Page 17 - seniors today August issue
P. 17

contains tools with the bandanna serving as           concepts and stories behind each dish,
        a napkin, the menu… inside the measuring              satisfying our curiosity about this show of
        tape! Deconstructed Japanese classics                 wizardry and whimsy.
        using seasonal ingredients, and oh yes… all

        vegetarian!!






                                                               Deconstructed sushi
                                                                                            Inspired by candy floss


        Hammer, shovel and other
        tools to eat with        Menu on a measuring tape

         The usual basics of molecular cuisine
        - sous-vide cooking, effervescent foams,              Tapas Molecular Bar           Tapas Molecular Bar
        chemistry-lab equipment - transform                   Narisawa
        things we eat as if by a wizard’s wand,
        conjuring, in unconventional ways, familiar           Narisawa and his groundbreaking cuisine at
        ingredients. Master cooks are alchemists,             his iconic restaurant, has become a must do for
        turning gnarled root vegetables into                  visiting gastronomes. Narisawa melds classical
        delicate sea foam, hazelnuts into digestive           French gastronomy with Japanese principles,
        liqueur, combining spices and chilies into            local ingredients and molecular techniques.
        a paste that burns and soothes at the same            Taro potatoes from Ishikawa, lotus root from
        time. Dinner is interactive and inventive,            Hokkaido, strawberry and yame matcha from
        full of surprises, as objects transform,              Fukuoka, are just some of the ingredients in
        liquid nitrogen floats across the counter, a          the deliciously rich fourteen-course omakase
        mint meringue soaked in liquid nitrogen               vegetarian menu. Responding to seasons and
        explodes in your mouth and the resultant              landscape, his recipes are ground breaking,
        smoke is exhaled out of the nostrils.                 especially the ‘Satoyama Scenery and Essence
        Different tools like hammers and shovels              of the Forest’, an elaborate edible landscape,
        are used to prepare and consume each dish.            evoking the forests and fields of rural Japan.
        Although the experience - for an intimate             The ‘Soil Soup’ which is, to quote him, “a dish
        group of just eight diners per seating -              that contains my conviction for a natural
        makes this Michelin-starred restaurant                environment so safe, you can eat the soil itself.”
        exclusive, the atmosphere is casual and               Combining the deep, earthy flavor of actual
        comfortable. Chefs chat enthusiastically,             soil from the pristine mountains of Nagano
        explaining preparation techniques,                    Prefecture, the food is “beneficial to both body
                                                              and spirit and a continuously sustainable
                                                              environment which we call Innovative
                                                              Satoyama Cuisine.”


                                                                   Beauty on a plate at   Seasonal vegetables at
                                                                   Narisawa               Narisawa

        At work in Tapas Molecu-
        lar Bar                Beautiful plating









        17
                                                                                   SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 2
               Tricks of molecu-  Unusual vegetables
               lar gastronomy
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