12th April 2013
Winter 2009 - East West fusion
Interest in Japan’s food and healthy lifestyle continues to grow in the UK therefore visiting Tokyo, a city that never sleeps, was a trip of a lifetime for both chefs and Stockpot
Chefs’ thirst for knowledge means they are willing to travel far and wide to pick up tips and trends to lift menus back home. So when an offer from Asian food specialist Oriental Merchant’s UK director Hannah Yiu came up to visit Japan to look at ingredients, restaurants and culinary skills, a group of chefs from colleges and universities jumped at the chance.
Without doubt there is a growing appeal for Japanese cuisine. It’s stylish, in the main simple to do, and consumers’ perception is that it’s healthy. Food may not be cheap in Japan but the way it’s bought and served is illuminating. Finely sliced meat and fish served with interesting pickles and salads make meals more cost effective, and transferring this concept to the UK especially during our credit crunch is possible, particularly when chefs are trying to keep costs down.
Think of Japanese food and sushi and noodles usually spring to mind. Yet the group visiting Tokyo in September didn’t expect to see amazing examples of pizza and tapas. Just how much the Japanese had mastered the art of pizzas and pasta, making them as good if not better than the Italians, was interesting to see. Hitoshi Tanaka, president of the Central Trading Co, and his manager Akiko Inagaki took the chefs to a Japanese style Italian restaurant where what was served was described as “gentle versions of Italian dishes”.
Regular margarita and pepperoni pizzas mingled with ones that revolved around fish – pizza topped with rice cake and cod roe, plus anchovy and prawns.
Bases however were different to UK ones – very thin and soft. Andy Grant, who heads the kitchen at Burleigh Court Hotel close to Loughborough University’s campus, thought it was like a tortilla batter – fine and soft, which broke into sections beautifully.
These were served alongside dishes such as octopus prepared sashimi style – finely sliced raw octopus with a sauce of onion, soya and vinegar, served with finely sliced onions that captured the subtle flavour of the fish, plus spaghetti with spider crab and linguini pasta with sea caught clams known as asari as well as umeboshi [pickled plums]. Tanaka however said he couldn’t see anyone other than the Japanese liking the latter, which are so sour.
With the Japanese Olympic team of athletes making Loughborough University its base in the run up to 2012, executive chef Mark Price was keen to bring back as much info as possible. Before the trip he hadn’t realised how much pasta played a part in Japanese cuisine. “For us that is really good as it is very easy for us to do,” he said.
Learning about key ingredients and specialised equipment that help achieve perfect Japanese meals included demos on making the stock dashi, the basis for all Japanese cooking, and seeing different styles of sushi, and ingredients such as noodles, nori seaweed, green tea and wasabi.
The Ajinomoto Group, which majors in amino acid research and food development, has attracted renowned chefs such as Heston Blumenthal to discover the secret of umami – the fifth taste, and Sat Bains who visited the centre last December to study Japanese cuisine.
Here the chefs learnt more about glutamate, an amino acid that produces umami and is found in food such as kombu [kelp seaweed], commonly used to make dashi, and fruit such as tomatoes.
Kumiko Ninomiya, an expert in umami and glutamate from the Umami Information Centre, presented different types of kombu and showed how dashi is made, which is usually a combination of kombu and dried bonito flakes soaked in water and heated. “You keep kombu in cold water for 20 minutes and then heat for five minutes. What’s left over of the kombu can be used again,” she said.
Japanese curry making, learning about wasabi and sushi preparation were demos organised by supplier S&B Foods. Important ingredients in a Japanese curry are onions and tomatoes that introduce umami and act as natural thickeners, plus the 13 different spices that make up the company’s curry powder.
No Japanese meal can be without wasabi, which when grated the viscosity creates a slight stickiness. Only when water is added and after grating does the heat kick in.
Japanese chef and food writer Reiko Hara said some mustards have the same properties as wasabi therefore chefs can use them as substitutes.
Demonstrating sushi making, expert Mr Ito at his shop/restaurant Ozushi showcased the preparation of tuna, eel, bream, sushi rice and Japanese omelette. Tuna fillet slices were marinated in sake, mirin and soy sauce, while bream fillet was rolled in kombu. The latter is usually for celebrations – head on and grilled, and served with wasabi. Sushi rice, made with rice vinegar, sugar, salt and a little MSG, is a key accompaniment, along with traditional sweet omelette made with seven eggs and a lot of sugar.
An easier way to make sushi was shown by equipment supplier Fujiseik. One machine made 500 x 6 portions of sushi rice an hour and a roller machine using nori to wrap 80g rice, cucumber strips and wasabi produced 300 rolls an hour.
