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Black-skin flounder Tōji-style deep-fried, sea sculpin and skate Tatsuta-style deep-fried, roe-bearing sailfin sandfish deep-fried with ponzu

These are three deep-fried dishes devised as a way to cope with rising food costs. I introduce four kinds of inexpensive fish using different…

• Serves 1 · ¥295

• Cook time 1 hr

Horse meat jibu-ni, herring rolled in fried tofu skin, carp fluffy steamed fish dumpling, and Hakata-style layered napa cabbage

This is a modern arrangement of three representative Fukushima local dishes, presented as a takiawase using horse meat, sansho-pickled herring, and…

• Serves 1 · ¥350

• Cook time 1 hr

Spanish mackerel grilled in a spring-mountain style, clam grilled with tofu skin, bamboo shoot grilled with sansho leaf, apricot wafer confection

The Spanish mackerel grilled in a spring-mountain style expresses a scene from my hometown. As for the clam grilled with yuba, if you simply grill…

Spring cabbage with Hakata-style conger eel, king crab rolled in shredded egg, butterbur wrapped in yuba

A simmered dish. For the spring cabbage hakata-style conger eel, since it is the delicious season for spring cabbage, conger eel simmered until…

Small clam adductor shinjo fried in a spiral pattern, crab cracker, sea bream cracker

This is the fried course. For the small clam adductor shinjo, raw fish paste is mixed with beaten egg, minced small clam adductor is folded in, and…

• ¥420

• Cook time 20 min

Shinshu salmon dressed with sunki

This is the appetizer course. Shinshu salmon dressed with sunki: Shinshu salmon is a thick-fleshed, fine-grained fish that's delicious year-round…

• ¥100

• Cook time 1 hr

The Nightingale's Plum

From the theme of heritage dishes, this is ōshukubai, named after the "nightingale's plum tree" of Heian-era poetry. When I was taught this dish…

• Serves 1 · ¥150

• Cook time 1 days

Young kuruma prawn set in consomme jelly, clam and colorful vegetable salad, fava bean, lily bulb, and foie gras wrung in cloth, flounder and rapeseed blossom in a silky egg-white veil, eel rolled in omelet, aigamo duck and asparagus terrine, Chinese yam dressed in sesame

Rather than making this purely a spring dish, we wanted to express the changing of the seasons. We didn't foreground cherry blossoms but used them…

Fresh fish, kombu-cured (using "small sardines, simmered, dried, and roasted")

Heritage dishes. As a dish that makes use of the "small sardines, simmered and dried" I introduced, this is an introduction of…

• Serves 1 · ¥450

• Cook time 3 hr

Spiny lobster simmered in the shell

This is a simmered dish built around the presentation. Spiny lobster simmered in its own shell was given a bold, high-impact plating under the…

• Serves 1 · ¥1,200

• Cook time 1 hr

Tilefish grilled pine-cone-style with sweet white sake, ball-shaped egg-yolk sushi, tree-ring burdock, twisted-rein grilled halfbeak and sea urchin, fine daikon root with bottarga

For the tilefish grilled pine-cone-style with shirozake, the scales are stood up to resemble a pine cone, but since they scorch easily, the skin side…

Bamboo shoot in sansho-leaf miso dressing, icefish sushi, wasabi flower stalks and daikon radish steeped in tosa vinegar

This is course five. For the bamboo shoot dressed with kinome miso, I make an egg-yolk-enriched sweet miso and tint it green with spinach. For the…

Bamboo Shoot Grilled with Kinome; Diamond-Shaped Kamaboko; Clam and Rapeseed-Flower Sushi; Bamboo Shoot Simmered in Shirozake; Icefish, Bonbori-Style Grilled; Lily Bulb and Tachibana Citrus Chakin; Halfbeak, Cherry-Blossom Dried; Three-Colored Dango

Titled "Appetizers, Grilled and Simmered Dishes for Early Spring," this begins with the appetizer course. I prepared a single warm dish, a dish tied…

Snow crab, Kyoto shungiku tossed in sesame, and fermented crucian-carp sushi

As the menu approaches its final stretch, I serve a course designed to encourage more drinking, made with seasonal ingredients, to let guests enjoy a…

• Serves 1 · ¥20,000

• Cook time 2 hr

Conger eel rolled in thin overlapping daikon layers, icefish fried in a green-herb batter, turnip simmered white, and butterbur wrapped in fried tofu skin

This is the simmered course. For the conger eel sendan-maki, daikon is cut into thick rotary-peeled ribbons and rolled around simmered conger eel…

• ¥40

• Cook time 15 min

Cherry Salmon with Smoked Egg-Yolk Coating, Conger Eel Tree-Ring Kinome-Yaki, Sweet-Simmered Baby Turban Shell

This is a grilled dish. For the cherry salmon with smoked egg-yolk coating, the salmon is marinated in a three-part equal-ratio marinade, grilled…

Cherry salmon grilled with cherry fragrance, butterbur simmered green, stretched dried salted salmon kidney, lily bulb Oribe-style chakin, fava beans simmered over direct flame

The lantern-shaped garnish sitting on top of the cherry salmon grilled with cherry fragrance is made by first boiling cod trimmings once, then…

Monkfish tomozu

At the restaurant where I work in Oarai, Ibaraki, monkfish is an ingredient we use often during its harvest season, from November through March. By…

• Serves 1 · ¥350

• Cook time 40 min

End-of-season pufferfish and wagyu, assorted preparations: miso-bed-pickled rib-eye grilled over a wire net, seared rib-eye, pufferfish flesh-and-skin roll pintxos, cold-smoked pufferfish nigiri sushi, translucent-sliced pufferfish skin with cream cheese, saimaki shrimp marinated with spring citrus

The miso-bed-pickled rib-eye grilled over a wire net and the seared rib-eye both use the same single rib-eye; cooking it before pickling in miso…

Five kinds of ball-shaped sushi, scattered sushi for the Doll Festival

This is the rice course. Since it is March, I made five kinds of temari-zushi and a slightly unconventional Hina Matsuri chirashi-zushi. At my hotel…

Grilled Tororo Rice

Grilled Tororo Rice is made by forming small portions of tororo — made from the heritage vegetable Matsushiro nagaimo — together with Kaze Sayaka, a…

• ¥130

• Cook time 20 min

Clam

In honor of the Peach Festival, the egg tofu is cut into a diamond shape.

Monkfish with liver-miso sauce in a hollowed Kōgyoku apple

This appetizer uses monkfish and monkfish liver as end-of-season ingredients for March. In this monkfish tomo-miso in a hollowed Kōgyoku apple, the…

• Serves 1 · ¥450

• Cook time 30 min

Free-range chicken Kansai-style seasoned rice with bamboo shoot, carrot, burdock, thin fried tofu, shiitake, and mitsuba

This time, on 'shokuji,' I learned from chef Tamura (Shiodome, Conrad Tokyo's 'Nihon Ryōri Kazahana'). This time I take up 'kayaku gohan.'