PHOTO VIA TAGLISH COLLECTIVE

The Taglish Collective, the restaurant group behind Soseki, Perla’s Pizza, and Taglish (duh), has just announced the addition of a new chef to their growing family.

Chef Tadateru Tokudaiji, or “Chef CJ,” has been in the orbit of Taglish Collective’s owner, Chef Michael Collantes for years, since they met at Guy Savoy in Las Vegas.

“I had heard of this blonde, tattooed, heavy metal Japanese cook while at Robuchon. Even my mentor, chef Jen Carroll, mentioned working together at Le Bernadin years before we ever met.”

– CHEF MICHAEL COLLANTES

Tokudaiji has a history of working at small Michelin-level, multi-course restaurants during his career, which is built around two-year residences followed by a buffer year of traveling, and he calls himself a “culinary vagabond,” having visited over 195 countries and worked with over 100 Michelin-starred chefs and restaurants – including Laurent Gras, Daniel Boulud, and Alain Ducasse.

Tokudaiji comes to Orlando from a recent stint as the chef de cuisine for Nomad PDX in Portland, which was cut short due to the pandemic, and will be joining the kitchen at Collantes’s omakase restaurant, Soseki (Instagram | Website), which is expected to open soon at 995 W. Fairbanks Avenue [GMap] in Winter Park.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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