Welcome to Galavante’s Chef Series, where we interview the top culinary talent around the world. On a special evening in Brooklyn, Chef Yuu Shimano of Restaurant Yuu in Greenpoint and Chef Calum Montgomery of Edinbane Lodge in the Isle of Skye came together for a collaboration. They created two cuisines we didn’ know were meant to be together, until the outcome was pure magic at Restaurant Yuu. It’s no surprise though with Restaurant Yuu’s pedigree. This is the restaurant that months after opening, was awarded a coveted Michelin star.
Note: Chef Yuu Shimano responded in Japanese throughout the interview. His answers appear here in English as relayed by the interpreter.
Christine: Welcome, everyone, to the Galavante Chef Series, where we travel for food. Today, though, you don’t have to travel very far, because we have the incredible Chef Yuu, from Brooklyn. Joining him for a special collaboration is Chef Calum, from Edinbane Lodge on the Isle of Skye. If you don’t know Skye, it is like the ends of the earth, so quite far from us here in New York. Thanks so much for joining us.
Chef Calum: Nice to meet you. Thanks so much for having us.
Christine: We’re really excited, because you’ve come together for a collaboration at Chef Yuu’s restaurant in Brooklyn. Restaurant Yuu is one of only two Michelin-starred restaurants in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. And we know how competitive that is, because all the good restaurants are opening up in Brooklyn now. So, Chef Yuu, when did you start your restaurant, and how did you get to Brooklyn?
Chef Yuu: I spent about ten years in France, where I trained and worked. I always had a dream of becoming a Michelin-starred French chef in France. But once I was there, I realized how many other Japanese chefs had already accomplished exactly that. I wanted to do something different, and my next dream, my next destination, was New York. So I came here. My goal was to become a respected, Michelin-starred chef who could bring classic French technique together with Japanese sensibilities, and open a restaurant in Brooklyn. And here I am now, living my dream.
Christine: Well, congratulations, because earning a Michelin star is a huge accolade. I heard that you serve this incredible duck pie, and that you recently served your thousandth one.
Chef Yuu: The duck pie is my signature, and it uses a lot of the classic French techniques I love to show off. But every duck is different, as any chef knows, so I have to watch carefully what kind of duck I’m working with that day, for that specific seating. There are also different layers within the duck. I use every part I possibly can, including the liver and the bones for the broth and the sauce, and I layer them all together. That makes the dish harder to perfect every evening, but that’s also the great challenge of it. In a way, it shows off my French training alongside the detail and perfectionism of Japanese technique. It’s a wonderful thing for guests to watch. It’s one of the dishes I use to show that a Japanese chef can do French cuisine at this level, with this much artistry.
Chef Calum: This wasn’t part of the collaboration, but I had the opportunity to eat at Restaurant Yuu with my family a couple of days before the event. I have to say it is one of the best dishes I’ve ever had in my life. I can see why you’ve sold a thousand of them, and it must have taken five thousand to perfect it before you got there. It was outstanding. Truly outstanding.
Christine: It sounds like a labor of love.
Chef Yuu: Thank you. That really is the greatest compliment there is.
Christine: Clearly, this is the dish to have. Chef Calum, how did you come to do this collaboration with Chef Yuu? This dream team really came tìogether.
Chef Calum: I’m so lucky, and so privileged, to be here. I just want to publicly thank Chef Yuu for hosting me. It’s been a really incredible experience. I’ve been coming to the States for years with my family. This is actually my fourth time in New York, but the first time for anything like this. My PR company were over here with another client last year, and I asked them if there might be somewhere that would host me. We have a five-star, four AA Rosette restaurant with rooms on the Isle of Skye, and more than sixty percent of our guests are American. A lot of Americans come over to the Isle of Skye to rediscover their roots. There’s a great deal of Scottish lineage that traces back there. Places like Dunvegan Castle, the seat of the MacLeods, are a draw where so many people come to trace their way back. And of course for the love of scotch, the scenery, and everything else Scotland has to offer.
