Luxurious Food and The Ultimate Pairings at Michelin-Starred Restaurants in Japan: HAJIME
by Kyoko Nakayama
@ 02 Jan 2018
Chef Hajime Yoneda:
As I chef, I’m a latecomer. Since young, I had been dreaming to be a chef, but set my career as an engineer. I finally changed the path to the culinary at the age of 25. After 5 years training in Japan, I worked for chef Bernard Robin in France, then moved to Hokkaido to work in Michel Bras Japon. For me, cuisine is a medium. I would like to express providence of the universe, human nature and paradox we embrace. My interest varies, art, biology, life science, brain science, and even space science. These are the founts of my creation to push the boundaries of the cuisine.
destruction and assimilation
This dish is made with foie gras, and foie gras is artificial product always have cons and pros. It contains a lot of fat, so it will cause obese but we appreciate the flavor. Chef Yoneda uses foie gras to imply the two aspects of human beings, good side and opposite side. The reason why he named this dish “destruction and assimilation” is, we chew foie gras, meant, destruct it, then it becomes part of our body fat, that meant assimilation.The size of this foie gras is exactly the same as human tongue, that shows the fact that even a huge chunk of meat, we can only eat in bite size. Foie gras is toped with mango, hazelnut, and candy tuile.
Pairing: Noble d’Or 2006 Tominooka Winery
Japanese late harvest wine from Yamanashi prefecture. The grape is Riesling Italico and it has fruity aroma like pear and white flower. It fermented in small batch and low temperature to bring out the delicate flavor.
seashore
This dish is showcasing a law of universe. Rotating is the way of accelerate the speed,In our world, there are so many types of the spirals. Babies were born to rotating their bodies, typhoon, and the galaxy. The world is rotating and repeating order and disorder. This dish expresses that with showing the scenery of the seashore after typhoon, using shellfish and seaweeds. This dish is a combination of various seafood and vegetables, such as scallop, oyster, clam, octopus, wild vegetables, seaweed and couscous sand.
Pairing: Albarino 2016 Fermier
Albarino is grape specie, which has aroma of white peach and apricot. It also has brilliant acidity, goes with fresh shellfish and seaweed.
It was fermented in stainless tank then aged in oak barrel, so have the pleasant caramelized aroma as well.
planet earth
This dish is showing the circulation of the earth. Chef Yoneda got this idea from oyster farm. To get quality oyster, the oyster farmers plant trees in the mountain nearby. After plant the trees, the fallen leaves turn to soil and its nutrients go to the sea through the river. To showcase this circulation, he would like to express our planet earth. That’s why he made this dish as sharing portion, since we’re sharing the earth with other lives. The dish consists of more than 100 types of the vegetables, and the form is made with clam stock.
Pairing: Kerner 2015 Takizawa Winery
Using wild yeast to ferment the wine then malo-lactic fermentation is done by wild lactic acid. That year, they used well-ripened Kerner grapes, so rich in aroma like tropical fruits, yoghurt and honey. Its mineral goes with the flavors of vegetables.
Check them out on:
http://www.hajime-artistes.com/
