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Mountain yam mold, karukan-style

This is the appetizer. For the mountain yam karukan-yose, I think quite a few restaurants make a jelly-set mountain yam dish, but I got the idea from…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,200

• Cook time 40 min

Omi beef fillet, silver duck miso, truffle

This is the grilled course. For the vessel, I use a teaburi (charcoal hand-warmer brazier) made by Eiraku Zengorō. Unlike the portable charcoal grill…

• Serves 1 · ¥4,000

• Cook time 40 min

Glazed kuruma prawns, cream cheese miso-marinated, new sweet potato simmered Toganoo-style, jakago-style lotus root

For the appetizer course, I avoided any extreme techniques and brought together items whose texture and flavor come through clearly when eaten.

Abalone shinjo

This is the simmered soup bowl course. The dried sea cucumber ovary isn’t fully dried — it’s more of a half-dried, still somewhat raw state. At the…

• Serves 1 · ¥3,000

• Cook time 1 hr

Kishū-style steamed dish with Ezo abalone, pickled ume, silver sauce, and aromatic tachibana citrus peel

Since it's February, this is a chawanmushi made with plum. For the pickled ume, we use a low-salt type of nankō ume, and use only about a quarter of…

Ezo abalone simmered with sansho pepper, Yamashina eggplant and toji-style yuba, both slow-simmered to soak in flavor

This is the entrusted-bowl course. As for the Ezo abalone simmered with sansho pepper, ordinarily green sansho peppercorns are used, but at my…

Ichigo-ni rice in hot broth

This is the hot-water course served near the end of the meal. Since this book comes out in May, it’s a good time of year to use a bronze soup vessel…

• Serves 1 · ¥500

• Cook time 30 min

Spiny lobster simmered in the shell with egg yolk

This is the simmered course. The menu lists it as shiradatsu — the taro stem also known as zuiki — but blanched taro shoots can be used in its place…

• Serves 1 · ¥2,200

• Cook time 1 hr

Plum hot water

First is the welcome course. Many restaurants serve something like salted cherry blossom in hot water, but I learned of this one at Eihei-ji. At…

Takuan and lightly pickled cucumber

This is the kōonomono (pickles course). For the takuan and lightly pickled cucumber, I make fine kesa-style diagonal cuts on the front of the takuan…

Matsutake mushroom, pike conger poached in kuzu starch

This is the simmered-soup bowl course. The bountiful-harvest bowl uses hamo, and since I learned how to prepare hamo in Kyoto, my method likely…

• ¥3,200

• Cook time 15 min

Walnut Tofu

The walnut tofu served in a lidded bowl is a variation on a milk-and-kudzu confection from the Mineoka region of Chiba. On a double-ring gas burner…

Grilled shiitake with sea urchin set in amber jelly, shintorina and Kyoto fried tofu, dashi-marinated

This is the appetizer course. For grilled shiitake with sea urchin set in amber jelly, both sides of the shiitake are cooked through, then its…

• ¥900

• Cook time 20 min

Omi beef filet

This is the grilled course. For the Omi beef, I use the filet this time. Bringing it to room temperature before cooking and dusting it with…

• ¥3,000

• Cook time 10 min

Sakamoto-style chrysanthemum rice in hot water

This is the hot-water-rice course. As for Sakamoto chrysanthemum yuzuke, in Tokyo there are few opportunities to practice tea-ceremony kaiseki, so I…

• ¥150

• Cook time 10 min

Ise lobster — toji-style turnip purée sauce, plum-blossom-cut carrot, bundled baby turnip, julienned yuzu zest

Take care with the Ise lobster: if it simmers for more than 10 minutes, the meat turns dry and loses its flavor. The sauce poured over the Ise…

Swimming Crab Shinjo

As for the swimming crab shinjo in the simmered-soup bowl course, to keep a handmade feel we mostly use portions scooped by hand at the restaurant…

Layered star flounder with salted sea urchin

For the mukōzuke, the sashimi course, since it’s summer, I used star flounder. I deliberately slice star flounder thick. That brings out the fish’s…

Sake-grilled tilefish

For the grilled course, I wanted a way of presenting it with more impact than other restaurants, so instead of an ordinary konro brazier I use an…

Hakata-Style Uni-Grilled Shiitake, Roasted Chestnuts, Pine-Needle-Skewered Mochi Ginkgo Nuts, Ochi-Ayu in Sake Lees, and Tiger Prawn with Jūsanri

For the appetizer's hakata-style uni-grilled shiitake — hakata being a pressed, layered preparation named for the striped Hakata-ori obi fabric — the…

Pickled daikon, small turnip rice-bran pickle

Sea Bream

For the sashimi course, November at our restaurant usually means more fugu (pufferfish), but for guests who don't care for fugu we serve sea bream…

Spiny lobster simmered whole in the shell, turnip, and garland chrysanthemum

Shrimp-shaped taro simmered to absorb the broth

For the simmered assortment's ebi-imo simmered to absorb the broth, if you don't have rice-rinsing water on hand, parboil it in rice bran instead…