Chizuko Kimura, the sushi of love and death

How far can one sacrifice one's own life and desires for love? To what extent is it possible to forget oneself to make someone else's memory shine? Can one be happy by taking on the destiny and desires of a deceased person, who has become both a burden and a shell? We ask ourselves all these questions one spring night, wandering the empty streets of Montmartre. One o'clock in the morning is approaching. It's raining. We have just spent an hour alone with Chizuko Kimura, after tasting her cooking. We drag the moment out, afraid of going home too quickly. The conversation was strange, held in the English of lost travelers, laced with French expressions, punctuated with Japanese words. You know those confidences shared at the end of the bar at odd hours, when we know we'll never see the person again and where we say profound things while stumbling over obvious facts.

Chizuko Kimura is 55 years old. She is the only woman in the world to run a Michelin-starred sushi restaurant, an award she received last March. Her restaurant, in a quiet cobbled alleyway in the 18th arrondissement, a stone's throw from the bustling Pigalle district, is a small, wooden cocoon with a large counter where eight people curl up at each service. This wildly elegant Noah's Ark with its large bay windows is called Sushi Shunei, after her husband's first name. Five years ago, Chizuko Kimura had never made nigiri in her life, and she never will.