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Shrimp-shaped taro simmered with chrysanthemum, raw cod roe kombu roll, Chinese water chestnut wrung in cloth, plum-cut carrot, fragrant wild mushroom simmered with pickled plum, spiny lobster in a kuzu-thickened simmer, early butterbur stalk simmered green

For the simmered dishes, the chrysanthemum-simmered shrimp-shaped taro is first simmered in a seasoned broth, and once it is lightly cooked through…

Tilefish grilled with a dappled fawn pattern, Noda-style grilled beef and kinpira burdock, pufferfish leek roll

As for the grilled beef and kinpira burdock Noda-style grill, beef and burdock turn out to go together surprisingly well — I think it makes for an…

Octopus simmered in fish sauce

Ise lobster simmered with fermented black beans, sweetfish simmered with plum, small taro simmered golden-style, winter melon simmered in salt, red konjac finished with a pan-simmered touch, hyacinth bean

The fermented black beans used in the simmered Ise lobster with fermented black beans are a Chinese ingredient, similar to Daitokuji natto or…

Plum Delight

Grilled Jidori chicken tenderloin with shuto, three-color tazuna sushi

Raw octopus and cockle, quick hot-water rinse with ume paste

The sakizuke stands in for the sashimi course; the raw octopus and torigai are given only a quick hot-water rinse (yu-arai), just enough to lightly…

Bamboo shoot tofu fritter with wakame-thickened sauce

This time, since it's a simmered dish course, I used bamboo shoot and wild mountain greens, both spring ingredients. At our restaurant we buy many of…

Small Taro and Rock-Textured Tofu

Scallop, udo, and shiitake mushroom; seri with mustard hitashi

This is the additional hearty course. Everything up through the grilled course makes up the one soup and three dishes that form the basic kaiseki…

Eel rolled in soy milk skin

Shirona Greens and Clam Soup, Fugu Skin Two-Layer Aspic

There are two appetizers today. For the shirona greens and clam soup, I use shirona — a mild, characterless leaf vegetable that, back when I worked…

Conger eel roll in thin overlapping slices, spiny lobster with sesame-thickened sauce, new potatoes simmered with bonito flakes

This is a simmered dish. As summer approaches, the conger eel sendan-maki can be enjoyed just as well served cold. The new potatoes simmered…

Cherry-Blossom Daikon Plate, Kombu-Cured Rapeseed Blossoms

The sashimi course is horsehair crab garnished with kombu-cured rapeseed blossoms, crisp udo, and the like. If the ice-water rinse is done too long…

Apple-Bowl Serving, Turnip-Bowl Serving, Purple Potato Shaped as an Akebi Pod in a Hollowed Bowl, Chrysanthemum-Cured Sea Bream, Chrysanthemum-Cut Ark Shell

Smoked Late-Season Kamasu with Grilled Buckwheat Groats; Miso-Grilled Ebi-Imo with Foie Gras; Golden-Grilled Pressed Lily Bulb

This is the grilled course. For the smoked late-season barracuda, I fillet the fish into three pieces, salt it, marinate it in a wakasa-style…

Bountiful-harvest pike conger, sudare-fu sandwiched with shrimp and simmered, hand-pulled yuba simmered with kuzu, Jōshō taro simmered with bonito flakes

This simmered dish is bountiful harvest pike conger — pairing the last hamo of the season with new-crop rice. The rice is soaked in water, dried, and…

Ceremonial dried abalone, crab Kōrin-plum crackers, plum-branch denbu, kobore-ume dressed in white, sea urchin grilled with sheet sake lees

This is the appetizer course. For the crab Kōrin-plum crackers, I knead in a paste made from the pressed lees of the tiny-shrimp soy sauce mentioned…

Shrimp-shaped taro deep-fried then simmered, new bamboo shoot, splendid alfonsino simmered with ginger

Deep-fried shrimp-stuffed zucchini

After the zucchini is stuffed with a fish-paste dumpling filling, it's first cooked through in a convection oven. If it's cooked too soft, though, it…

Blanched taro shoot roll wrapped in yuba, crab kombu roll, plum-simmered udo, tender-simmered baby octopus

For the blanched taro leafstalk shoots yuba roll, the shoots are wrapped in yuba. It is then given a seared color and steeped in the braising liquid…

Kichiji rockfish grilled, marinated in a citrus-mirin-soy sauce, tilefish green-vegetable grill, king crab sea urchin grill, Mount Daisen tofu miso-pickled

For the tilefish green-vegetable grill, tilefish is soaked in a sake-and-salt brine, butterflied open kannon-biraki style, and rolled with eringi…

Splendid alfonsino plaster-style simmer; tree-stump-cut daikon simmered with fried tofu; pinecone-cut taro rustic simmer, and more

This is the simmered course. As for kinmedai shikkui-ni: I named it this way because the characters look good together — it has something of the feel…

Temari potato and Ise lobster deep-fried in rice-cracker granules, shaped to resemble cocoons, coin-shaped lily bulb deep-fried with Uji tea

For the aizakana course's temari potato and spiny lobster deep-fried with tama-arare, I cut only the upper meat of the spiny lobster into small dice…