Growing up in Ninohe, a city in northern Japan famed for its spring water, sake and rice, and raised by parents who ran a boutique hotel, Miho Sato spent her formative years surrounded by an abundance of local produce, developing an early awareness of its origins and seasonality. ‘I wouldn’t say that growing up there influenced my relationship with food, but it influenced my relationship with ingredients and nature,’ she nods. Early memories of family dinners include okonomiyaki, a comforting savoury pancake (Miho uses her mother’s recipe for it in her current menu), but while cooking was at the core of much of her childhood, when it came time to move into the world of work Miho was instead drawn to the precision and accuracy of medicine and, in particular, orthodontics. ‘I have so much admiration for the medical industry. The treatment doctors give can be lifesaving, and maybe training as an orthodontist was as close as I could get to really helping people,’ she smiles. ‘I had a very simple childhood; I grew up in a small town surrounded by amazing seasonal ingredients at our fingertips, so it's no surprise that I became a chef, but I don’t think I knew that was my calling early on.'

While the likeness between dentistry and sushi might not be immediately obvious, over time Miho began to see more similarities between the two (both are arts which require ‘acute attention to detail’, she says) and eventually decided to make the leap. ‘I fell in love with how each nigiri takes on a different personality,’ she says, ‘as it’s created with different ingredients and techniques that all command respect in different ways.’ Training to be a sushi chef in Japan is, of course, no easy task, and in 1997 Miho became one of just a few women to graduate with a Japan National Professional Cooking Sushi Certificate. It came after a decade of intense training, covering everything from deft, delicate knife skills to a mastery of both sushi rice and fish preparation. Soon after, she was chosen for a sushi chef role at JFC Daitokai restaurant in Germany’s Cologne, a teppanyaki restaurant which brought her to Europe and put her in front of customers for the first time. It was an influential time in her life, and one which taught her a lesson she still holds dear today – train hard, learn always. ‘I was very scared at the beginning but I knew I had to master this fear,’ she smiles. ‘I remember one of my first services; I was the teppanyaki chef for a group including the President of Kikkoman, a very, very big Japanese company which also owned Daitokai JFC. I was so nervous but he said my behaviour was ‘professional’ – which is a big compliment in Japanese culture.’

Four years later, at the end of 2001, Miho made the move to London to join the (now-closed) teppanyaki spot Matsuri, quickly settling into life in the capital. ‘I have always loved walking – in so many Japanese cities people will walk around simply for pleasure,’ she smiles. ‘Chelsea and Covent Garden are such good areas for walking around and finding food to take and enjoy along the way in the fresh air. That’s what made me feel like London could be my new home.’ Stints at Sushi Hana and Oblix at the Shard followed, where Miho worked her way from chef de partie to head chef in just four years. There, she worked alongside Fabian Beaufour, who she counts among the most influential mentors of her career. ‘I was impressed by all the French, European and American dishes he created when Oblix opened,’ she says. ‘I have always respected his professionalism very much – that was my first experience of working with a French chef.’ A spell at Mayfair private members’ club Annabel’s was next, introducing Miho to an at-any-cost approach where exceptionally high-quality and rare ingredients were weaved into classic Japanese cooking.