Does Tobi Masa serve the best omakase in London?

The chef Masayoshi Takayama is rolling a cigar beneath his fingers, squeezing it lightly, testing for firmness. He brings it to his nose and draws a heavy breath. A slight smile plays across his lips and as he breathes out, his eyes crinkle with happiness. “This one,” he says, nodding. It is a Montecristo No 2 Piramide, and he lights it carefully but quickly, turning it over in front of a blue flame. His is a practiced hand: he smokes three cigars a day, he says. Sometimes more, almost never fewer.

It is a habit he picked up from the late Brazilian bossa nova singer Sérgio Mendes. “He was an amazing foodie, with an amazing palate,” Takayama — whom everyone simply calls Masa — remembers. “But he always had to finish dinner with a cigar.” He grins: “The good old days! One day he gave me a cigar, and we smoked together, and that’s how it started. Must be 40 years ago.”