However you slice it, Tokyo has taste
Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Gwen Robinson
A national passion speaks volumes about a country's collective psyche. Consider the English love of football, India's of cricket, Australia's mania for just about any sport, and Italy's and France's worship of food, wine and fashion.
But on all things gastronomic, perhaps no country is as passionate -- and exacting -- as Japan, where tea-making is a semi-religious ritual, pastry chefs can gain rock star status, and people will queue for hours to buy courgette-flavoured macaroons or the first special mushrooms of the season.
Michelin Guides revealed half of that story to the world when they awarded more of their famed stars to Tokyo restaurants (an unprecedented 191) than they have bestowed on any other city (including, mon Dieu , Paris) with the launch of their first guide outside Europe and America: the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2008.
But there is more to Japan's food obsession than a huge array of top-quality restaurants. Consider a few facts:
More than one third of Japanese commercial television is devoted to food-related themes, from wacky eating competitions to earnest cooking programmes. On a per-capita basis, inner Tokyo (population 8.5m) boasts the highest concentration of eateries among the world's major cities - just under 200,000, according to the Tokyo government, compared with about 20,000 restaurants for Paris and 23,000 for New York City. Japan now draws more Michelin-starred chefs than any country apart from France.
The simple reason for this dine-out culture is Tokyo's population density: people tend to live in small places, entertain rarely at home and eat out frequently. Entertainment expenses are still generous in Japanese business and Tokyo's vast financial industry. Further down the scale, one can eat heartily -- and well -- for just Y600 ($5.50).
The lessons to be gleaned from all this start with Japan's insatiable curiosity -- the kind that prompted Admiral Togo to bring back what is now one of Japan's best-loved dishes, niku jaga , a Japanised version of beef stew, from England in the late 1800s. New food trends or interesting restaurants immediately draw crowds.
In the broader scheme of things, it is also what drives the Japanese to innovate.
Then there is Japan's love of quality, seen in its precision manufacturing and worship of top brand names. It is much harder in Japan for chefs to get away with shoddy cooking.
So, to training and Japan's famously harsh apprenticeship system. A trainee sushi chef may spend years gutting fish before being allowed to cut it.
Then there is the drive for technical perfection and attention to detail. As Joseph Sampermans, a food and beverage manager at Tokyo's Peninsula Hotel, remarked: "As westerners, we always want to give it our own twist, but if Japanese are reproducing something, they just want to reproduce it perfectly." As with food, so with all things.
.....................................
FT Syndication Service
A national passion speaks volumes about a country's collective psyche. Consider the English love of football, India's of cricket, Australia's mania for just about any sport, and Italy's and France's worship of food, wine and fashion.
But on all things gastronomic, perhaps no country is as passionate -- and exacting -- as Japan, where tea-making is a semi-religious ritual, pastry chefs can gain rock star status, and people will queue for hours to buy courgette-flavoured macaroons or the first special mushrooms of the season.
Michelin Guides revealed half of that story to the world when they awarded more of their famed stars to Tokyo restaurants (an unprecedented 191) than they have bestowed on any other city (including, mon Dieu , Paris) with the launch of their first guide outside Europe and America: the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2008.
But there is more to Japan's food obsession than a huge array of top-quality restaurants. Consider a few facts:
More than one third of Japanese commercial television is devoted to food-related themes, from wacky eating competitions to earnest cooking programmes. On a per-capita basis, inner Tokyo (population 8.5m) boasts the highest concentration of eateries among the world's major cities - just under 200,000, according to the Tokyo government, compared with about 20,000 restaurants for Paris and 23,000 for New York City. Japan now draws more Michelin-starred chefs than any country apart from France.
The simple reason for this dine-out culture is Tokyo's population density: people tend to live in small places, entertain rarely at home and eat out frequently. Entertainment expenses are still generous in Japanese business and Tokyo's vast financial industry. Further down the scale, one can eat heartily -- and well -- for just Y600 ($5.50).
The lessons to be gleaned from all this start with Japan's insatiable curiosity -- the kind that prompted Admiral Togo to bring back what is now one of Japan's best-loved dishes, niku jaga , a Japanised version of beef stew, from England in the late 1800s. New food trends or interesting restaurants immediately draw crowds.
In the broader scheme of things, it is also what drives the Japanese to innovate.
Then there is Japan's love of quality, seen in its precision manufacturing and worship of top brand names. It is much harder in Japan for chefs to get away with shoddy cooking.
So, to training and Japan's famously harsh apprenticeship system. A trainee sushi chef may spend years gutting fish before being allowed to cut it.
Then there is the drive for technical perfection and attention to detail. As Joseph Sampermans, a food and beverage manager at Tokyo's Peninsula Hotel, remarked: "As westerners, we always want to give it our own twist, but if Japanese are reproducing something, they just want to reproduce it perfectly." As with food, so with all things.
.....................................
FT Syndication Service