Tetsuya Asano wins Bocuse d'Or Asia-Pacific in Macao
Kyoto's TOKI chef beat seven rival teams in Macao to take Japan's place at January's Bocuse d'Or grand final, the competition's 40th edition in Lyon.
Tetsuya Asano, executive chef of TOKI at Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto, won the Bocuse d'Or Asia-Pacific 2026 in Macao on Monday, beating seven rival teams to take Japan's seat at January's grand final in Lyon.
Eight countries competed over five-and-a-half hours split into two timed tests. The first asked each team for a plated dish built around chicken, shrimp, bok choy and ginger. The second set a platter of lamb, finished with daikon garnishes and fermented products.
A platter with a personal touch
I am extremely happy and proud of this victory.
Judges asked competitors to work a personal note into both set briefs. Asano ran a Japanese pepper through his platter, a detail the jury flagged alongside his timing and the precision of his plating.
He competed with commis Yuto Sasaoka and coach Masataka Tsuchiya, the team that has backed him since his selection as Japan's Bocuse d'Or representative in June.
The win adds to a strong year for Japanese chefs on the awards circuit, after Ryodo Kajiwara's repeat Gault&Millau title in Luxembourg. Thailand's Chutima Srichai placed second and China's Chun Kei Wong took third. New Zealand and Malaysia rounded out the top five, all advancing toward Lyon alongside countries that already qualified through earlier continental rounds.
"I am extremely happy and proud of this victory," Asano told the room after the result, addressing his team on stage.
Macao hosted the Asia-Pacific selection for the first time, a role that draws on its 2017 UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy title. The region had run the selection as a dossier-based process for three cycles before organisers brought back a live cook-off this year, judged on taste, technique and plate presentation across both tests.
Paris training behind a Kyoto kitchen
Asano's route to Macao ran through Paris. He became the first Japanese sous chef at the Ritz Paris in 2017, then led the kitchen at the two-Michelin-starred L'Espadon before returning to Japan to open TOKI, the Hotel The Mitsui Kyoto's signature restaurant, where he now runs a menu built around Kyoto's seasonal vegetables and the city's long-standing kaiseki tradition.
The Bocuse d'Or grand final runs January 24-25, 2027, at Sirha Lyon, marking the competition's 40th edition and naming a successor to current title holder Paul Marcon. Asano now has under three months to refine the two dishes that carried him to Macao's podium.
