SEARCH

Mochi-textured abalone with persimmon vinegar, Tamba chestnuts simmered in coffee, autumn ayu with water-pepper miso, walnut tofu wrung in cloth, sea urchin jelly with yam bulbils, young kuruma prawns, thin-sliced burdock, jade-green ginkgo nuts, cuttlefish grilled with salted fish innards, moon-viewing lily-bulb dumplings

This is the appetizer course, and I put particular effort into it. For the abalone in the mochi-textured abalone with persimmon vinegar dressing, it…

Oil-cured Pacific saury, duck cutlet sandwich, monkfish liver in a hollowed yuzu shell, and saikyo-miso-cured monkfish

This is the winter course. The Oil-Cured Pacific Saury is made the way oil-sardines are made, but using saury instead of sardine. Soaking it once in…

• Serves 1 · ¥800

• Cook time 1 hr

Seasonal colors (persimmon terrine, potato wrapped in yuba and grilled, stone-wall egg terrine, purple mountain yam nerikiri, roe-bearing ayu simmered and steeped)

This is a seasonal-color course making use of autumn ingredients. For the Persimmon Terrine, I used in-season persimmons to make a persimmon set…

• Serves 1 · ¥400

• Cook time 1 hr

Ginkgo tofu, roe-bearing ayu kombu roll, persimmon tofu-dressed salad, Pacific saury sushi in a kimono-sleeve shape, beef rolled and grilled with leek, cream cheese with salted fish-innard sauce, seasonal vegetables with blanched chrysanthemum

This is the appetizer course. For the ginkgo tofu, I was particular about bringing out the green color of the ginkgo nuts well, so I chose ginkgo…

• ¥600

• Cook time 2 hr

Corn Minegaoka tofu with charcoal-scented thick sauce

I wrap the corn, still in its husk, in plastic wrap and steam it for about 20 minutes in a steamer; once the residual heat has released, I clean it…

• Serves 1 · ¥150

• Cook time 40 min

Autumn brocade platter: kogarashi-yose, smoked autumn duck, oil-simmered roe-bearing ayu, and pike conger and matsutake ōharagi-age

A repeat-visit dish aimed at guests in their 20s and 30s. Why it resonates: a large shared platter that makes people want to take a photo. I designed…

• Serves 1 · ¥180

• Cook time 20 min

Yuba-coated salad, jellied monkfish, smoked pufferfish in vinegar pickle, Yamato yam grilled with nori, yuzu mochi, kokera-zushi, namasu, seared julienned dried squid, and arrowhead crackers

The appetizers are plated as separate individual items so each one can also be served on its own. The uni in the yuba-coated salad is fine to use…

Autumn cream-cheese terrine with chestnut, chrysanthemum, and walnut, Pacific saury rolled into a thin crescent moon, ginkgo cracker, barracuda pressed with chrysanthemum, duck steamed nanban-style

Taro steamed in its skin, salt-steamed aigamo duck loin, smoked salmon kosode sushi, cream cheese sake-lees pickle, fig with white vinegar dressing

For the appetizer course I prepared dishes built around autumn's signature ingredients. Kinukatsugi can be made ahead and plated in advance, but…

• ¥460

• Cook time 15 min

Fresh greens salad, Manila clams, beach silvertop, sea grapes, savory vinegar jelly, octopus rinsed in cold water with egg yolk and salted bonito innards, abalone steamed with sake, white melon kombu-cured and stuffed with new water shield, Manganji pepper with chicken miso

From the shunsai, a seasonal-color course. For the fresh greens salad, green coloring paste is added to the tofu dressing. Manila clams steamed with…

• ¥780

• Cook time 3 hr

Freshly Made Sesame Tofu, Sea Urchin, Kombu-Water Jelly Broth

We insist on sesame that's 'freshly toasted, freshly pressed' and tofu that's 'freshly kneaded': we knead it fresh every day, one hour before…

• Serves 1 · ¥3,000

• Cook time 1 hr

Nanatsuboshi sardine dressed with okara, fava bean and cherry-blossom fragrance jelly, udo deep-fried Tosa-style

