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Chef Suzuki's Cured Mackerel

At a recent master class for chefs at New York's James Beard Foundation (organized by the Gohan Foundation -- thanks to both for the invite), Chef Toshio Suzuki of Sushi Zen introduced Japanese vinegar and talked about its uses. He covered a lot of fascinating ground but to me the highlight was his treatment of mackerel. Simple but so subtle and delicious.

October 26, 2008

Cooking with Chef Isao Yamada

Here was my grand idea: I wanted to invite a top-notch Japanese chef to come over to my apartment and cook with me. I've been fascinated by Japanese cooking for years, and have been studying the cuisine diligently, but I have lots of questions still begging for answers. Why not ask a great chef, while chopping veggies together at home?

February 21, 2010

Cooking with Chef Ooe at Kozue

"Japanese cooking is simple," Chef Ooe told me as we stood in his kitchen at Kozue, the stunning Japanese restaurant of Tokyo's Park Hyatt. "Only cutting, dashi, grilling... simple." The hard work of achieving this simplicity? Well, that's why I was in his kitchen...

May 4, 2009

Cooking with En Japanese Brasserie's Chef Honma

I recently visited En Japanese Brasserie to learn more about Chef Yasuhiro Honma's cooking.

September 29, 2008

Video: Grilling Lesson With Chef Takahashi of Hyotei

This past week, something remarkable happened: More than forty of Japanese greatest chefs descended on the Napa Valley for the Culinary Institute of America's Japan: Flavors of Culture conference.

November 9, 2010

Chef Yamada's "1.5" All-Purpose Dashi

When Chef Isao Yamada recently returned to my place for another cooking session, one of the first questions I asked him was prompted by a reader's comment asking for a method for an all-purpose dashi.

April 1, 2010

japanese chefs knives

Please check out my story in Salon.com about Japanese kitchen knives! It published today (when you click to the site, wait a couple of seconds and an "Enter Salon" button will appear in the top right corner to view for free). Here's some more information, in case you're interested:

February 1, 2008

Dinner Party: Chef Abe Cooks Staff Meal-Inspired Dishes

My friends at EN Japanese Brasserie are planning a very special dinner party on Saturday, January 16th. The theme: "fish heads, eel bones and beer" -- in other words, food (and drink) inspired by traditional Japanese restaurant staff meal cooking. The host: yours truly. I hope you can join us. Here's the blurb on the event:

January 5, 2010

Iron Chef Demonstrates Home Cooking

November 1, 2009

Chef Hiromitsu Nozaki Interview

November 2, 2009

Chef Abe's Fresh Yuzu Kosho

Yuzu kosho is one of my absolute favorite Japanese ingredients. A salt-cured condiment made with yuzu citrus peel and chilies, it's at once intensely fragrant, hot and alive, a zesty accent that plants a big, fat palate-popping kiss to any dish.

December 9, 2011

Chef Nishihara Interview

August 17, 2009

Chef Yamada's Dashi

The first thing we did during my cooking session with Yamada-san was the most fundamental: Prepare a dashi. Dashi is the foundation of Japanese cuisine, the basic stock that infuses Japanese dishes with its distinctive, savory, umami-flavor.

February 21, 2010

Chill Pillsbury, Japanese Chef

August 20, 2010

Morimoto's Monkfish

Monkfish are huge, ugly and incredibly tasty. I first came face to face with one in Akita Prefecture last year (more on that below). Today I got to watch Chef Masaharu Morimoto of Iron Chef fame dramatically offer this fish as the sacrificial lamb of his demonstration at the annual StarChefs Congress.

September 15, 2008

Grilled Shishito Peppers

For our dinner with Chef Ono's family, Atsushi and I picked up beautiful shishito pepper at the farmers market, a bright green Japanese pepper about an inch to two inches long that looks like a hot green chili but has a mild flavor (except for every once in a while, when you bite into a fiery one!). Chef Ono evidently also heard the shishito siren call, and picked up a bunch, too.

August 6, 2008

Ikejime: The Japanese Way to Butcher Fish

At my recent workshop at Saveur, I taxied over a live fish for Chef Sono to butcher the traditional way, a method called ikejime. Why share a cab with a flopping fish? I've been fascinated by this killing process since I first witnessed it in Japan, and Sono-san was kind enough to demonstrate it and explain the technique. This week I learned even more, thanks to an outstanding presentation organized by the Gohan Society and featuring the revered chef Suzuki-san of Sushi Zen restaurant.

