Born in 1982 in China, in the Zhejiang region of China, he spent his childhood in Correggio, in the Italian region of Emilia. At 18 he moved to Milan and started to work, alongside his father Xue Zhen, in the restaurant Acquario. Deep down he started to develop an almost religious admiration for Japanese cuisine and its traditional cult for high-quality ingredients. In 2007, at the age of 24, Claudio opened IYO, innovative sushi and contemporary Japanese haute cuisine restaurant, awarded with a Star in MICHELIN Guide 2023. But the dream wasn’t over yet, in 2019 in the heart of the Porta Nuova area he opened the traditional sushi counter IYO Omakase and the boundless cuisine restaurant AALTO awarded with a Star in MICHELIN Guide 2023. Most of all, three concepts drive him: commitment, passion and determination.
Masashi was born in Tokyo in 1976 and began working from an early age in restaurants in the Yamanashi Prefecture. During the day as a kitchen boy he spied on the skilful work of the sushi masters; and in the evening he would replicate the same movements with the fish he had bought at the market. In 2001 he moved to Milan where he worked at the sushi counters of some of the finest examples of Japanese cuisine in Italy. In 2018, he became part of Claudio Liu’s team. A tireless workaholic, he never loses sight of his objective: to prepare the finest specialties where taste goes beyond beauty. Sushi chef of Edomae-zushi tradition, the oldest and strictest school, today he is the sushi master at IYO Omakase.
Born in Aosta in 1984, Nathalie moved to Milan to study Communication at IULM, University of Languages and Communication. After graduating, she chose to apply her newly-gained knowledge to the spheres of Food & Travel as well as Cultural Heritage. In 2018 she met Claudio Liu who radically threw her into fine dining. She was immediately intrigued by this world and applied her usual enthusiastic and curious approach to this new role. Since 2019, she has overseen and coordinated all communication activities of IYO, AALTO and IYO Omakase. Meticulous and well organized, she never lets go until the results have been reached.
