Found in Translation: Miguel y Juani

Nothing is more international than food……well, apart from music, and mathematics, and sex, and lots of other stuff I suppose, but anyway, Valencian restaurant franchise, Miguel and Juani, launched by the winner of the 2014 paella contest at Sueca has translated paella into Japanese and has happily opened a restaurant in Tokyo to promote Valencian food and culture in the land of the rising sun.

The brand name has its origins in L’Alcudia, where Miguel and Juani is the restaurant and hotel that won the award, largely thanks to Valencian chef Paco Rodríguez. Along with Japanese entrepreneur and lover of Valencian cuisine Hisashi Imazato, owner of World Liquor Importers they have come up with the idea of installing a Valencian restaurant in the Tokyo shopping centre Takashimaya, located centrally in the Shinjuku neighbourhood.

Having set up the franchise restaurant, Paco left things in the able hands of local chef  Shinji Ishii, with strict instructions on how a Valencian mother would make paella and a host of other typical dishes.

Due to the extraordinary success of the first restaurant, Yokohama is the venue for the second of the same name, opened a mere four months after the first.