This past weekend we were lucky enough to join Shiseido at their Japanese Beauty Pop-Up Gallery in Soho celebrating the launch of the new Shiseido Makeup Collection, which of course coincided with New York Fashion Week.

Wednesday evening kicked off the week with an invite-only event with a number of celebrities and key figures in the beauty industry, including Jamie Chung of FOX’s The Gifted, Sonoya Mizuno of Crazy Rich Asians, celebrity make-up artists Patrick Ta and Kelvin Dumé, LGBTQ activist and drag kid Desmond Napoles, and Shiseido Global Artistic Director James Boehmer. From Thursday through Sunday, the gallery was open to the public where guests could wander the gallery, take artsy #selfies, and test the new  Shiseido product first-hand.

For an even more intimate experience, Shiseido also hosted an Tokyo Underground Lounge Food Experience, a four-course tasting table with limited reservations. We were lucky enough to be invited to one of the exclusive tasting experience where chef and restaurateur Jeremy Fall prepared a special Japanese-infused menu. 

Each course took inspiration from the four textures of the new Shiseido Makeup collection – Gels, Inks, Powders, Dews – using exceptional ingredients with masterful presentation.

Chef Jeremy Fall is known as the first culinary talent to sign to Jay Z’s Roc Nation entertainment company. He is culinary star in Los Angeles and the creator and chef of Nighthawk: Breakfast Bar, Tinfoil, and Easy’s, known to many foodies for his creative and elevated takes on classic American dishes. 

The first course, “Dew”, was a raw oyster dressed up with a cucumber-finger lime mignonette, crispy and raw garlic, golden togarashi, Bloody Mary soy sauce, and toasted sesame. The second course, “Powder”, was a plate of beautifully twirled soba noodles with black garlic ponzu sauce, yuzu posho-pickled daikon and carrots, crispy garlic, nori, furikake powder, and an amazing wasabi ranch sauce. I must admit that I generally don’t love too much wasabi, but the combination with the ranch provided just the right amount of kick to the creaminess.

Fall used squid ink in sushi rice to inspire the third “Ink” course topped with cherry tomatoes and homemade chili and lime corn nuts, plated with red snapper sprinkled with a bit of pink peppercorn, and sides of charred broccolini and avocado. A very colorful and beatiful dish packed with flavor.

The fourth and final dish was “Gel” which was a combination of dessert and breakfast. Small boba balls mixed with lychee in Fruit Loops cereal milk, and hint of bourbon for the adult in us. We paired all of the courses with a glass of Suntory Toki Whisky.

On our way out we saw IG food influencer BrunchBoys check in and I silently fangirled to myself in the corner and wished that he was part of my seating. We did luck out though as we were able to enjoy one-on-one conversation with Chef Fall, who told us about his restaurants in LA and a few new ventures in the works in Detroit and Birmingham, Alabama. We can’t wait to see what he develops in the future.