December 17, 2009

Steamed Sea Bass, Japanese Style

Here's a method for steaming fish that Chef Tadashi Ono explained to me the other day at Matsuri. I had brought a beautiful, freshly caught whole sea bass to the restaurant from the Union Square farmers market, and Chef Ono graciously showed me how to clean and portion it the Japanese way. (I'm going to soon post a video on the subject, which is fascinating.)

July 6, 2008

Layering Flavor into Vegetables

During the staff meal break the other night at Matsuri, I noticed Chef Ryuji cleaning a pile of fiddlehead ferns. Ryo is the Chef du Cuisine at the restaurant. I love watching him in action -- this man knows how to cook. During the break I can usually find Ryo by himself behind the line, working on something in the remaining quiet moments before service -- and its attendant frenzy -- begins.

March 26, 2008

Matsugen Soba

Working on a manuscript this past spring for a Japanese noodle cookbook (for Ten Speed Press, publishes in 2009) gave me a chance to do a bit of research on ramen, soba, udon and somen. Soba, buckwheat noodles, I found particularly interesting, because they're both a down-home soul food and something more rarefied. That "something more rarefied" side to soba can now be found at a terrific new restaurant in Manhattan called Matsugen, where I recently visited the chefs there to learn more about their noodles.

September 1, 2008

Fukuoka's Yanagibashi Market

On my way to the restaurant in Fukuoka where I'm currently a shugyo, or trainee, I bumped into my chef, who motioned me to join him. His destination: the Yanagibashi market.

May 26, 2009

hotpot 101, or window into japanese cuisine

"There are no rules for making nabe," said Chef Ono, as we got to talking about Japanese hotpot cooking to me the other night at Matsuri restaurant. I've been fascinated by this homey soul food, as readers of the Report know (see posts here and here), and wanted to learn more -- and understand what hotpots say about Japanese cuisine as a whole.

February 4, 2008

Authentic Soba

I've only recently discovered Soba Koh, a tiny spot in New York's East Village where you can watch Chef Hiromitsu Takahashi roll and cut soba by hand as you walk into the place. I don't know what took me so long.

October 21, 2009

New Class! Register for Workshop and Tasting at Saveur Magazine

The Japanese way of expressing raw fish is, of course, unparalleled. But doing raw right -- that is, sushi and sashimi -- is a function of deft knife skills, which is a function of years of chef training. So what about the rest of us?

November 10, 2009

Buy a Japanese Knife

While working at Matsuri, I heard of a traveling knife salesman from Japan who regularly visits restaurant kitchens across America. I asked Chef Ono if he could order a knife for me the next time this man showed up at the restaurant. That happened two months ago. The other week my blade arrived.

June 10, 2008

More on Dashi...

Today the NY Times ran my story about dashi, a look at how Western chefs across the country are now cooking with this essential stock of Japanese cuisine. As regular readers of the Report know, I'm intrigued by dashi. I thought to add a few more ideas about this remarkable broth to expand on the article.

October 15, 2008

soba noodles in duck broth

Watching a cook named Adam swiftly and deftly portion a duck the other night at Matsuri, I posited, out loud, that the beautiful, gleaming carcass -- all that was left after Adam's handiwork - would make for an excellent soup stock. Chef Ono heard me and walked over. "Those duck bones would make a great soba tsuyu," he said -- soup for soba noodles. "Take a carcass home and try it." And so I did.

January 1, 2008

New York's Best Japanese, 2010

Hey, Chefs Sono-san and Abe-san are ready to cook for you -- so what are you waiting for? Whew, it's been over two years since I posted a list of my favorite Japanese restaurants in New York -- an update is way overdue.

September 12, 2010

Notes from Tokyo Taste

Hollywood has its paparazzi. So, apparently, does food. I took the shot above at last week's Tokyo Taste event in Japan, where a ruck of photographers rushed to snap dishes prepared by famous chefs. What a sight.

February 13, 2009

Summer Flounder

When I told Chef Ono that I picked up a beautiful whole flounder at the Union Square Farmers Market, he asked what I was going to do with it. I thought to simmer it. "Do you have a wok?" he asked. Indeed. Then deep fry it, he urged me. "That's the taste of summer."

July 25, 2008