Chef Joël Watanabe is the co-owner and culinary mastermind behind the critically acclaimed eatery Kissa Tanto, which offers a menu that seamlessly blends Italian and Japanese flavours.

His restaurant has scooped up plenty of awards over the past few months, so it’s no surprise that his Vancouver peers have voted him best chef of the year and awarded Best New Restaurant to his Chinatown establishment in the Straight’s Industry Insiders survey of more than three dozen local chefs and restaurant managers.

Watanabe came up with his menu concept by drawing from his own heritage. His father is Japanese and his mother Corsican, with a portion of Italian behind that Corsican background.

“Aesthetically, I find the two cultures similar in the sense of when it comes to food,” explained Watanabe to the Straight in a phone interview. “It has simplicity, is ingredient-driven, and is very local.”

Some people may categorize Watanabe’s culinary creations at Kissa Tanto as fusion because of their marrying of two different food cultures, but he’s against using that word.

“To me, fusion is not a great word not just because it was done so terribly in the ’90s, but also because it kind of gives a sense that you are forcing two things together as opposed to commingling two things together,” said Watanabe. “When it works for us, it feels natural and comes together naturally.”

Does he see this cooking trend expanding in the city? Yes.

“The world is being so globalized, and chefs, as opposed to when I was very young, where you trained in very specific kitchens, now have more opportunity,” explained Watanabe. “More and more young cooks and chefs don’t want to be pigeonholed into cooking something that they had to learn when they were younger. They want to cook foods that come to their imagination and things that inspire them when they travel.”

If food lovers want to try some of his Japanese-Italian dishes in the near future (such as the porchetta agnolotti that Watanabe really enjoys), they will have to adjust their preferred dining schedule. That’s because reservations at this popular spot have blown up ever since it accepted a couple of high-profile restaurant awards—by “blown up”, we mean getting 500 reservations within a 24-hour time span.

But don’t dwell on having or not having dinner at 10 p.m. at Kissa Tanto, because there are several other great restaurants that industry insiders have picked for 2017. From Italian to French to Indian categories, they include long-time favourites (Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill & Enoteca, Le Crocodile, Vij’s) and new establishments (Masayoshi, Cacao, Savio Volpe) that are making a mark in the city’s food scene.

Here are Vancouver's industry insider picks for 2017: