Ready, Steady, Cook

On the Saturday 28th Feb, we all visited the Ecole de Cuisine et Nutrition Hattori in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Yuki's brother, Kentaro, used to work for a credit company but grew tired of office life and decided to throw caution to the wind and train to be a chef. He's been training now for the last two years and I think will soon start work at a French restaurant. 

Saturday was an open day where the students got a chance to impress visitors with the fruits of their labour. There were a lot of people there and a lot of displays to get through - I felt a bit like Alan Partridge at Swaffham County Fayre. Kentaro's creation is the picture at the top of the page.

There were a lot of oddities on display which always adds a bit of interest. The oddity that caught my eye was this roast chicken, which looked like it should be behind doors in Area 51. A bit odd!Still, there were a lot of great exhibits that obviously took a long time to complete. A lot of the students presented 'French' or 'European' style food, but I was much more impressed with the simplicity of the Japanese foodstuffs.

Perhaps my favourite display was that of a Japanese garden. As you can see below, the detail is quite fantastic! Rice for gravel, sushi for the river bed and path, red fish for flowers, and small cuts of sashimi for paving slabs. Very impressive, even if I do detest fish! I would love to know how many hours were spent preparing that. Clara began to tire of traipsing through the many rooms of food, so we decided to wait outside while the other members of our group finished the inspection. As we were making our way out, we stumbled upon a display of wedding cakes, my favourite being the cake modeled on a horse racing course. Wow! Anyway, that's it for now.