Japanese Food Anime

Five years ago, I was introduced to the wonderful Japanese food manga, Oishinbo, which I described in a my post of June 6, 2010. I have recently come across two Japanese food anime, which, though pretty silly on many levels, are really fun to watch, and educational about Japanese food and the Japanese character.

Shokugeki no Sōma (Food Wars) is a series of 24 anime, each about 24 minutes in length, but you can get the down to about 20 minutes if you skip the credits at the beginning and end (be careful, though, since there is material after the final credits). Shokugeki means food war, and each episode involves at least one of these.

Sōma and his arch rival, the God Tongue

The story follows the fortunes of Yukihira Sōma, a high school student who cooks with his father at what appears to be an ordinary diner, but isn't because his father is in fact a brilliant chef. When his father leaves Japan to travel the world and cook in various countries, he sends Sōma an invitation to compete for entrance into Japan's most elite cooking school, Tōtsuki Teahouse Culinary Academy, which has a graduation rate of only 10%. Of course he gets in, but he is resented by many of the elite snobs whose parents are important chefs or people in the food world. Notwithstanding that, he has his friends, too, most notably Tadokoro Megumi, a talented girl chef who gets her confidence and inspiration from Sōma. One of the reasons for Sōma's success is that he has actual experience cooking for customers, rather than abstract culinary knowledge: this is an important message that is repeated frequently. And as a mere transfer student without a fancy pedigree, he becomes the embodiment of  Japan's fierce work ethic

The challenges sound simple enough (for example, make an egg dish or make a curry dish), but the creations the competitors come up with are dazzling, and the commentary from the judges about the combinations of flavors and ingredients are pretty amazing, too. The level of care and intense thinking and experimentation are actually in evidence in today's Japanese cooking, which reaches incredible heights, as my recent posts indicate.

[Warning: this series, like many Japanese manga, plays to a number of juvenile male fantasies, and features girls in school uniforms (see above), lots of boobs and food orgasms. Silly and harmless, but possibly offensive to some.]

I have only just started the second series, Yakitate!! Ja-pan (literally Freshly Baked - Ja pan, with pan meaning bread in Japanese), also about a young boy, but this one is a baker. Kazuma Azuma, who starts baking bread at age six, is said to have hot "solar hands," which his first teacher, who trained in France, says is a rare gift given its name by thFrench.

In the first episode, the six-year old Azuma tries to convince his grandfather, a rice farmer and lover, to eat bread, but the old man says he will do so only if it goes with natto (pungent fermented soybeans) and miso soup. Of course his first bread doesn't do this, but his baking sensei (teacher) comes up with a bread made with soy milk, which complements the soybeans at the base of both natto and miso soup. Grandfather loves the bread, and Azuma's calling as a bread baker is established. He is on a quest, like his teacher, to create great Ja pan, "a Japanese bread made by and for the Japanese people, which can be presented to the world proudly."

Yakitate: Kazuma Azuma with friends and rivals

Ten years later, like our friend Sōma, Azuma enters Pantasia, the most prestigious baking academy in Japan, and his trials begin. I can't report yet, since I have only watched one of the 69 episodes, although it was very interesting and accurate. I shall report back when (if) I finish the series.

Happy watching!

Bobby Jay

Chef's Table -- A Feast for the Eyes and the Brain

I have just watched the six episodes of Netflix's Chef's Table, a new series of six documentaries on some of the best, and most interesting, chefs in the world. Produced by David Gelb, who produced and directed Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the films explore the cuisine produced by the selected chefs but, more interestingly, they focus on the roots of and motivation for the extraordinary creativity of the chefs. Along the way, the viewer is treated to a myriad of images of magnificent, mind-blowing food.

The fantastic chefs who are the subjects of the series are:

• Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana, Modena
• Dan Barber, Blue Hill, New York City
• Francis Mallman, Buenos Aires
• Niki Nakayam, N/Naka, Los Angeles
• Ben Shewry, Attica, Melbourne
• Magnus Nilsson, Faviken, Jarpen (Sweden)

Obviously, they are all brilliant and accomplished, but it is their connections to the earth, the farm and, most important, to other people, that provide the fuel for their spectacular creativity. All struggled early in their careers but persevered and ultimately succeeded through the power of their creativity and passionate sense of mission. Their stories are compelling, well-filmed and, as noted above, accompanied by spectacular pictures of their food, a few of which are set out below.

