The essence of Japanese cuisine

Appears in
top 1000Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese cuisine
Dashi and Umami

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

Published 2009

  • About
The Japanese stock known as dashi is an indispensable part of Japanese cuisine. Made using a number of very special ingredients, it serves to transform the flavour of any number of dishes.

In many ways, dashi is a secret ingredient of Japanese cuisine; unlike soy sauce or miso, dashi’s presence is not immediately apparent to the diner, but its impact on the flavour of a dish is no less profound. Simply put, without dashi Japanese cuisine as we know it would not exist.

Today, dashi is used in a wide array of Japanese dishes including nimono (simmered dishes), nabe (hotpots), tempura dipping sauce and soups, including suimono (clear soups) and, miso soup, which is traditionally consumed by the Japanese on a daily basis.