Three spring-color dishes. First, nanatsuboshi ("seven stars") dressed with okara: nanatsuboshi is another name for sardine, so called for the spots…

Salmon milt in dressing, colorful namasu, kumquat cream, folded egg dish, herring roe on kelp in sake lees marinade, fertility-motif shrimp, snow-ring lotus root, cod roe sushi, monkfish deep-fried in soba-flake coating, foie gras steamed in egg custard

For the salmon milt in dressing, since some guests dislike the fishy smell of milt, I aimed to remove that smell while keeping its creaminess, and to…

Soba Canapé Style

As for Soba Canapé Style, since a lot of meat scraped from the bones after filleting and similar scraps come out of preparing fish, I steam it, flake…

• Serves 1 · ¥172

• Cook time 30 min

Deep-fried somen, salad-style (dried baby sardines, mizuna, daikon, young myoga, shiso, micro tomato, baby leaf greens, olive oil)

For the sōmen dashi, we add a few drops of olive oil for fragrance. This also has the effect of rounding off the sharp edges of the dashi's flavor…

New-season Pacific saury dragon-skin roll sushi, white taro stem, seared and shredded dried sea cucumber roe, fig with white vinegar dressing, new-season ginkgo nuts in the shell, salt-roasted, pureed chamame soybean soup

This is the appetizer course. The plate is an unglazed, high-fired yakishime dish by Rosanjin. The white taro stem is boiled with grated daikon and…

Shisen Cucumber and Aji Kinuta-Maki

I made this a dish where you can enjoy horse mackerel, which reaches its peak deliciousness in summer, together with crunchy Sichuan cucumber, in a…

• Serves 1 · ¥250

• Cook time 30 min

White asparagus tofu, tomato tofu, water shield tofu, corn tofu, pea tofu, mountain yam tofu, black carrot tofu

A chilled appetizer course. The seven seasonal vegetable tofus create a sense of coolness by unifying all seven components around vegetables. For the…

• ¥168

• Cook time 2 hr

Simmered and steeped — white asparagus, clam, wasabi flower, soy-marinated salmon roe, shiso flower spike

This time, we learned about "sakizuke" (the appetizer course) from Technical Director Yoshiaki Masumoto (Norinchukin Bank Meguro Branch Office). We…

Bottarga and cheese sandwich, deep-fried

For the bottarga (karasumi) and cheese sandwich, deep-fried, karasumi is usually paired with something light and refreshing like daikon, but this…

• ¥320

• Cook time 20 min

Dried persimmon, golden sea cucumber, and walnut salad, monkfish liver wine terrine, smoked silver-shimmer fish styled as a winter camellia, yellowtail sushi fingers rolled kimono-sleeve style, snow crab deep-fried and wrapped in yuba, dried roe deep-fried in a fan-shaped coating, vegetables in a sweet-and-sour achara pickle, freeze-dried konjac and a prized fatty whale cut simmered Yamato-style

For the dried persimmon, golden sea cucumber, and walnut salad, I use a local specialty dried persimmon. The golden sea cucumber is thoroughly…

• ¥950

• Cook time 3 hr

Hell-pickled blue crab, blue crab roe tossed with sansho leaf

This is blue crab hell pickle. It gets this name because the crab is pickled while still alive. I adapted Korean ganjang-gejang into a Japanese-style…

• ¥250

• Cook time 1 days

Simmered octopus, ogura-style, summer abalone in French dressing, white sauce, summer vegetables in amber aspic, smoked salmon and potato sushi, white melon kaminari-boshi, summer duck mousse, twisted sweet potato simmered in lemon, whiting baked with shuto and cheese

This is the appetizer course. For the simmered octopus, ogura-style, the octopus is first salt-rubbed to remove its sliminess, quickly blanched, and…

• ¥120

• Cook time 30 min

Herring roe and mountain yam, black soybeans and lily bulb, candied dried sardines and walnuts

The three-item assortment of celebratory dishes is delicious even prepared in the old-fashioned way, but I added a small twist to each. For the…