Chef Takumi Murase The countdown to the December 1 opening of The Alpina Gstaad is underway including in the luxury hotel’s three restaurants. Two Japanese chefs are already ensconced in the first European outpost of MEGU, the award-winning Japanese restaurant that will introduce a new era of dining in Gstaad. Hailing from Hokkaido, Murase studied in Kyoto under Chef Isomoto, one of Japan’s most revered master chefs. After his stage at Eizankaku Kyoto where he performed Kasiseki and specialized in cooking seafood and unusual types of fish, he spent 13 years in California holding sous chef and executive chef positions at some of Southern California’s leading Japanese restaurants. In 2003, he was chosen as one of the first chefs to open MEGU in New York and later was name Executive Chef. He subsequently returned to California to join the award-winning Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn. Earlier this year, he was tapped by the luxurious Windsor Hotel TOYA in Hokkaido, a member of Leading Hotels of the World, as Chief Chef of its banqueting department.