La Grande Maison Tokyo

La Grande Maison Tokyo is a Japanese television series that aired from October 2019 to December 2019 at the "Sunday Theater" slot on TBS Television.
The series stars Takuya Kimura as disgraced chef Natsuki Obana, who returns to Japan to start a new three-star restaurant following an allergen contamination accident with his food served to an important guest three years ago. This is Kimura's first television drama since the start of the Reiwa era in 2019. and his first on TBS since 2017's A Life My Sweetheart, which reunites him with co-star Mitsuhiro Oikawa. This is also Kimura's first drama in 12 years with Kyōka Suzuki, both previously having been cast members in The Family.
Filming began on-location at the three-star restaurant L'Ambroisie in Paris, France on August 30, 2019, marking the first time the restaurant has appeared in a scripted series.
The catchphrase on the program's official website is "Catch your own star".
On December 29, 2024, a television special episode La Grande Maison Tokyo Special, a sequel to this TV series, is scheduled to be broadcast. A special episode depict the aftermath of the restaurant following the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 30 of the same year, La Grande Maison Paris, a film set in Paris, is scheduled to be released on the Toho network as a sequel to the television special episode.
Japanese chef Natsuki Obana trained at the restaurant L'Ambroisie in Paris, France, which was awarded the highest Michelin Guide star (three stars), and opened his own restaurant Escoffille in Paris and won two stars from Michelin Guide. However, at a 2015 French-Japanese summit luncheon in Paris, the French leader collapsed from allergic shock after the food served was laced with nuts, to which he was allergic. The French bureaucrat said, "More than half of the restaurant's employees are immigrants. All employees must submit work visas because of the possibility of terrorism." The discriminatory order enraged Obana, and he beat the bureaucrat and was arrested, he lost the restaurant and all of his colleagues who worked there.
In 2018, Rinko Hayami went to L'Ambroisie for a job interview to become a chef there and be trained to be a Michelin-starred chef. She passed the interview due to her passion for cooking but failed in a cooking test. During the interview and cooking test, Rinko met Obana, a chef she had once admired. Obana decided to start his life over and tried to open a restaurant again with Rinko to become a chef at a three-star restaurant. Obana meets with his former colleagues to persuade them to join the staff of new restaurant, but they initially reject Obana because the incident has ruined their lives. After some twists and turns, the two open a restaurant, La Grande Maison Tokyo, aiming to win three stars in the Michelin Guide, but the incident three years ago casts a dark shadow over, and running the restaurant is not smooth sailing.
Director Ayuko Tsukahara said that in producing this television series, she was inspired by the movie Seven Samurai. The main character, Obana, played by Kimura, and Rinko set out to win three Michelin stars, and the necessary people gather one after another to achieve this goal. And in the end, it is not the protagonist who receives the highest honor, but the dish that is the result of everyone's efforts. She then said that Obana left because she believed that a hero who helps everyone, like the samurai, encourage everyone to fend for themselves.
In this television series, all the dishes are supervised by first-class chefs and the fact that filming began at the three-star L'Ambroisie in Paris made a big splash. Owner-chef Bernard Pacaud explained how he allowed the filming at his restaurant: I had lent a restaurant once before for filming, but I did not have a good impression of it at that time. This time, there is a Japanese chef who actually works at L'Ambroisie, and I have a Japanese chef friend who trained with me and now runs a restaurant in Tokyo (Masao Saisu, Chef of Cote d'Or in Minato, Tokyo), so I know Japanese people well, and I had met with the television series' filming staff and decided that I could trust them, so I allowed the filming of the television series. The culinary supervision for La Grande Maison Tokyo was done by Chef Shuzo Kishida of the French restaurant Quintessence in Shinagawa, Tokyo, which has actually won three Michelin stars. The cooking equipment used in the kitchen of La Grande Maison Tokyo is authentic, provided by Fujimak Corporation, which actually manufactures and sells commercial cooking equipment. Chef Thomas Frebel of the French restaurant INUA in Iidabashi, Tokyo, supervised the cooking at gaku, a rival restaurant of La Grande Maison Tokyo. Restaurant gaku was actually filmed on location at Maison Paul Bocuse, a high-end restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo. The desserts in the stories were supervised by Junji Tokunaga, chef-patissier at the InterContinental Tokyo Bay. The dessert "Mont Blanc Amafaçon," which appears in episode 4, was first conceived by Chef Kishida, and the design and presentation were arranged by Chef Tokunaga to match the setting in which the dessert was conceived by pastry chef Moe Matsui.
