A WINCHESTER restaurateur has gone to extreme lengths to source his new head chef. 

Miff Kayum, who owns Kyoto Kitchen in Parchment Street, has flown more than seven hours and 3,500 miles to Toronto, Canada, to interview a new candidate. 

The prominent businessman has ranked his potential new star man among the 'top five per cent' of Japanese chefs in the world, and said he is willing to go to "amazing" extremes to provide the city's residents with the finest cuisine. 

Explaining his intercontinental mission in a video posted to Facebook, Mr Kayum said the situation with Covid, and Brexit has led to a lack of "high-calibre" chefs in the UK, forcing him to cast his net further afield.

"As you can see, I'm not at Kyoto Kitchen, I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight to Toronto," he said. 

"The reason I'm going to Toronto is because I'm going to interview a chef. One of the side effects of two years of lockdown and a post-Brexit scenario is that there is there is a real lack of high-calibre or specialist cuisine chefs.

"Many people in the restaurant sector have been struggling with recruitment following those last two difficult years. So, I'm going to Toronto to interview a guy we have dubbed the 'Iron Chef'.

"He is a super talent, probably in the top five per cent of Japanese chefs in the whole world, with a phenomenal background in Kaiseki cuisine."

Kyoto Kitchen opened in 2012 and specialises in sushi and sashimi dishes, including its Winchester Roll - the world’s first sushi roll to use wasabi leaf instead of seaweed.