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Tackling the Challenge of Healthy Eating
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A growing number of chefs are now deliberately moving away from rich butter and cream-based concoctions, in a movement that first emerged with the promotion of nouvelle cuisine, and has gathered pace with chefs championing lighter, water-based “cuisine à l’eau.” An increasing number of chefs are turning for inspiration to the techniques of Japanese cuisine.
In Japanese cooking the focus tends to be on appearance, knife skills, and special dishes such as sushi and sashimi, but the feature of Japanese food cuisine most worthy of attention is its healthiness. Take the kaiseki-style lunchbox served by Yoshihiro Murata as an example: despite using over forty ingredients, they contain less than 500 kilocalories. This is made possible by the Japanese technique of using the umami of dashi—as opposed to fats such as butter or cream—to draw out flavor.