The bagpipe-playing Japanese chef behind Tokyo's best-known Burns Supper - complete with deep-fried Mars Bars
When Japanese chef Tomohiro Onuki was 24, he took up a job at an upscale French bistro in the heart of Paris.
The decision changed Mr Onuki’s life forever, bizarrely sewing the seed for a love of Scottish culture and paving the way for the creation of Tokyo’s best-known Burns Night Supper.
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Hide AdWhile he was living in France, Mr Onuki took a trip with colleagues to Omaha Beach in the north of the country, where the Normandy landings took place during the Second World War.
“The beach was so beautiful that it was hard to believe it was a city that had lost so many war casualties,” he remembers. “There was a cemetery on top of a hill, and a group was marching towards it. They were playing a certain instrument [the bagpipes].”
“I was instantly captivated by the melancholy sound. And then I thought, ‘I'm going to quit cooking and learn to play the bagpipes’.”
He did and ten years later, he combined the two to open his own Scottish pub in Tokyo - called the Royal Scotsman. Next week, is to host his popular annual Burns Night Supper, which has been running since 2013, complete with haggis, neeps and tatties and Burns poetry readings - as well as a bagpipe performance by Mr Onuki himself.
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Hide AdCustomers bring their own Mars bars to deep fry in the pub kitchens, in a nod to more contemporary Scottish culture.
“Many of our customers are Japanese people who are interested in Scotland,” says Mr Onuki. “These people are Japanese people who like Scotland, who have been there on vacation, and who like whisky, beer, and pubs.
“Scottish people living in Japan also come. Last year, many people brought Mars bars and wore their own kilts. We will introduce Scottish traditional events to many people in Japan.“


Mr Onuki’s celebration of Robert Burns is one of hundreds of events taking place outside of Scotland over the coming week, bringing together people with links to Scotland and fans of Burns’ work.
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Hide AdMany of the global Burns Night Suppers held are hosted by local British Council departments, embassies and consulates and university alumni groups, while others are run by Scottish culture enthusiasts.
In Riga, Latvia, the British Chamber of Commerce is hosting a black tie Burns event next Saturday, where tickets cost €1,400 for a table - and where a Latvian art historian and dance tutor is leading guests in a ceilidh.
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Meanwhile, in Dubai, where a number of high-end Burns suppers are being held at five star establishments - including the floating Queen Elizabeth 2 hotel in the former luxury cruise ship - a pub has had to put on a second event after the first quickly sold out.
Fibber Macgee’s, in the emirate’s Barsha Heights district, posted on its Instagram page: “Our Burns Night Supper on 23rd is now fully booked. However, we are throwing a Burns Night Party on the official day. Secure your table now!”
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Hide AdIn the French-speaking city of Montreal, Quebec, around 150 Scottish-Canadians gather every year to celebrate Burns’ life.
Scott Mackenzie, president of the St Andrew’s Society of Montreal, one of the longest running Scottish societies in Canada, says the annual event is a key fixture on the organisation’s calendar.
He believes the society has hosted a Burns Supper almost every year since it was founded in 1835, bar a handful of times, including during the Covid pandemic. This year’s dinner is to take place in local restaurant L’Espace du Canal, with haggis imported from neighbouring province Ontario.
Quebec’s last haggis maker, Cheryl Latimer, of Muir’s Bakery, moved her business a few years ago to the Ontario town of Maxville, named after the high number of Scottish residents with “Mac” in their surname in the 1800s and home to a popular annual Highland Games. She has to alter her recipe for the Montreal group’s Burns supper in accordance with Quebec’s stringent food laws.
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Hide AdInstead of encasing the haggis in a sheep’s stomach, she is required to wrap it in tin foil.
“We don’t have the gushing entrails as you cut into the haggis like you do in Scotland,” says Mr Mackenzie. “It’s more like a beef patty. I’m not sure exactly what she’s allowed to put into it, but it tastes really good.”
He says the event brings the local Scottish community together.
“The thing about Robert Burns is, he wasn’t perfect and he didn’t pretend to be,” he says. “It allows us to say ‘Look at this guy and what he’s done, posthumously, to bring Scots together’.
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Hide Ad“For us, Burns Night celebrates getting back to our roots of Scotland and Scottishness. It’s a fun night of camaraderie and it’s witty, it’s not all about pomp.”
He adds: “It’s also a chance for us to put on our kilts. We only have six or seven times a year that we can do that, so it’s a lot of fun for us.”


Although most of the society members are English speakers, as descendants of Scots who emigrated to Canada more than a century ago, the group has attempted to include the local Francophone culture in its Burns suppers. More than 70 per cent of Montreal residents speak French as their first language.
“We tried to do the address to the haggis in French one year and it went down very well, but it wasn’t quite the same as in the old Scots language,” says Mr Mackenzie.
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Hide AdMarcia Primus’ love of Burns began when she was studying for high school exams back in her home country of Guyana in South America, The interest led her to study at the University of Aberdeen and now, living in the US, she heads up the New York branch of the university’s alumni association with fellow graduate Alison Thain, originally from Dundee.
“At Aberdeen, I regularly attended Burns Suppers as this was a new experience for me,” Ms Primus says. “I truly adore Robert Burns.”
The group does not serve haggis, opting for a less formal canopes and drinks event over a sit-down dinner for university alumni from all over the world.
“We do not have Haggis or neeps and tatties,” she says. “However, the atmosphere is charged with high excitement and energy as we read Robert Burns’ poetry, especially Tam O'Shanter, and toast the Bard. We sincerely celebrate all things Scottish.”
Ms Thain adds: “Being together is the essence of our Burns celebrations.”
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