Travelling to a restaurant in Kofu, Yamanashi, the chefs were shown how to make soba [buckwheat] noodles from scratch, before being taken to producer Hakubaku. Warwick University’s Graham Crump said he used this brand of noodles because of its quality. “I’ve tried others but they didn’t keep as well and didn’t have the texture,” he said.
Seeing first hand seaweed at Yamagataya Noriten showed how good nori is black and shiny, roasted both sides and packed in foil lined containers to preserve quality. It’s expensive to produce therefore any waste becomes julienne strips and even snacks with added flavours. High quality nori is exported direct to UK restaurants such as Nobu in London.
Getting up at the crack of dawn was also worth it to witness a tuna auction at Tokyo’s famous Tsujiki fish market, where hundreds of tuna are on display for buyers to haggle over.
The colour and how much fat goes through it tells the buyer whether it’s good, and as long as the variety is known so the correct cutting is done, nothing is wasted. Every part of the tuna is used and portioned using different knives.
The head is sold for braising and even the meat is scraped off the bone. A fish weighing 50kg whole weight will give a 70% yield of which edible parts account for about half once the skin, bones and bloody parts are removed. It was estimated that 100kg of flesh was equivalent to 1,000 portions of sushi.
The memory of that soft, lovely flavour from tasting fresh tuna in the early hours remains an unforgettable experience.
Japanese western fusion food was discovered during a visit to former Roux scholar Trevor Blyth, who has developed a menu at his White Fox Restaurant in Oji, Kita-ku, on the edge of Tokyo, that has pushed the boundaries.
Recently the White Fox was voted one of the top five contemporary Japanese restaurants in the 2010 Miele Guide of 450 of the best in Asia.
Blyth, who won the scholarship in 1996, has been in Japan for nine years. He set up the restaurant three years ago with the idea of putting together a European Japanese fusion menu and runs it with his wife Hiromi.
Visiting France at the age of 22 sparked his inspiration for cooking, but it was also where he learnt to love Asian cuisine inspired by the Japanese chefs on ‘stage’. He eventually went to Japan in 2001 to open a modern British restaurant in Tateshina, in the Nagano region, and the culinary knowledge he gained enabled him to stay. He then became head chef of a top French/Asian fusion restaurant in Tokyo’s fashionable Ginza district. “The move to Ginza was because I always liked Japanese food – not just sushi and sashimi.
There are many ingredients you cannot buy elsewhere at the same quality,” he said.
Today the White Fox seats 20 and specialises in Michelin star standard tapas style dishes. By adding his own twist to classical cuisines and combining the best of both continents’ ingredients, with emphasis on taste, healthy eating and seasonality, Blyth has been a local success.
“If we can make this work at a higher level then maybe it will go global. But we have to make this work now,” said Blyth. “No one does tapas mixing European and Japanese food together – French fusion style at Michelin star level.”
Thirty-seven floors up at the Conrad Tokyo Hotel, close by the Tsujiki fish market, four restaurants come under executive chef Freddy Schmidt’s direction.
Gordon Ramsay may have two branded restaurants at the hotel but Japanese restaurant Kazahana, which includes a sushi bar, and Michelin starred Chinese restaurant, China Blue, have made a significant impact.
The pièce de résistance was a masterclass on the preparation of the deadly fugu fish in Kazahana by Japanese head chef Akio Saito and his apprentice K Watanak. Saito explained the intricacies of dealing with the fish and said that no chef would be allowed to handle it without a licence.
The fugu fish or as it is also known, the tiger puffer fish or blow fish, can be wild or farmed and is said to be one of the deadliest fish to deal with as it contains toxins in its organs that can bring instantaneous death if eaten. There is however no toxin in the skin or in the flesh.
The poison tetrodotoxin is a nerve toxin that works immediately, and because it is very poisonous chefs have to be qualified to handle the fish, undergoing strict training to identify every part of the fish, and they have to be licensed.
Gaining qualification takes years and includes training alongside a qualified Japanese chef and working in a restaurant with a licensed chef expert for at least two years. The student would also have written and practical exams to do.
The dissection of the fish has to be absolutely right. With a farmed fish weighing around 1kg, Saito said the edible parts accounted for about half of it.
The mouth is removed first and then the fish is skinned. The parts you can eat are removed, washed thoroughly through running water and kept separate from the bad parts. The most poisonous of the latter is the liver followed by the kidney. These go into a special bucket with a key, which is collected by a special inspector and disposed of safely.
