Available on ckbk now

Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese cuisine

by Heston Blumenthal, Pascal Barbot, Nobu Matsuhisa and Kiyomi Mikuni

from the publisher

Japanese cuisine is appreciated worldwide for its healthiness and its beauty in both appearance and flavour. The characteristic savoury-ness (umami) is achieved despite minimum use of oil, salt and flavourings. Dashi (stock) and the resulting umami are said to be the reason Japanese-cuisine is special. But what are they? How do they work? And why? This beautifully illustrated book reveals these secrets through both explanation and superb recipes introduced by Japan s top chefs. It is not only an essential read for people in the food industry, it is also a godsend to anyone who cares about what they eat.

Most popular

Original Publisher
Cross Media
Date of publication
2009
ISBN
1897701934

Features & Stories

Midnight Diner: Comfort Food from Japan

Midnight Diner: Comfort Food from Japan

To mark the recent addition of The Japanese Cookbook to ckbk’s Japanese bookshelf, ckbk co-founder Matthew Cockerill looks at the Japanese comfort foods that are showcased in the cult TV series Midnight Diner (available to stream on Netflix).

Recommended by

Lisa Gershenson

Food entrepreneur and culinary educator

Sadly, this book is now out of print so I especially hope it makes it on to the ckbk site. It covers the principles of kaiseki or refined Japanese cuisine, with an emphasis on the importance of nature, an exploration of umami and the culmination of umami in the deceptively simple stock dashi. In this spirit, recipes are organized by season as celebrated by famous kaiseki chefs.

Ivan Orkin

Chef

This is one of the only books in English I know of that discusses in depth the production of dashi and its components in such depth. It's a relief to know that it's available.

Thomas Dubois

Historian

Methodical approach to ingredients and techniques.

Yoshiki Tsuji

President, Tsujicho Group

Matthew Abergel

Co-Owner & Executive Chef of Yardbird, RŌNIN & Sunday’s Grocery

Tim Anderson

Chef and food writer

Akiko Katayama

Food Writer & Radio Host/Producer