, worked as chef in Ginza, and ran an earlier le-sorcier in Komazawa before returning to Yamaguchi. After serving as chef at a local restaurant from 2012 to 2015, he opened the current le-sorcier in 2015.
Today, his cuisine brings classical French discipline into dialogue with the place he knows best. The official concept behind le-sorcier speaks of Simple Beauty, Regional Charm, Sense of Season, and the harmony between Food and Wine — principles that explain both the restraint of the plates and the emotional clarity behind them.
Spring Note
At le-sorcier, spring arrives course by course — never all at once, always with intention.
Keiichi Hashimoto · le-sorcier
About the Restaurant
le-sorcier is one of Japan’s most intimate modern French restaurants: a one-group-per-meal address in Shunan, Yamaguchi, where a maximum of six guests experience a menu shaped by the region’s ingredients, makers, and seasons.
The restaurant is inseparable from Chef-owner Keiichi Hashimoto’s background in design. JNTO notes his sensitivity to colour, texture, and negative space, and that sensibility extends beyond the plate into the room itself. Tableware by artists from Yamaguchi and the wider region is not an accessory here, but part of the way each course is read.
At le-sorcier, French technique is the language, but Yamaguchi is the subject. The result is less like a conventional restaurant dinner than a private seasonal performance, where sea, mountain, craft, and light are brought into precise alignment.
Spring Inspiration
Hashimoto’s spring menu is built as a passage from the final quiet of winter into the radiance of spring. The opening amuse does not announce the season abruptly; it stages a transition, using Valrhona chocolate and caviar, olive oil powder from Etajima, and local Yamaguchi beans to suggest the last traces of snow before the landscape begins to change.
From there, the menu opens outward into the geography of Setouchi. Spear squid, new potatoes, Setouchi lemon, trout caviar, sweetfish, blue lobster, Choshu Wagyu, and Yamaguchi strawberries all appear in a sequence that moves between sea, mountain, memory, and celebration.
Several courses are also tied to specific works by regional artists, allowing ceramics and glass to echo the season as precisely as the ingredients themselves. What makes this spring menu distinctive is its balance of beauty and structure: the layered complexity of French cuisine shaped by the landscape of Yamaguchi.
le-sorcier, Shunan, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Experience Spring at le-sorcier
Shunan · Yamaguchi Prefecture · Japan
Reserve your Table at le-sorcier
Spring Menu Gallery
A visual journey through Keiichi Hashimoto’s Spring Collection 2026 at le-sorcier.
View the Spring Menu 2026 — le-sorcier
Spring Menu 2026 · Keiichi Hashimoto · le-sorcier
Opening Bites
Winter to Spring
Valrhona chocolate and caviar tartlet with local Yamaguchi beans and olive oil powder from Etajima.
Spring Radiance
Marinated spear squid and potato fritter with trout caviar, Setouchi lemon cream, and yellow flowers.
Starter
Setouchi Landscape
Sea and mountain harvest from Setouchi, served in a large yakishime ceramic bowl by a Yu-based artisan.
Fish
Ayu Confit and Rillettes
Potage Saint-Germain and lavender cream.
Blue Lobster and Beetroot
Lightly scented with vanilla.
Main Course
Roasted Choshu Wagyu, Yamaguchi
Seasonal vegetables, Cognac and red wine sauce, red fruit mustard, black truffle aroma.
Dessert
Strawberry Vacherin with Sakura Fragrance
Mignardises
Sachertorte 2026
For Selective Partners
Nature’s Premiere remains open to a limited number of brands whose products genuinely belong inside Michelin-level spring storytelling — tableware, luxury ingredients, beverage houses, and hospitality suppliers positioned through editorial relevance rather than conventional advertising.