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Soup bowl: okoze suppon-style, mugwort tofu, bamboo shoot, myoga, scallion, sansho flower buds

This time, we asked Shimizu Yuji, head chef of the famous Michelin-starred restaurant Nishiazabu Ichino, to introduce us to "Yogurt tofu," a standard…

• Serves 1 · ¥850

• Cook time 4 hr

Suzuki Sea Bass Oil-Marinated, Abalone Slow-Cooked in Oil

Wanting to make a cool, summer-appropriate dish, and since sweetfish is the famous summer fish known for its pairing with smartweed, I decided to…

• Serves 2 · ¥1,400

• Cook time 3 hr

Turban shell with liver dressing, roe-bearing shrimp, spring cabbage Hakata-style, pressed chicken terrine with fava bean aspic, angelica-tree shoot smoked salmon roll, burdock wrapped in conger eel, icefish plum uiro, lotus root stuffed with orange, rapeseed blossom and prosciutto roll

Celebratory dishes. The sazae with liver dressing: the sazae is steamed with sake, then its liver is combined with a tofu-based white dressing to…

• ¥590

• Cook time 2 hr

Grilled Clam Jelly with Wild Mountain Vegetable Salad

For the grilled clam jelly with wild mountain vegetable salad, clams are usually made into a clear soup, where the broth carries a lot of nutrition…

• ¥520

• Cook time 30 min

Wagyu Sansho-Yaki, Eggplant Butter-Soy Grill

A repeat-visit dish aimed at guests in their 20s and 30s. Why it resonates: takes the flavor of yakiniku up a notch. I thought that many people in…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,800

• Cook time 1 hr

Cherry-Blossom Sea Bream and Rapeseed Blossom Kombu-Cured, Butterbur Kosode Sushi, Sardine and Snap Pea Nanban-Marinade, Icefish and Shirataki Noodles with Kinome Miso Dengaku, Cherry-Leaf and Lily Bulb Squeeze, Bamboo-Leaf Mugwort Sesame Tofu, Baby Octopus and Sea Bream Roe Simmered with Cherry Blossom

This is the appetizer course, seven dishes for a spring evening. The cherry-blossom sea bream and rapeseed blossom kombu-cured dish is plated…

• ¥580

• Cook time 2 hr

Juvenile ayu deep-fried with sansho leaf buds

These days, I think the restaurant industry is having a hard time due to a labor shortage. On top of that, we're operating in a very tough…

• Serves 1 · ¥680

• Cook time 20 min

Teapot-steamed soup of peak season and first harvest, kuzu-dusted Ise lobster, abalone, matsutake, spinach, julienned yuzu

This is a dish where you can enjoy together the deliciousness of Ise ebi lobster and abalone, whose umami increases as the cold season approaches…

• Serves 1 · ¥8,000

• Cook time 30 min

Black-Roasted Brown Rice Coffee and Tea Snack

Black-roasting is a technique that has existed in Japan since ancient times; I first learned of it while studying macrobiotics. Carbonizing…

• Serves 1 · ¥180

• Cook time 5 min

Winter melon steamed parcel, summer bracken rolled in fried tofu skin, tender-simmered beef tongue, lotus root dumpling, summer vegetable deep-fried tofu fritter

This is the lidded-dish course. For the summer warabi shinoda-maki, the warabi is first treated as usual to remove its bitterness and simmered to…

Kabocha squash manju chawanmushi with an oolong tea aroma

This is a steamed dish made with oolong tea. For the kabocha manju chawanmushi, I used an oolong that's clean and light, without any off-flavors, to…

• Serves 1 · ¥150

• Cook time 30 min

Chilled verdant egg custard, sardine simmered Arima-style with sansho pepper, pumpkin castella sponge cake, coin-cut octopus fragrant fried, white melon tossed with bottarga, asparagus and bacon egg-yolk grilled, cheese tofu, pork belly simmered Yoshino-style with a kuzu-thickened sauce, hydrangea-style egg, and squid two-color grill

This is the appetizers course. For the chilled verdant egg custard, after making an egg tofu, I puree it in a mixer, combine it with gelatin and…

• ¥300

• Cook time 2 days

Kabocha Manju with Scallion-Ginger Sauce

For the kabocha manju with scallion sauce, I braise Kagoshima kurobuta (a prized black-pig pork breed) pork belly until tender and use it, along with…

• Serves 20 · ¥196

• Cook time 1 hr

Dōman-Gani, Taro Manjū

So that the flavor of Dōman crab -- said to be a phantom crab -- comes through firmly, I wrap the crab meat in taro that's been pressed through a…

Tilefish and early matsutake sandwiched and grilled, beltfish tazuna-yaki, shrimp shinjo naruto, and other dishes

The tachiuo tazuna-yaki: weave the tachiuo into a rein shape, sandwich burdock inside, and salt-grill it. The squid kimi-yaki: salt bigfin reef squid…

Ginkgo mustard manju, gyuhi-style simmered lotus root, Matsumae-style loach, Mikage tofu, masago-style shrimp, sake-lees cured, kuzu manju, salt-steamed abalone with flattened squid and liver, sake-lees cured, soy-dried sweet shrimp, rehydrated karasumi

Ginkgo mustard manju, a steamed dumpling: soften rehydrated ginkgo nuts, mince them finely, and combine with non-glutinous rice flour to make the…

Sajima Octopus, Pear Vinegar

‘Pear vinegar’ is a technique with a long history, but pairing it with octopus reveals a fresh appeal. This is a mukozuke dish, a sashimi course…

• Serves 1 · ¥800

• Cook time 30 min

Salmon pressed in layers, beef grilled into a tree-ring roll, chicken stuffed nested-box style, strawberry daigo tofu-dressed salad, sweet potato simmered in lemon, fir-tree lily bulb, and snowflake lotus root

For the salmon hakata-oshi, I used salami and prosciutto to layer the salmon and a slice of white sandwich bread into a hakata-style press. I tied it…

• ¥873

• Cook time 1 hr

Egg Yolk Shuto Glaze

As for the appetizer "Egg Yolk Shuto Glaze," egg-yolk shuto (salted, fermented bonito innards) is an all-purpose glaze that tastes good drizzled over…

• Serves 1 · ¥215

• Cook time 2 hr

Fava Bean Shinjo

Made to evoke the image of budding sprouts, in the season when many wild mountain vegetables appear.

New-season blanched pike conger, and lime-cured chicken grunt

The new-season blanched pike conger is finished with a plum-and-wasabi flavor, and the lime-cured isaki is brought together with ponzu jelly. To…

• ¥330

• Cook time 1 hr

Sesame tofu

The appetizer is sesame tofu. Normally we'd serve the ingredients laid out across separate vessels, but this time I arranged steamed abalone, caviar…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,650

• Cook time 2 days

Pacific Cod and Snow-Covered Daikon Mizore-Mushi

This is a steamed dish, using Hokkaido overwintered snow-covered daikon and scallion. The Pacific cod and grated snow-covered daikon steamed dish is…

• Serves 1 · ¥190

• Cook time 1 hr

Nanzenji-style steamed tofu with hand-scooped yuba, sea urchin, lily bulb, mitsuba, and silver sauce

This time, on 'steamed dishes,' I learned from chef Yamamoto (Azabu Nagasaka Sarashina Honten). I take up 'Nanzenji-mushi.'