Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese Cuisine

Wow.As of today, the cheapest price for this book is 289 USD. And honestly... I can understand the demand for it! This book is superb, both in content and in form. Anything but a practical Japanese cookbook, this is the most serious reference about umami you will find. For anyone who's been to Japan and eaten the real thing, vivid memories of tasty, succulent, juicy, intense, and flavourful sauces and soups are pavlovian reflexes to the words "japanese food" - and the reason of this is dashi.Just like the core of french cooking are sauces and stocks, the heart of Japanese food is dashi - a basic bouillon made with water, konbu seaweed, and bonito flakes. This book goes into the heart of how to make dashi, and how much variation there can be with such a simple recipe! This books recalls traditional japanese chefs anecdotes, histories and ideas around dashi (and how one chef exclusively uses water from Kyoto transported to his restaurant in Tokyo just because it's a little different).This is simply a work of art. Just like all things in Japan, details make the difference. Poetry at places and practical advice at others, readers won't find many recipes or secret tricks to make sucessful japanese goodies. But they will discover the depth of Japanese mentality, and learn how the simplest things are the hardest. A wonderful and intemporal gift for someone who loves Japan, its food and its traditions.A beautiful book with a tangible soul.

I lived in Japan for a few years in the early sixties. I was a kid and my father was teaching at a university there. Food then was very traditional, few western foods were available, even in Tokyo. What is now thought of as Japanese food: tempura, sukiyaki and sashimi, were rarely prepared in home kitchens and were only found in restaurants. In homes, in ryokan and country-side restaurants the cuisine was very different, more seasonal and with less meat. Dishes had few ingredients but very specific, painstaking cooking techniques. Dashi and Umami nearly perfectly describes this cuisine and, in the process, strips Japanese food to its bare essentials. If the heart of French cuisine is its sauces and the basis of chinese food lies in the principal of ying-yang, dashi, the ubiquitous kelp broth, is the essence of Japanese cooking.This wonderful book is a great corollary for its subject: simple yet deep. Graphically it is warm, yet minimal. The beautiful photographs tell exactly what you need to know but no more. Though it has only thirty-odd recipes, they are organized seasonally, precisely chosen to illustrate the concept of umami. A couple of the recipes I cook often. They remind me of my grandmother, who ran a restaurant in the Japanese ghetto of downtown Honolulu before WW2. She was from Wakayama and cooked in a regional, provincial style. Like this book, her food was odd, slightly exotic but ultimately hearty, satisfying and full of umami.

I absolutely (please excuse my spelling, i'm spanish) loved this book, not only the content, the book in itself is a beautyful object, printed with care, and the pictures are incredibly beautyful.The 1st part has 4 different subchapters where 4 chefs of great japanese restaurants explain how they make dashi and produce recepies with dashi for each of the 4 seasons of the year.after that there is a comprehensive explanation on each of the ingredients used for dashi and on umami's taste perception.to make a long story short, beautiful and perfect in content. and for a passionate lover of japanese cuisine.hope you find this interestingregards,[...]

Amazing

The book traces the discovery of umami by professor Kikunae Ikeda and the creation of monosodium glutamate, but that is only a tiny bit of Dashi and Umami.This book includes the contributions of many star chefs, including Takashi Tamura (of Tsukiji Tamura), Eiichi Takahashi (Hyotei), Kunio Tokuoka (Kyoto Kitcho) and Yoshihiro Murata (Kikunoi). Photos of their kaiseki cuisine make this a handsome coffee table book, and students of Japanese cuisine will be impressed with the depth of information on umami-rich ingredients like kombu, katsuobushi, niboshi, and shiitake, all of which are essential in making dashi. Even water around the world is ranked from soft to hard--a hot topic for kaiseki chefs who have traveled the globe.Umami has been covered in many other books, and not always well, but this work captures the essence and explains it without missing any details. The tutorials on dashi may change the way you make this staple at home. The end of the book includes simple home recipes that are easy to incorporate into your repertoire.

i think this is a MUST have. so beautiful! useful in the kitchen. beautiful in the living room. bought one for myself and a few for gifts for my favorite friends. total winner!

absolutely the best Japanese cookbook in printnow

The book is vey nice just to look at, but if you decide to cook some of the recipes, make sure you have both a decent fish market and a good Japanese grocery store nearby. In case you don't, be brave and substitute boldly. The dishes still turn out fantastic and with a touch of finesse you cannot achieve with recipes intended for the mass market.

Just to warn you it has nothing to do with Hesten BlumenthalVery good book going into great detail on the different dashi stocks and umami favourswould recommend this book to pro chefs but may be too much for beginners.

A great book, specially for lovers of japanese flavours. Recommended for professionals and gourmands.