Japan Eats!

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FOOD
EVERY TWO WEEKS

What is Japanese food? Sushi, or ramen, or kaiseki? What about Izakaya? Akiko Katayama, a Japanese native, New York-based food writer and director of the New York Japanese Culinary Academy, tells you all about real Japanese food and food culture. With guests ranging from sake producers with generations of experience to American chefs pushing the envelope of Japanese gastronomy, Japanese cuisine is demystified here!

4 NOV

Yama Seafood: Forward-minded Authentic Japanese Seafood Purveyor In America

Our guest is Nobu Yamanashi who is the president of Yama Seafood based in New Jersey.

47 min
22 OCT

A Delicate California Wine Made To Be Paired with Japanese Food

Akiko Chats with Xander Soren who is the founder of Xander Soren Wines

56 min
17 OCT

Bringing Japanese Premium Ingredients To Non-Japanese Chefs In The U.K.

Akiko talks with CEO & Founder of SushiSushi, based in Sheffield UK

53 min
7 OCT

Former Chez Panisse Chef Inspires (And Is Inspired by) Food Communities in Japan

Our guest is Jerome Waag who is the former chef at the legendary farm-to-table restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. Jerome moved to Tokyo in 2016 to open his own restaurant Blind Donkey. The restaurant has been popular and successful and in March 2024, Jerome has opened another place called CIMI Restorant with a strong focus on sustainability. He has been also involved in an inspiring project the Food Hub Project in a small town called Kamiyama in Shikoku Island, which aims to revitalize the local community. In this episode, we will discuss how Jerome opened his own restaurant in Japan, his unique experience of running a successful restaurant in Tokyo, his new restaurant CIMI restorant and its vision for sustainable food, his role in revitalizing the rural town Kamiyama, and much, much more!!!

1h 2m
1 OCT

Japanese Wine Is Getting Exciting!

Our guest is Shiho Tanaka who is the head sommelier at Tsukimi, the Michelin-starred kaiseki restaurant in the East Village, Manhattan. The restaurant offers great selections of sake and wine to pair with chef Takanori Akiyama’s original kaiseki-style dishes. Recently, Japanese wines were added to the list and Shiho is one of the most knowledgeable sommeliers about Japanese wines in the U.S. You may not have heard of Japanese wine, but in the last decade or so, it started to appear in the global market and the world's biggest wine competitions, such as the IWSC International Wine & Spirit Competition, the Decanter World Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge, honor Japanese wines with multiple Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. In this episode, we will discuss the challenging history of Japanese wine, why the Japanese wine industry is developing so fast in recent years, the unique grape varieties that make Japanese wine special, how to pair Japanese wine with Japanese food as well as non-Japanese food and much, much more!!!

54 min
24 SEPT

Trained By Masters From Age 15: A Japanese Chef Shares the Tradition on the Global Stage

Our guest is Makoto Okuwa, who is the chef/partner of multiple, highly popular Japanese restaurants in the U.S. and other major cities in the world, including Makoto at Bal Harbour in Miami, Love Makoto in Washington D.C., and Makoto Vail in Colorado. Makoto’s success did not come easily. He started cooking at the age of 15 in Japan, training under master chefs for a decade and moved to Washington D.C. in 2001. Under Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, his new life in America was another hardworking process of learning a foreign language and culture, how to read American diners’ minds, not to mention honing his culinary skills. In this episode, we will discuss how Makoto got into cooking at such a young age, why he decided to challenge himself in America, what he learned from his mentor/master chefs, the reasons behind his success on the global stage, and much, much more!!!

55 min
10 SEPT

Mouthfeel: The Key To Understanding Japanese Food Culture

"Our guest is Elizabeth Andoh, who joined us 14 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 https://tasteofculture.com/ , 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 mouthfeel or 食感 “shokkan” in Japanese. The Japanese language has far more adjectives to describe mouthfeel. For example, according to a 2003 study, the Japanese language had 445 words, French 227, Chinese 144 and English and German around 100 to describe the texture of food in your mouth. In this episode, we will discuss why Japanese people have so many different words to describe mouthfeel, examples of mouthfeel expressions that are unique and essential to understanding Japanese food culture and much, much more!!!"

54 min
6 AUG

I Bought A Kominka (Vintage House) In Japan

Hannah is back to the show today to talk about her ongoing exciting project in Yamanaka: rebuilding Kominka.

42 min

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What is Japanese food? Sushi, or ramen, or kaiseki? What about Izakaya? Akiko Katayama, a Japanese native, New York-based food writer and director of the New York Japanese Culinary Academy, tells you all about real Japanese food and food culture. With guests ranging from sake producers with generations of experience to American chefs pushing the envelope of Japanese gastronomy, Japanese cuisine is demystified here!