The prickly skin has to be “shaved”. It will then be boiled down, shredded and used in dishes. It looks like jelly fish – “no taste but a good texture”. With the rest of the fish, the tail is removed and cut into strips. The good part of fugu – the “loin” – needs to be sliced finely for sashimi and usually served in a flower like design with accompaniments such as chives and mooli – one portion on a plate.
It may be deadly but it’s delicious when prepared right.
Without doubt there is a growing appeal for Japanese cuisine. It’s stylish, in the main simple to do, and consumers’ perception is that it’s healthy. Food may not be cheap in Japan but the way it’s bought and served is illuminating. Finely sliced meat and fish served with interesting pickles and salads make meals more cost effective, and transferring this concept to the UK especially during our credit crunch is possible, particularly when chefs are trying to keep costs down.
Think of Japanese food and sushi and noodles usually spring to mind. Yet the group visiting Tokyo in September didn’t expect to see amazing examples of pizza and tapas. Just how much the Japanese had mastered the art of pizzas and pasta, making them as good if not better than the Italians, was interesting to see. Hitoshi Tanaka, president of the Central Trading Co, and his manager Akiko Inagaki took the chefs to a Japanese style Italian restaurant where what was served was described as “gentle versions of Italian dishes”.
Regular margarita and pepperoni pizzas mingled with ones that revolved around fish – pizza topped with rice cake and cod roe, plus anchovy and prawns.
Bases however were different to UK ones – very thin and soft. Andy Grant, who heads the kitchen at Burleigh Court Hotel close to Loughborough University’s campus, thought it was like a tortilla batter – fine and soft, which broke into sections beautifully.
These were served alongside dishes such as octopus prepared sashimi style – finely sliced raw octopus with a sauce of onion, soya and vinegar, served with finely sliced onions that captured the subtle flavour of the fish, plus spaghetti with spider crab and linguini pasta with sea caught clams known as asari as well as umeboshi [pickled plums]. Tanaka however said he couldn’t see anyone other than the Japanese liking the latter, which are so sour.
With the Japanese Olympic team of athletes making Loughborough University its base in the run up to 2012, executive chef Mark Price was keen to bring back as much info as possible. Before the trip he hadn’t realised how much pasta played a part in Japanese cuisine. “For us that is really good as it is very easy for us to do,” he said.
Learning about key ingredients and specialised equipment that help achieve perfect Japanese meals included demos on making the stock dashi, the basis for all Japanese cooking, and seeing different styles of sushi, and ingredients such as noodles, nori seaweed, green tea and wasabi.
The Ajinomoto Group, which majors in amino acid research and food development, has attracted renowned chefs such as Heston Blumenthal to discover the secret of umami – the fifth taste, and Sat Bains who visited the centre last December to study Japanese cuisine.
Here the chefs learnt more about glutamate, an amino acid that produces umami and is found in food such as kombu [kelp seaweed], commonly used to make dashi, and fruit such as tomatoes.
Kumiko Ninomiya, an expert in umami and glutamate from the Umami Information Centre, presented different types of kombu and showed how dashi is made, which is usually a combination of kombu and dried bonito flakes soaked in water and heated. “You keep kombu in cold water for 20 minutes and then heat for five minutes. What’s left over of the kombu can be used again,” she said.
Japanese curry making, learning about wasabi and sushi preparation were demos organised by supplier S&B Foods. Important ingredients in a Japanese curry are onions and tomatoes that introduce umami and act as natural thickeners, plus the 13 different spices that make up the company’s curry powder.
No Japanese meal can be without wasabi, which when grated the viscosity creates a slight stickiness. Only when water is added and after grating does the heat kick in.
Japanese chef and food writer Reiko Hara said some mustards have the same properties as wasabi therefore chefs can use them as substitutes.
Demonstrating sushi making, expert Mr Ito at his shop/restaurant Ozushi showcased the preparation of tuna, eel, bream, sushi rice and Japanese omelette. Tuna fillet slices were marinated in sake, mirin and soy sauce, while bream fillet was rolled in kombu. The latter is usually for celebrations – head on and grilled, and served with wasabi. Sushi rice, made with rice vinegar, sugar, salt and a little MSG, is a key accompaniment, along with traditional sweet omelette made with seven eggs and a lot of sugar.
An easier way to make sushi was shown by equipment supplier Fujiseik. One machine made 500 x 6 portions of sushi rice an hour and a roller machine using nori to wrap 80g rice, cucumber strips and wasabi produced 300 rolls an hour.
Travelling to a restaurant in Kofu, Yamanashi, the chefs were shown how to make soba [buckwheat] noodles from scratch, before being taken to producer Hakubaku. Warwick University’s Graham Crump said he used this brand of noodles because of its quality. “I’ve tried others but they didn’t keep as well and didn’t have the texture,” he said.
