'Kaiseki' & the difference between Japanese & French food



Kaiseki is the big thing in New York cuisine right now, and the biggest name in Kaiseki cuisine is Yoshihiro Murata, the head chef and owner of Kikunoi, a Kaiseki restaurant in Kyoto held in high esteem by both Ferran Adria & Matsuhisa Nobu. Whilst slowly working my way through the very enjoyable Japanese foodie travelogue 'Sushi & Beyond' by Michael Booth I came across this philosophical gem by Murata Murata about the diffference between Japanese & French food:

"In haute cuisine you cook by adding or layering flavours of different ingredients in complex ways; in Japan, and in particular Kyoto where we cook mostly with vegetables, the aim is to extract the essential flavour of each ingredient by removing those we don't particularly want, like bitterness. Japanese cuisine is a cuisine of subtraction."

A very interesting concept which you can apply to any creative art?

An English version of the Kikunoi website

Michael Booth's very informative Japanese food website/blog

Image featured here, from the Kikunoi website:
'Mizubotan (Water Camilia Soup)'
This surprising idea comes from the Japanese dessert of the same name. Hamo (a Kyoto summer Sea Eel), Uni (Sea Urchin), Soramame (Green Been) and a light, refreshing clear stock are what colminate in this summery soup.

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