The Japanese Culinary Academy teaches you the fundamentals of food from the Land of the Rising Sun
- The quartet of books from the non-profit organisation covers not only cuisine but culture, history and how the national food found worldwide fame
I hadn’t heard about the Japanese Culinary Academy’s cookbooks when I was browsing online, so instead of putting all four of the series into my basket, I bought only the first two.
I’ll be buying the others soon.
The first, Introduction to Japanese Cuisine – Nature, History and Culture (2015), reveals that it’s only recently that much of the outside world has come to appreciate Japanese cuisine. It’s hard to believe, considering how popular it is now.
In the introduction, academy director Murata Yoshihiro writes: “A little over 30 years ago, a group of ten Japanese chefs went to Paris and, in the dining room of a famous hotel, presented Japanese cuisine to a discriminating group that included members of the French nobility. They brought all their ingredients with them, from the kombu for dashi to the vegetables, the conger eel (hamo) and even a supply of soft water, and they did their utmost to prepare dishes no different from the very best they would have served in Japan.
“The meal was an overwhelming success and the chefs were interviewed on television. The event was hailed as marking the recognition of Japanese cuisine overseas.