In addition, starring Takuya Kimura, who plays Natsuki Obana, actually cooked all the dishes in the cooking scenes. Kimura actually made 16 servings of the dish "Echube long-armed shrimp" that Obana cooked for Rinko in Paris, which was broadcast in the first episode. Kyōka Suzuki, who played Rinko Hayami, said that Kimura made everything from the very beginning of the process for the first episode, "Echube long-armed shrimp," and that they had to shoot many takes and from different angles, so they needed a lot of shrimp, but he made it all every time and it tasted delicious. The other actors playing the chef also worked hard to make their performances realistic. Yuta Tamamori, who played the role of Hirako, who worked in Paris as Obana's apprentice, said that he had not had much cooking experience before but learned how to cut vegetables and practiced by making many omelettes to give the impression that he was familiar with cooking. Onoe Kikunosuke V, who played the role of Tango, the chef of the rival restaurant gaku, is a kabuki actor. He said that his dream, other than being a kabuki actor, was to become a chef when he was a child, and that he had a fulfilling time playing this role. He said that in playing a chef, he started making breakfast at home, and his skills improved so much that his family has recently started to eat second helpings of it.
The television series was actually filmed at Embassy of France, Tokyo. The policeman who subdued Obana in the first episode was a real French policeman. On October 18, 2019, a preview was held at French ambassador's residence, where Ambassador Laurent Pic introduced Kimura, saying "I would like to introduce my friend, Takuya Kimura".
La Grande Maison Tokyo had released Blu-ray and DVD.
Special features include the making of the film, 'Gura Gura Maison Tokyo' and more.
The television series La Grande Maison Tokyo was well received by viewers and received 98 points (full score of 100 points) in the "Drama Value" survey by Confidence, a comprehensive entertainment market research magazine, tying its highest score and the highest score for a television series this season. The final episode also recorded the program's best viewer rating of 16.4%, the top rating in the same time slot and the program's best. In addition, the overall ratings (real-time ratings plus time-shift ratings) exceeded 20% for all episodes. Oricon News attributes the television series's favorable reception to the buzz surrounding the start of filming in Paris, filming at the three-star L'Ambroisie restaurant in Paris, the cooperation of the French Embassy in filming, the three-star restaurant Quintessence of Chef Shuzo Kishida in Tokyo, and the up-and-coming and talked-about restaurant INUA, which is supervising the cooking of the television series.
In February, 2025, TBS TV announced that La Grande Maison Tokyo would have a Turkish and Korean remake. In collaboration with Dass Yapim and Film monster, development of the work would begin under the leadership of producers in both countries.
"Gura Gura Maison Tokyo (Shohei Hirako's wavered feelings)" is a romantic comedy drama and spin-off drama of "Grand Maison Tokyo". It was distributed weekly on the video distribution service Paravi from midnight after the end of the main series. With Shohei Hirako as the protagonist, it depicts his growth and struggles as a chef, and his love triangle with his fiancé Miyu Ebina and his colleague Moe Matsui.
In TBS Television (Japan) and Kanto region local, a digest version was broadcast every Thursday from 24 October at 1:28am – 1:33am (late night on Wednesdays, time may vary from week to week). A digest version was available on TVer (streaming service) as an extra to the main Grand Maison Tokyo. This romantic comedy starring Tamamori had performed well, recording the highest number of views in the first month of distribution.
The script was written by Okura(オークラ), who also works as a variety show writer and broadcaster. According to Okura, he had previously mentioned that he wanted to write a comedy script, and when he was approached about this spin-off drama, it became a reality. He said it was fun to write the script while imagining what might have actually happened behind the scenes of the main drama.
In 'Gura Gura Maison Tokyo', Shohei Heiko's feelings, which were not depicted in the main episode 'Guran Maison Tokyo', and his indecisive wavering between two women, are depicted. Its final episode depicted the future several years after the final episode of the main 'Grand Maison Tokyo'.
On December 30, 2024, a film La Grande Maison Paris, which depicts their challenge in Paris, France, will be distributed by Toho as a sequel to the special episode La Grande Maison Tokyo Special scheduled to air on December 29, 2024.