So it was really my idea to come out here and sing and dance about everything that Edinbane Lodge, the Isle of Skye, and Scotland have to offer. It presented a really unique opportunity around Burns Night, the Scottish national holiday celebrating Robert Burns. Chef Yuu and I collaborated to bring together Scottish ingredients, Japanese ingredients with a Scottish twist, and French technique. It’s a really unique menu.
Christine: So how did you prepare for this collaboration?
A lot of it was done over Zoom beforehand, going back and forth on ideas, and when it all came together last night, it was wonderful. For me and my seventeen-year-old apprentice, who is here with me, it was great to see Chef Yuu’s teamwork. It’s a good challenge to be in a completely different environment. And to see our dishes made with Japanese ingredients, by a Japanese chef, using French technique, in Brooklyn, was a lifetime experience. One of the pre-desserts was inspired by an empire biscuit, which is a very Scottish thing. The dish had shortbread, strawberry jam, strawberries, with a whisky sauce. It all came together with Japanese ingredients and French technique. Incredible. I think the guests loved it last night, which was the most important thing.
Christine: So what was the favorite dish that each of you led last night? I know it’s like asking you to choose your favorite child.
Chef Yuu: One of the most memorable for me was a dish using Japanese spiny lobster, ise-ebi. There’s a traditional Japanese technique called shinjo, which is almost like making a fluffy mousse. There’s a French mousse technique as well, so we blended the two using a Japanese ingredient. Chef Calum is so used to working with his local ingredients, so I hoped it would be a nice surprise for him to use a Japanese ingredient for something he’s familiar with making.
I felt proud to be able to showcase a Japanese ingredient, and it was a lovely blend of cultures coming together. While I was making the dish, I kept hearing about all of Chef Calum’s ingredients from back home, and they sound so intriguing. I would love to get access to all of them. Listening to him talk about the seafood from the Isle of Skye, I became fascinated. And it’s now one of the places I most want to visit. I also learned a great deal from him. One of the desserts had a smoke effect, with a story behind it, and the way he builds a story and creates a dish was very inspiring. I found myself drawing on that a lot throughout the collaboration.
Christine: What a combination. It might seem counterintuitive, the Scottish and the Japanese melding together. But I remember when I was on the Isle of Skye, with the fishing industry you have in Scotland, people from Japan come in all the time just to study it. So it’s fascinating that the base of the dish was a spiny lobster, with both Japanese and French influences.
Chef Calum: My favorite dish from last night was so hard to choose as well, but Chef Yuu’s squab pigeon dish was unbelievable. It was finished tableside with a Glenrothes eighteen-year-old whisky. He came with the sauce, I came with the whisky, and we brought it together right there. It was also my first time using Japanese spiny lobster. I’m so used to native European blue lobster. From my restaurant on Skye, I can travel to the end of the road and take the lobster directly out of the water and into the restaurant. That’s how close the fishermen are to us. In fact, one of the fishermen we get our lobster from is my best friend’s father. We get crab, langoustine, lobster, and sea urchin from different boats around the island.
Christine: The seafood is so fresh, and some of the best in Scotland in the Isle of Skye.
Chef Calum: We do have exceptional seafood. But to come to New York and see a dish we usually have on the menu, on completely the other side of the world, looking the same but tasting very different because of a slightly different ingredient, was fascinating. For example I tried the spiny lobster raw yesterday. I tried it the way we prepare ours, and it was really interesting and inspiring to see such amazing-quality ingredients looked after so delicately by Chef Yuu’s team.
Coming back to the fishing industry in Scotland, so much Scottish produce is exported. I don’t know the exact figures, but for Skye itself, I think around ninety-five percent of the shellfish leaves the island. So it’s a big passion of mine to keep that five percent, the very best of Skye’s produce, on the island. We take the biggest lobsters, the biggest langoustine, the biggest scallops, and showcase what Skye has. There was a langoustine canapé served yesterday that I’m fairly sure came from the waters around Skye. I wish I could have brought a suitcase of it with me, but due to import laws, I couldn’t.
