NARISAWA
Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa
Place Tokyo, Japan
One of Japan’s top chefs, Yoshihiro Narisawa presents his innovative Satoyama Cuisine, which highlights, among other ingredients and flavors, the seasonal riches of Japanese produce. Chef Narisawa has been recognized for his leadership on sustainability, which is at the heart of his reverence for nature in the restaurant. In 2013, he received the World’s 50 Best Restaurant Sustainable Restaurant Award.
As a young man, in 1988, Yoshihiro Narisawa began his training, blazing a Michelin-starred trail through Europe under iconic chefs like Paul Bocuse and Joël Robuchon. After nine years of technique polishing and total immersion, Narisawa was ready to return home and imbue all he had learned into a new landscape for Japanese cuisine. Embracing both his identity and the identity of Japanese cuisine, Narisawa restaurant blends the spirit of nouvelle cuisine and the technical precision Narisawa cultivated in Europe with a rhythmic, integrated sense of the seasons. The result has not only garnered well-deserved international attention, but it’s done what Narisawa set out to do—push Japanese cuisine into its next evolution.
120 minutes cook/prep
"One day in the middle of a winter, I visited a barren field.
No remnants of vegetables - not even withered weeds - only soil, with a thin covering of snow. In that moment, on that field, I felt something alive. It became clear to me: this farmer, not only is he raising vegetables here, but he is also cultivating this soil itself. If this farmer is nurturing the soil so carefully, I wondered, how could I convey this at my table?
As a chef, I face ingredients that I use with earnest intent.
Ingredients reflect the environment from which they come. The soil that raises these ingredients must be safe and healthy. Needless to say, safety in what we eat is absolutely essential for every human being.
And that is why I created the Soil Soup - a dish that contains my conviction for 'a natural environment so safe you can even eat the soil itself'.
To make this soil consumable, I had to ensure that it was safe.
The soil I use has passed a thorough laboratory examination: no residual chemicals, no metals, no chlorine compounds, nothing which would harm a human body.
The Soil Soup was the beginning of my endeavor to express the importance of the environment through what we eat."
1. Before preparation, confirm soil composition and safety with specialist laboratory.
2. Chop the burdock root without washing off the soil.
3. Sautee together in rice oil. Add water and simmer for 90 minutes.
4. Grind in thermomix for 5 second intervals.
5. Strain, and then strain again through kitchen paper.
His approach
I call my cuisine “Innovative Satoyama Cuisine.” The Satoyama is the space between the sea and the mountains where people and nature live together. For the Japanese, humankind was always part of nature. The culture of Satoyama is using only what is needed from nature effectively while tending it appropriately, and at the same time sustaining a healthy environment. The leaves of trees absorb carbon dioxide and generate oxygen—a process known as photosynthesis, which is essential for life on this planet, just as much as water. The roots of trees filter underground water to provide nutrition to the sea. Forests nurture animals that live in them; healthier forests enable richer biodiversity. As such, forests are the barometer of life. I examine the Japanese culture that is rooted in nature through my own lens and express it in the form of cuisine. My style of cooking is precisely the reconstruction of Satoyama cuisine.