Sushi Yūgen Hosts Tokyo Sushi Star Chef Mei Kōgo for Exclusive Toronto Omakase Experience
Toronto’s fine dining scene rarely experiences a moment as extraordinary as this past October, when Sushi Yūgen hosted Chef Mei Kōgo of Tokyo’s acclaimed Sushi Meino for her first-ever Canadian appearance. Over two nights, the intimate restaurant became a bridge between Tokyo and Toronto, tradition and innovation, showcasing the evolution of Edomae sushi while honoring centuries of Japanese culinary craftsmanship.
Chef Mei Kōgo is one of Japan’s most celebrated new-generation sushi chefs. Trained under the legendary Chef Arai and awarded distinctions like the Best Chef Awards’ “Three Knives” and 2025 Tabelog Silver, she has been featured in Forbes, Vogue, Condé Nast Traveler, and the Financial Times. Her Tokyo restaurant, Sushi Meino, is notoriously difficult to book, often requiring eight to twelve months of advance reservations, and her New York pop-ups sell out within minutes. But beyond accolades, Mei represents a thoughtful evolution within Edomae sushi, a discipline traditionally steeped in structure and male-dominated hierarchies.
Her approach is defined by subtlety and precision: delicate seasoning, seasonal ingredients, and harmonious aromatics. As a certified sommelier trained in France’s Burgundy and Jura regions, Chef Mei seamlessly integrates wine pairings into her omakase experience; not as an afterthought, but as an expression of balance and artistry. The result is an Edomae sushi experience that feels both timeless and refreshingly contemporary.
At Sushi Yūgen, Chef Mei collaborated with Head Chef Kyohei Igarashi to create a 24-course omakase menu that married her Edomae sushi and tsumami selections with Igarashi’s kaiseki-inspired creations. Each course was paired with carefully selected Burgundy wines, including a pre-release vintage debuting globally in spring 2026. To ensure authenticity, Sushi Yūgen spent nearly nine hours sourcing ingredients directly from Chef Mei’s trusted suppliers in Japan (products rarely available in Canada) resulting in an unparalleled Japanese dining experience in Toronto.
The collaboration was a dialogue between tradition and innovation, Tokyo and Toronto. Every course highlighted the craftsmanship, seasonality, and restraint that define Edomae sushi, while subtly demonstrating how Japanese cuisine continues to evolve for global audiences. Chef Igarashi, with over 25 years of culinary experience in Japan and abroad, anchored the menu with a guiding question: How can sushi evolve without losing its essence?
Together, the two chefs expanded the boundaries of Japanese fine dining in Toronto, proving that tradition and creativity are not mutually exclusive.
For Kamen Sun, Sushi Yugen’s owner and a former Chartered Accountant who left a decade-long corporate career to pursue Japanese culinary arts, the collaboration carried personal significance. It reflected the power of pursuing passion with purpose and showcased the rare synergy between two women leading in a field where they are historically underrepresented. Their shared discipline, precision, and respect for craft elevated the experience beyond cuisine and into a quiet celebration of artistry, leadership, and cultural exchange.
This event at Sushi Yūgen offered a rare opportunity to witness the evolution of Edomae sushi in Toronto. It was a reminder that Japanese cuisine (especially in the form of an intimate, high-caliber omakase experience) thrives where authenticity, innovation, and meticulous craftsmanship intersect. For diners seeking a transformative sushi experience in Toronto, Chef Mei Kōgo’s collaboration with Sushi Yūgen is the benchmark for what modern Japanese fine dining can achieve.