Christine: Perhaps Chef Yuu’s turn is to come to the Isle of Skye, because it’s such a special place, and one you’re so much a part of. So Brooklyn can come to Skye next time.
Chef Calum: That would be my absolute honour, to host Chef Yuu. It would be really great.
Christine: So what’s next for both of you?
Chef Calum: For me, we’re just getting ready to start the season at Edinbane Lodge. On the Isle of Skye, we’re a seasonal business. It’s very quiet on Skye through December, January, and February. So once I return, we’ll do a small refurbishment of the restaurant. Then we’ll be ready for the season to kick off. We’ll be developing new dishes and taking inspiration from here for our menu development, to give people a true taste of Skye. All of the main proteins we use at the restaurant are sourced from right around Skye and the Scottish Highlands. This experience is already making me think we could bring in some more French technique, and some Japanese ingredients, to complement new dishes when we go back. So I’m really looking forward to opening up and continuing everything we do. As I said, I’ve got a seventeen-year-old apprentice who has come over with me, and it’s very inspiring. I hope he can take a lot from this experience when we go back, and that we push on to become a better restaurant, and better chefs.
Christine: And perhaps a Michelin star will be in your future as well.
Chef Calum: That would be nice. We seem to get rumored for it every year, so we’ll see what happens. The UK guide is coming out pretty soon. But I’ve always said, if we get a Michelin star, I’ll be delighted. Though what I really want is to be recognized for what we do. I’m very proud of what we do, and very happy with it. I would love it one day. It would be great.
Christine: Congratulations. And Chef Yuu, it’s so aligned that this is the year of the fire horse in the Chinese zodiac. Now that you’re starting so quickly out of the gates, with this wonderful residency and this collaboration with Chef Calum, what’s on your wish list for 2026?
Chef Yuu: The fire horse has been on my mind. The restaurant business has been pretty difficult in New York. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day, just thinking about serving every night. But this collaboration with Chef Calum, and another event I did with Korean chefs earlier this week, reminded me how much meeting different chefs and doing collaborations inspires me. It reminded me how much I simply enjoy cooking. I love being in the kitchen. It’s so much fun. It was a reminder that I should keep enjoying this. I believe that me enjoying my cooking should lead to my guests enjoying their dinners. In a healthy environment, that in turn should lead to a better business.
I know it’s idealistic, even a little holistic. It’s something we should always dream of. I’ve learned so much from this collaboration, and I hope it inspires me to make better dishes and become a better chef. I also always think ten years ahead. In my mind, I already have my second restaurant planned, ten years from now, and I’m excited about what that will look like. I want to build a bigger team and a bigger company, with great restaurants. And of course, that third Michelin star is something I’m absolutely aiming for. In my head, I’m already aiming for three. I also hope Chef Calum’s apprentice will be back then. He’ll be twenty-seven, so next time we’ll all be able to have a drink together, and maybe he’ll be a head chef somewhere himself. That would be a dream, for us all to reunite and just keep meeting like this. That’s very much on my mind right now.
Christine: What a beautiful way to put it. You can tell that although the language of cooking really dominates your relationship. Both of you are so passionate about the ingredients, and about the craft of making people happy through food. So congratulations on the collaboration. I know that third Michelin star is right in your sights over the next ten years, as well as a whole restaurant empire for Chef Yuu at Restaurant Yuu in Greenpoint.
And Chef Calum, congratulations on really putting Edinbane Lodge on the map. Skye needed a beautiful place to stay like Edinbane Lodge, and your restaurant sounds exquisite. So congratulations on everything, and thank you both for joining us.
Chef Calum: Thank you very much. I’ll just add, on top of that, I might be back in New York, hopefully, when Scotland’s soccer team comes over. This will be the first time Scotland have qualified for the World Cup in decades, and it’s going to be right here in New York. So that’s my wish for 2026.
Christine: Amazing. Thank you so much, both of you. I hope our paths cross in person soon. So lovely to meet you.
Chef Calum: Lovely to meet you too. Thank you.
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