Seeing first hand seaweed at Yamagataya Noriten showed how good nori is black and shiny, roasted both sides and packed in foil lined containers to preserve quality. It’s expensive to produce therefore any waste becomes julienne strips and even snacks with added flavours. High quality nori is exported direct to UK restaurants such as Nobu in London.
Getting up at the crack of dawn was also worth it to witness a tuna auction at Tokyo’s famous Tsujiki fish market, where hundreds of tuna are on display for buyers to haggle over.
The colour and how much fat goes through it tells the buyer whether it’s good, and as long as the variety is known so the correct cutting is done, nothing is wasted. Every part of the tuna is used and portioned using different knives.
The head is sold for braising and even the meat is scraped off the bone. A fish weighing 50kg whole weight will give a 70% yield of which edible parts account for about half once the skin, bones and bloody parts are removed. It was estimated that 100kg of flesh was equivalent to 1,000 portions of sushi.
The memory of that soft, lovely flavour from tasting fresh tuna in the early hours remains an unforgettable experience.
Japanese western fusion food was discovered during a visit to former Roux scholar Trevor Blyth, who has developed a menu at his White Fox Restaurant in Oji, Kita-ku, on the edge of Tokyo, that has pushed the boundaries.
Recently the White Fox was voted one of the top five contemporary Japanese restaurants in the 2010 Miele Guide of 450 of the best in Asia.
Blyth, who won the scholarship in 1996, has been in Japan for nine years. He set up the restaurant three years ago with the idea of putting together a European Japanese fusion menu and runs it with his wife Hiromi.
Visiting France at the age of 22 sparked his inspiration for cooking, but it was also where he learnt to love Asian cuisine inspired by the Japanese chefs on ‘stage’. He eventually went to Japan in 2001 to open a modern British restaurant in Tateshina, in the Nagano region, and the culinary knowledge he gained enabled him to stay. He then became head chef of a top French/Asian fusion restaurant in Tokyo’s fashionable Ginza district. “The move to Ginza was because I always liked Japanese food – not just sushi and sashimi.
There are many ingredients you cannot buy elsewhere at the same quality,” he said.
Today the White Fox seats 20 and specialises in Michelin star standard tapas style dishes. By adding his own twist to classical cuisines and combining the best of both continents’ ingredients, with emphasis on taste, healthy eating and seasonality, Blyth has been a local success.
“If we can make this work at a higher level then maybe it will go global. But we have to make this work now,” said Blyth. “No one does tapas mixing European and Japanese food together – French fusion style at Michelin star level.”
Thirty-seven floors up at the Conrad Tokyo Hotel, close by the Tsujiki fish market, four restaurants come under executive chef Freddy Schmidt’s direction.
Gordon Ramsay may have two branded restaurants at the hotel but Japanese restaurant Kazahana, which includes a sushi bar, and Michelin starred Chinese restaurant, China Blue, have made a significant impact.
The pièce de résistance was a masterclass on the preparation of the deadly fugu fish in Kazahana by Japanese head chef Akio Saito and his apprentice K Watanak. Saito explained the intricacies of dealing with the fish and said that no chef would be allowed to handle it without a licence.
The fugu fish or as it is also known, the tiger puffer fish or blow fish, can be wild or farmed and is said to be one of the deadliest fish to deal with as it contains toxins in its organs that can bring instantaneous death if eaten. There is however no toxin in the skin or in the flesh.
The poison tetrodotoxin is a nerve toxin that works immediately, and because it is very poisonous chefs have to be qualified to handle the fish, undergoing strict training to identify every part of the fish, and they have to be licensed.
Gaining qualification takes years and includes training alongside a qualified Japanese chef and working in a restaurant with a licensed chef expert for at least two years. The student would also have written and practical exams to do.
The dissection of the fish has to be absolutely right. With a farmed fish weighing around 1kg, Saito said the edible parts accounted for about half of it.
The mouth is removed first and then the fish is skinned. The parts you can eat are removed, washed thoroughly through running water and kept separate from the bad parts. The most poisonous of the latter is the liver followed by the kidney. These go into a special bucket with a key, which is collected by a special inspector and disposed of safely.
The prickly skin has to be “shaved”. It will then be boiled down, shredded and used in dishes. It looks like jelly fish – “no taste but a good texture”. With the rest of the fish, the tail is removed and cut into strips. The good part of fugu – the “loin” – needs to be sliced finely for sashimi and usually served in a flower like design with accompaniments such as chives and mooli – one portion on a plate.
It may be deadly but it’s delicious when prepared right.