Panel Discussion with Young Culinary Specialists We love to hear people say“Washoku is great!” Charms of Washoku,Traditional Japanese Cuisine On November 9, 2013, Kikkoman hosted a forum at Marunouchi Hall, on the 7th floor of the Marunouchi Building in front of Tokyo Station, and invited four young, active chefs from Kyoto and Tokyo. In the forum they shared their views on the beauties of washoku (Japanese cuisine), including its relationship with the four seasons, the basics of washoku, and differences between Japanese food culture and other food cultures. Hitoshi Kakizawa Food business consultant Born in 1967. Trained at Moderator Tsuruya in Osaka. After working as executive chef at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, DC, he succeeded his father as the 2nd-generation Panelists chef and owner of a Japanese restaurant in Toranomon, in Takuji Takahashi Hisato Nakahigashi Yoshihiro Takahashi Naoyuki Yanagihara Tokyo. He also served as the Third-generation owner and Fourth-generation owner and Fifteenth-generation chef at Successor at Kinsaryu Culinary Discipline general manager at MURASAKI, chef at Kinobu, in Kyoto. chef at Miyamaso, in Kyoto. Hyotei, in Kyoto. and vice-president of Yanagihara School a restaurant operated by of Traditional Japanese Cuisine. Kikkoman at the Japan Industry Born in 1968. After graduating Born in 1969. After graduating Born in 1974. After graduating Pavilion during Expo 2010 from university, he trained in Born in 1979. After graduating Shanghai China. from high school, he studied from university, he trained in from university, he worked for a Tokyo Kitcho in Tokyo. His hotel management and service Kanazawa. He then returned to food manufacturer. Thereafter, culinary style of adopting new in France. After returning to Kyoto to work under his father, he experienced working in the theory and methods has been Japan, he trained at Tsuruko Eiichi, the 14th-generation galley of a Dutch sailing vessel widely praised. He is also a in Kanazawa. He offers a new owner and chef at Hyotei. as the only Asian crewmember. certified senior sommelier and style of tsumikusa cuisine with He carries on the practice of Currently, alongside his father, well versed in wine. Kinobu is a preparation based on freshly- traditional Japanese cuisine Kazunari, he teaches the study a ryotei (prestigious and well- harvested wild plants and based on multi-course kaiseki of Japanese cuisine and cha- established traditional Japanese seasonal vegetables. Miyamaso dinners. Hyotei has a 400-year kaiseki (meals served in formal restaurant) located in a traditional is a ryotei nestled in the rustic history, and is located near tea ceremonies) at their cooking Gion Festival neighborhood. natural setting of Hanase, Kyoto. Nanzenji Temple in Kyoto. school in Akasaka, Tokyo. The First Experience of N. YANAGIHARA: I made tai chazuke when I was an Preparing a Japanese Dish elementary school boy. Grinding sesame was my chore H. KAKIZAWA: What was the first washoku meal in the family when I was small. My mother sliced fresh you prepared? sea bream, and I ground up sesame and added soy sauce Y. TAKAHASHI: Twenty-some years ago, when I was to it. Then I dipped the sea bream slices in the sauce a university student living away from home, I made and placed them on a bowl of rice. I poured hot dashi nikujaga (Japanese meat and potato stew) for myself. It (Japanese cooking stock) I made myself over it, and was the first washoku I had ever made. I did it in my then ate it. That was the first washoku I ever made. own way, just seeing for myself how I could make it taste good. Charms of Washoku T. TAKAHASHI: My first attempt at washoku was H. KAKIZAWA: What do you think is the appeal when I graduated from of washoku? university. I was 22 years old, T. TAKAHASHI: The sound of my mother chopping and had never cooked anything ingredients on the cutting board and the smell of dashi in my life. At the Japanese stock coming from kitchen—for me, washoku is restaurant where I was training, associated with these memories from my childhood. It I prepared a meal for the kitchen was the taste, flavor and smell of washoku that held us staff. Unfortunately, I don’t all together in the family. In the culinary world in remember what I prepared. Japan, it is often said that the secret of the art is handed H. NAKAHIGASHI: The first time for me was down from the father to only one of the children in the tempura I made for my father when I was an family. I think part of the mystique of washoku is that elementary school student. Before seeing the tempura, the taste and flavor of the family