Le Suquet Laguiole - FRANCE

Bras - Kaï, twin-bladed knives

The encounter between Michel Bras, chef and son of a blacksmith, and Koji Endo, grandson of the founder of the company KAI, Japanese knife specialists for several generations, was inevitable, given the number of different threads that intertwined their lives.

The former adores his native Aubrac, an endless source of inspiration, but he found himself seduced by Japan where he opened a restaurant on the island of Toya. The latter was born and his mind forged in the Mino region, renowned for its great craftsmen, in the centre of Honshu, the largest island in Japan. The Aubrac plateau and the Mino plain are both inland enclaves marked by nature. Laguiole and Seki are revered for their prestigious cutlery. These two creative spirits had an intuition that together they should try to give concrete expression to their idea of perfection. Thus was born in 2004 the "Michel Bras" range, a result of their joint quest for the ideal knife, which continues to expand to this day. Elegance and effectiveness are the key watchwords; knives where the cutting edge quality of the finely polished blade cedes nothing to the sheer beauty of the design. The Kaï kitchen knives now feature alongside the Laguiole table knives in the Bras restaurant's armoury at Le Suquet.