Japan Eats‪!‬ Heritage Radio Network

Our guest is Shinji Sakamoto, a seafood expert based in Tokyo. Shinji’s background is unique and impressive. He trained himself as a buyer in the world's biggest seafood market called Tsukiji, and worked in Japan, Singapore and the U.S. to support operations of the seafood departments at major corporations. He also received a formal culinary education at one of the top culinary programs in Japan.

You may have heard about the Tsukiji Market, which was relocated in 2018 and is now called the Toyosu Market. It is the Central Wholesale Market in Tokyo and every high-end sushi restaurant in the world relies on the market to secure the best-quality seafood available.

In this episode, we will discuss how Shinji became a seafood expert and buyer at the world's biggest fish market, why the Toyosu Market is so important regardless of whether you are in the seafood industry or a seafood lover, how the market works to offer prime seafood in the best condition, and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Steven Pursley, the chef/owner of Menya Rui in St. Louis, Missouri. Menya Rui opened in 2022, and since, Steven has received numerous accolades for his job at the ramen shop, such as Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef in 2023.

Steven has the right reasons to be recognized as a great ramen chef. He grew up both in Japan and the U.S. as a child under his American and Japanese parents, so he has lots of fond memories of Japanese food and in particular, ramen.

His soul search led him to study ramen in Japan, and his 24-seat ramen shop Menya Rui represents who he is now. For example, he makes everything from scratch, including noodles, which is highly challenging for even an experienced ramen chef in Japan.

In this episode, we will discuss why Steven decided to pursue a career in ramen, what he learned in his three-year intensive training at ramen shops in Japan, his unique philosophy of ramen, his advice to future ramen chefs, and much, much more!

Our guest is Dr. Arielle Johnson. Arielle is a flavor scientist who advises some of the top chefs, restaurants, and bars in the world. For example, she co-founded the fermentation lab at the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, which has been named the best restaurant in the world multiple times by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Arielle is currently the Science Director of Noma Projects and co-founder of Retronasal Industries among other important roles.

Arielle is also the author of “Flavorama: A Guide To Unlocking The Art And Science Of Flavor”, which came out in March 2024. The book is a wonderful tool for all of us to understand the science of flavors and to apply it to our daily lives in fun and practical ways.

In this episode, we will discuss how Arielle got into the world of tastes and flavors, the joy of applying science to top restaurants' kitchens in the world, how you can use food science in your daily life with tips from Arielle’s new book Flavorama and much, much more!

Our guest is Takuma Inagawa who is the founder and CEO of WAKAZE. WAKAZE is a unique and forward-minded producer of Japanese sake based in Paris, France.

The Japanese sake industry has been facing challenges domestically due to various reasons, such as the decrease in the drinking population and the increase in competitive products in the market like wine and shochu. Compared to the peak of sake consumption in the 1970s, Japanese people drink only a quarter of sake now.

Ironically, the government regulations are not helping to stop the decline as they restrict licensing new sake businesses that can revitalize the industry.

However, WAKAZE is presenting a model to conquer the challenges by producing new styles of sake with traditional techniques and an innovative mindset.

In this episode, we will discuss why Takuma left his successful career as a business consultant and decided to start a sake brewery in Paris, his out-of-the-box approach to sake production, how he managed to convince French consumers to drink Japanese sake made in Paris, his new sake production in America, his global plans to grow the popularity of sake, and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Morgan Adamson, the chef at Hoseki, a six-seat omakase sushi bar located at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

In previous episodes, we had several non-Japanese sushi chefs who proved that America has a distinctive pool of talent, and that the American sushi culture is on healthy ground. Morgan is definitely one of these talents, and being female, she is particularly unique as the traditional sushi industry has been notorious for not welcoming females to lead the sushi counter.

In this episode, we will discuss how a young woman from Michigan got into sushi, how she studied sushi-making and built a successful career, a unique concept of Hoseki where she expresses her own sushi-making philosophy, her advice to future sushi chefs in America, and much, much more!!!

Our guest is Elizabeth Andoh, who already joined us 13 times and shared her truly deep insight into traditional Japanese food culture. Elizabeth is a food writer and Japanese cooking instructor based in Tokyo, and she has lived in Japan for over 50 years. She runs the culinary arts program called A Taste of Culture, which offers a great opportunity for non-Japanese people to explore Japanese culture through its food. Elizabeth is also the author of 6 cookbooks, including the award-winning “Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Kitchen” and “Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions.”

Today’s topic is Japanese curry. Curry is a universally popular dish, but like many other things, Japanese people remodeled the original and created a unique style of their own. Now, Japanese people eat Japanese-style curry as often as every 5 days, and the sales of all curry products totals 100 billion Japanese yen, or 660 million US dollars, annually.

In this episode, we will discuss when and how Japanese people created their distinctively unique style of curry, the difference between Japanese and other styles of curry in the world, how to make a perfect Japanese curry dish at home, and much, much more!!!