Elezo Esprit

Gratitude is what drives the operations of the restaurant Elezo Esprit, though maybe not in the way that some might expect. Named the Destination Restaurant of the Year 2024 by The Japan Times, Elezo Esprit is the brainchild of chef Sasaki Shota, a Hokkaido native who cut his teeth on kitchens in French restaurants in Karuizawa and Tokyo. Upon returning to Hokkaido to help at his family’s cafe, he was given the opportunity to prepare and partake of the meat of a deer provided by a hunter. This experience would prove to be formative; coming to the realization that to eat is to receive life, Chef Sasaki began to imbue his cuisine with a newfound reverence for meat and life. It is this that drives Elezo Esprit, a meat-centric inn-restaurant in the remote town of Toyokoro in Hokkaido, where hunted game and reared animals from the local area take front and center stage. Elegant and modern, the restaurant seats just six guests at each service. Each course menu — inspired by Chef Sasaki’s training in French cuisine — starts with what Chef Sasaki calls the “soup of life”: a consomme made from Yezo venison. Every following dish, whether it’s a charcuterie assortment, pate en croute (pate in pastry crust) or boudin noir (blood sausage), is made either from the free-range pork and fowl raised on the grounds, or provided by local hunters, letting diners partake of meat that is so fresh it has to be tasted to be believed. A 3-hour drive east of Sapporo, Toyokoro’s rugged wilderness of rolling hills and seemingly endless expanses of flatland provides a beautiful backdrop to each meal at Elezo Esprit.