Chef Koga began his culinary career at the legendary restaurant Tableaux in Daikanyama in 1996, the most successful period of the restaurant’s history. After being trained as a patissier at Pastel in 2000, he moved to Restaurant J as a Sous Chef. In 2002, he was invited to become the executive chef at Breeze of Tokyo in Marunouchi, gaining several culinary awards during his tenure of 7 years. Finally, he worked for a Michelin two starred restaurant Edition Koji Shimomura in Roppongi, to fine-tune his already high level of culinary skills. And now he leads the restaurant Hortensia with both the innovative attitude of Tableaux and the classically French techniques of Edition Koji Shimomura, the rare combination of which makes him unrivalled in the culinary world of Tokyo.

Kaz Chiba started his career as a sommelier at the French restaurant Scene in Tokyo. After working for the Westin Hotel for 4 years, his passion for wine led him to a leading wine region in the world, the Napa Valley in California. Here he was trained as a sommelier at Auberge du Soleil, one of the best restaurants in California under the direction of Head Sommelier, Kris Margerum. With the specialized knowledge and experiences gained from his time in Napa Valley, he came back to Japan in 2007 to join Citabria as Head Sommelier. He created a wine list that introduced many little-known California wines that attracted a lot of people “in the know”. At Hortensia, he keeps striving to introduce his beloved American wines including what he calls "Bridge Wine."

Advanced Sommelier of The Court of Master Sommelier
Semi-Finalist of The Japan Best Sommelier Competition 2011
An instructor of Academie du Vin, a leading wine school in the world.

Chief Sommelier Kaz Chiba's American Wine Blog