Lisa Gershenson on the indelible lessons learned from Dashi and Umami
Lisa Gershenson, publisher of the online magazine Cook’s Gazette, shares how the cookbook Dashi & Umami impacted her understanding of Japanese food and her cooking style.
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Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese cuisine
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
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.
Matthew Abergel
Co-Owner & Executive Chef of Yardbird, RŌNIN & Sunday’s Grocery
Yoshiki Tsuji
President, Tsujicho Group
Akiko Katayama
Food Writer & Radio Host/Producer
Tim Anderson
Chef and food writer
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