JFFEA launches First UK Restaurant Campaign with leading Michelin-starred chefs. Japan Farmed Fish Export Association launches first UK campaign for Buri and Madai.
Michelin-starred kitchens across the UK to put two of Japan’s most prized fish on their menus this winter, with a trade launch at Fishmongers’ Hall on 16 November.
The Japan Farmed Fish Export Association (JFFEA) today announced its first UK campaign, bringing premium Japanese Buri and Madai to Michelin-starred restaurants across the country from 17 November to 31 December 2026.
Participating restaurants include Behind, Chishuru, Cornus, Galvin La Chapelle, Kitchen Table, Kitchen W8 and Pied à Terre in London, and The Elephant in Torquay, with more to be announced soon. Each will create an original dish using either Buri, Japanese yellowtail, or Madai, Japanese red sea bream, and feature it on the menu for at least a week during the campaign.
The campaign opens with a press and trade launch at Fishmongers’ Hall, London Bridge, on Monday 16 November, where the participating restaurants and dishes will be showcased alongside tastings and a live cutting demonstration of both fish.
Yoshihiro Kobayashi, Director and Secretary General of the Japan Farmed Fish Export Association, said:
“Buri and Madai have been at the centre of Japanese cooking for generations, and our farmers have spent more than a century learning how to raise and harvest them well. British chefs are among the world’s most creative and exacting, and we want to show them what these fish can do in their own kitchens. We are not asking chefs to cook Japanese food. We want to see how they interpret Buri and Madai through their own style of cooking.”
Buri and Madai are among Japan’s most highly regarded fish but remain unfamiliar to many British kitchens outside Japanese cuisine.
Buri is Japanese yellowtail (Seriola quinqueradiata) at full maturity, harvested at around four years old when it measures 80cm or more and weighs 5 to 8kg, compared with the younger, smaller hamachi more commonly found on international menus. Its size, high natural fat content, and powerful swimming muscles give it a rich flavour, firm texture, and pronounced umami, making it suited as much to curing, ageing, grilling, and roasting as to sushi and sashimi.
Madai, Japanese red sea bream (Pagrus major), is known in Japan as the “King of Fish” and prized for its firm white flesh, delicate sweetness and clean flavour. Traditionally associated with celebration, it is served at weddings, New Year and other special occasions.
All fish supplied through the campaign are harvested using the traditional Japanese techniques of ikejime and shinkeinuki, in which the fish is dispatched and bled immediately at harvest, and the spinal nerve cleared. These methods minimise stress, slow the onset of rigour, and preserve texture and flavour, giving chefs a longer window to mature and work with the fish. Each fish is chilled and air-freighted to the UK within days of harvest, with the cold chain maintained throughout.
Many Japanese aquaculture businesses that farm Buri and Madai are family-run, with ties to their coastal communities and farming traditions stretching back more than a century. The fish are raised in sea pens in Japanese coastal waters, with stocking levels carefully managed and feeds and farming practices continually developed to reduce waste and limit impact on the surrounding marine environment.
The UK campaign follows JFFEA programmes in Germany, Singapore, Canada and New York. Previous international programmes have introduced chefs to Buri and Madai through tastings and demonstrations. The UK campaign will take the programme into restaurants, putting the fish directly onto Michelin-starred menus and in front of British diners.