can be passed down he said that it smelled good. However, the minute he from generation to generation. saw it on the plate, he said he couldn’t eat it. The Y. TAKAHASHI: We feel the season with each dish, tempura was not crispy at all. and this feature appeals to me. Washoku conveys a 6 FOOD CULTURE Panel Discussion with Young Culinary Specialists that you can perceive the season with all five senses. This is how washoku is enjoyed, and it is also a great appeal of washoku as I see it. Choosing suitable tableware and hanging scrolls is not easy. When you find that mulling How to Make Nikujaga (Meat and Potato Stew), an All-Time Favorite over these details is fun, rather Yoshihiro Takahashi —Nikujaga— than troublesome, your life will Peel, cut and soak potatoes in water. Chop carrots become much more enjoyable. into large chunks. Cut onions into wedges. Saute the beef, potatoes and carrots, and then add water until they are covered. But don’t forget to add sake. Washoku as Seen from Abroad After it starts to boil, remove the scum from the H. KAKIZAWA: Mr. Nakahigashi mentioned overseas top. Add onions and cook some more. Then add shirataki noodles (made from konjac) that have cuisine. How is washoku evaluated in other countries? been immersed in water. Season to taste with sugar, T. TAKAHASHI: Food cultures in other countries are soy sauce and mirin (sweet cooking sake). Nikujaga is a low-calorie, healthy dish, in which the flavor based on fat and sugar, while the base of washoku is of the ingredients is brought out with just a small dashi, in other words, umami. Recent trends in overseas amount of seasoning. cuisine, however, are moving toward extracting the umami of ingredients first and thereafter achieving message in every season. For instance, in May we enjoy balance as a whole. Their dishes have become lighter, chimaki (mochi rice cake wrapped in bamboo leaves with as little fat as possible. Another point I have and steamed) and kashiwa-mochi (mochi made of noticed is that the quality of fish has improved powdered non-glutinous rice, stuffed with sweet bean remarkably over the last decade. I believe these changes paste, steamed and wrapped in daimyo oak leaves). must be due to the influence of washoku. Chefs in other This is an ancient tradition, and still alive today. It countries have gained a deeper understanding that the means that we are linked to people from times past proper handling of fish after they are caught is key to through the foods of each season. I think this is one making delicious cuisine. I think that the trend is appeal of washoku. changing in the direction of limiting the use of salt, fat T. TAKAHASHI: Well, I also think of it in association and spices so that umami can be drawn out from the with the four seasons. This custom may be found only ingredients. in Kyoto, but on June 30th (halfway through the year) of N. YANAGIHARA: In 2012, I participated in the Sushi each year, Japanese sweets called minazuki, which is Master Contest in Israel as another way of saying June, are delivered to us from a jury president. To my surprise, confectioner in the neighborhood. On the following day the capital city of Tel Aviv has of July 1st, we deliver hamo-zushi (pressed conger pike more than 300 restaurants that sushi) to them in return. It’s wonderful that this practice offer sushi. It was the 3rd of season-based exchange is being done in such a biennial competition, and was natural way. the first time an Israeli chef N. YANAGIHARA: Washoku dishes can be prepared won first prize. He was only 26 by using ingredients that are all produced in Japan, with years old. He said he learned seasonings that are unique to Japanese cuisine. They how to make sushi by watching movies on YouTube, must be the most familiar foods to us. But today we and he did make really beautiful sushi. I discovered that have a wide variety of cuisines to choose from around overseas chefs have a higher level of interest in the world. The foods that make us appreciate our washoku than they did before. I keenly felt that young identity as we eat them—that is what I see as the appeal people who have a passion for washoku, and who are of washoku. eager to know more about authentic washoku, are H. NAKAHIGASHI: I also think it’s the feeling of the increasing in numbers throughout the world. season. Occasionally, I go overseas for work. In those H. NAKAHIGASHI: I have visited Hong Kong often occasions, I notice that the cuisines of other countries recently, and Japanese cuisine there is regarded as the do not evoke a sense of the seasons. They just express highest class of cuisine.