Kaiseki at Home

My story

While I always loved eating I never in a thousand years thought that I would end up becoming a chef.
I was always gifted in all science subjects so naturally I chose to go to university to become a researcher. What I soon learned however was that I would not be doing fancy experiements and lots of hands on work in a lab or workshop – I was on the path to write papers my whole life or become a “project manager” in some kind of big firm. I honestly hated that prospect from the start, but at the same time I wasn’t ready to admit that I had made a horribly wrong choice.

A string of coincidences (one of them working part time in a authentic japanese restaurant) and some pretty hectic life events later I ended up applying to culinary school in Kyoto and getting accepted.

Spoiler Alert: It ended up being the absolute best choice I have ever made!
In the name of complete honesty: my first one or two months were pretty tough. All my classmates were a lot younger than me – because they are japanese and very polite they were too shy to talk to me in the beginning. In subjects that had lots of specialised vocabulary like law and hygiene I felt like I was looking up every other character and as Kyoto is in the Kansai Region of Japan I was struggling with understanding the dialect.

But after those initial hurdles were overcome I felt like I was just sailing thru life. I learned not only how to prepare traditional Japanese cuisine from scratch, but also the history and theories behind it: tea ceremony; Ikebana; pottery; Kyoto Cuisine; Sushi and probably most famously: I passed the license exam to prepare pufferfish. And because Kyoto is such a hub for all things traditional I also got to take additional courses outside of school like how to make Wagashi (tea ceremony sweets) and I became a Sake Sommeliere and patissiere as well. I was just so in love with it and I wanted to know EVERYTHING. I think it’s safe to say that I live and breath Japanese Cuisine, especially Kaiseki Cuisine.

Oh and if you were wondering about my experience until now: I staged at Kyoto Kitcho (Arashiyama), Kikunoi Roan, Kikunoi Salon de Muge, Gion Sasaki, Tankuma Kitamise and Kumahiko.

My approach

I know very well that it is highly unusal at best and cultural appropriation at worst for a white person to make a blog about a cuisine that is not culturally or ethnically theirs.

I suppose my saving grace is, that my only professional background lies in Japanese Cuisine. My promise is to stay 100% true to japanese teachings and be absolutely and uncompromisingly traditional about it. What I am introducing to you on this site will be ultraorthodox japanese cuisine and not drift off into fusion. Check out my portfolio here.

That’s why I see myself as more of an ambassador and tour guide of traditional Kaiseki Cuisine. I am simply taking you along on a journey to explore all that is Kaiseki Cuisine and what I learned during my time here in Kyoto. When I initially decided that I wanted to learn authentic and extremely traditional Japanese Cuisine I was pretty disappointed that there were no good source materials in English. Like at all. And that’s actually a big part of why I wanted to start this website. So you don’t have to put in so much time and work to get to where I’m at! And of course I hope that more people fall in love with Kaiseki Cuisine just the same as me – it is such a fascinating topic!

I’m lucky in the sense that I can read the Japanese source material and as a matter of fact there is actually lots of it out there! From an outside perspective the world of japanese cuisine might seem very much shrouded in mystery, but in reality all the fantastic cook books just don’t get translated because the market (supposedly) isn’t there.

So I’m here to share my absolute and giddy joy about the wonderful world of Kaiseki Cuisine with you!