Japanese Chef Kei Kobayashi, the first to win 3 Michelin stars

Kei Kobayashi became the first Japanese chef ever to win the maximum three Michelin stars in France.

Kei Kobayashi became the biggest winner on a night when Japanese chef triumphed in the backyard of French haute cuisine.

Kazuyuki Tanaka won two stars for Racine, his restaurant in the northeastern city of Reims.

While, Yasunari Okazaki for his sushi and crossover cuisine at L´Abysee au Pavillon Ledoyen in Paris.

Kobayashi said Japanese cooks have earned their place at the top table of French cuisine.

Kei Kobayashi, a striking figure with bleached blond hair.

“There are lots of Japanese chefs now in France and you have accepted us and given us a place,” he said as picked up the highest distinction in French cooking.

“Thank you, France,” he added.

Kobayashi admitted that his perfectionism can make him a “difficult person” to work with.

“I am quite hard. I ask a lot of my team, and then I ask a lot more,” he joked.

A dozen top Japanese cooks in France had shaken up the elite ranks of the Michelin in recent years.

It led by two-star chefs Takao Takano in Lyon and Masafumi Hamano at the Au 14 Fevrier near Macon.

Last year, Keigo Kimura at the Asperule in Dijon and Takafumi Kikuchi at La Sommeliere in Lyon won their first stars for helping to re-define and re-invent French cuisine.

Kobayashi opened his restaurant, Kei, in centre of the French capital nine years ago.

He wowed diners with such dishes as sea bass cooked on its scales and smoked salmon with roquette mousse and a tomato vinaigrette with lemon emulsion.

Critics hailed the precision of his cooking and the way he made relatively simple dishes like gnocchi, truffle, bellota ham and parmesan cheese extraordinary.

However, the famous red guide described him as a “virtuoso of flavours”.

Moreover, he termed his cooking as both “delicate and memorable”.