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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

Read This Book: Japanese Kitchen Knives

Hey, I could have shown you a cover shot of Japanese Kitchen Knives, but I thought you'd rather see a photo of the craftsman who actually fashioned the very knife pictured on the book's jacket!

June 30, 2009

Sharpening Japanese Knives

I love working with Japanese kitchen blades. I've visited blacksmiths before and have written about them, and own several blades. Right now I'm in Tokyo for a few months apprenticing at several restaurants (more on that soon), and cutting every day for hours. Chefs here have been graciously instructing me on my technique.

May 3, 2009

Video: Sharpening Knives and Cleaning Fish

May 25, 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

Cooking at Takegami

For the past three weeks I've been working as a shugyo, a trainee, at Takegami, a traditional ryotei in Tokyo's Akasaka district.

May 25, 2009

let's cook with the world's best vegetables

May 13, 2007

Chef Hiromitsu Nozaki Interview

November 2, 2009

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

Sharpening with Newspaper

May 26, 2009

Salt-Cured Bonito Sashimi

Atsushi and I hit the Union Square farmers market a few times during his stay. On Saturday and Wednesdays fishermen from Long Island's North Fork sell pristine seafood. On one of those mornings we spotted a majestic whole bonito on ice. We quickly snapped it up.

August 6, 2008

Cooking with Atsushi

For the past two weeks, I've had a visitor from Japan stay over at my apartment here in New York, a terrific guy named Atsushi Nakahigashi. All of 22-years-old, he's already an accomplished professional bass fisherman -- and an accomplished chef. Since the age of 14 or so, Atsushi's been working at his father's legendary restaurant in Kyoto, Sojiki Nakahigashi. His dad, Mr. Hisao Nakahigashi, is one of my absolute culinary heroes, a wonderful man who I've had the privilege to get to know and write about. Atsushi's his dad's talented protégé, and since he was here in New York... I put him to work in my kitchen! Actually, Atsushi, wise, thoughtful and mature way, way beyond his years, graciously offered to teach me a few things about Japanese cooking. It's been a seminal couple of weeks.

August 4, 2008

Korin Japanese Trading

October 14, 2007