Magnus Nilsson's signature scallops grilled over juniper

Ad for Chef's Table

Niki Nakayama

Massimo Bottura

Dan Barber

Massimo Bottura

Nikki Nakayama

Perhaps because it is first, I liked the episode on Massimo Bottura the most, but reactions will no doubt vary based on viewers' food preferences and life and travel experiences. But no matter which episodes resonate most for you:  Chef's Table is a must for foodies (and you are one if you are reading this). If you have somehow resisted subscribing to Netflix (and thereby missed  the wonderful House of Cards, among other things), this should get you over the top.

Bobby Jay

Haute Cuisine -- Excellent New Food Movie

I just watched Haute Cuisine, an excellent French food movie that is based on the story of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuche, who spend two years as François Mitterand's private chef at the Élysée Palace while he was President of France. (The French title is better: Les Saveurs du Palais, which includes a double-entendre, since palais means both palace and palate.)

An established chef from Périgord, Hortense Laborie is engaged to prepare for Mitterand the cuisine de grand-mère, literally. He wants dishes that recall the ones his own grandmother made, in his words "the best of France," and Hortense obliges with magnificent traditional creations. She is fought at every turn by the all-male 24-chef brigade that prepares the official food of the Palace, a somewhat over the top bunch of macho fools, and later by Mitterand's doctors and some petty accountants who call into question her produce orders.

Highlights of the film, for me, were the many spectacular food and cooking scenes and also some beautiful quotes from Edouard Nignon's Éloge de la Cuisine Française (In Praise of French Food), which according the film was Mitterand's favorite cookbook (apparently he loved reading them as a child).

From the start of Nignon's recipe for Caneton de Rouen Surprise: "Du pays de Pierre Corneille . . ." ("From the land of Pierre Corneille . . .").

And Nignon's recipe for saddle of veal: “Order from the land of lush pastures, from Normandy, where the highest quality cows and calves are rampant, a saddle of young veal, whose flesh must be as white as the finest poultry. Gird it, wrap it around four times with string. Cook in blond butter in a shallow braising dish until golden.”

As Mitterand notes, they just don't write like that anymore.

Hortense (Danièle) is brilliantly played by Catherine Frot. The aging Mitterand is played by Jean d'Ormesson, the brilliant author and member of the Académie Française who is making his film debut at age 92. He is charming but not especially convincing; still, it's a bit of a thrill to see him.

Foodies will love this film.

Bobby Jay

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

I just watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary about Jiro, an 85-year old sushi chef who runs what is supposed to be the best sushi restaurant in Tokyo, Sukiyabashi Jiro. The ten-seat restaurant, on a basement floor in Ginza, has received three stars from Michelin. Jiro's is not a place to go for drinks, appetizers and a few pieces of sushi. There are no appetizers, just a 20-piece set menu that starts at 30,000 yen (about $375) per person. Not to worry, though: it's impossible to get a reservation.

The movie is delightful, with great images of sushi and every stage of sushi making, from the shopping at the Tsukiji fish market, to the preparation of perfect rice, to the cutting (and sometimes cooking) of the fish and assembly of the finished bite. The subtext of the movie is how passionate Jiro is about his work, and just how hard it is to be a great sushi chef. Early in the movie, Jiro sums it all up, with appropriate Japanese modesty and understatement:

Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That's the secret of success and is the key to being regarded honorably.

Only in Japan.

Bobby Jay

Julie and Julia - The Movie

Saw Julie and Julia last night and really enjoyed it. As expected, Meryl Streep was an absolutely perfect Julia Child, and Stanley Tucci was also excellent as her husband Paul. The lesser plot about Julie Powell (ably played by Amy Adams), the young secretary/blogger who decides to cook all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, was better than I had expected based on the reviews. Indeed, I think it was essential to prevent the "main" Julia story from becoming a mere bio-pic.

The movie is an exuberant celebration of food and eating, cooking and writing about it. But it also makes the point that cooking for others (and it always is for others) is essentially an act of sharing. Both Julia and Julie cooked out of love for their husbands and friends (and in Julia's case the entire American public), not just to find something to do. To me, this is the film's real message and what makes it so poignant.

I have read and enjoyed both of the books that the film is based on, and found the movie to be true to the books, but, especially as regards the Julia story, to be much more; the food photography and styling are superb, Paris is at it most lovely, and Streep's Julia is more alive than the one on the page.

A must-see for anyone who reads this blog.

Bobby Jay

Food Movie -- La Grande Bouffe

La Grande Bouffe, one of the best-known movies about food, has recently become available in the US on DVD, so I watched it again for the first time in many years.

Directed in 1973 by Marco Ferreri, La Grande Bouffe is a French black comedy about four men -- a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret, one of my all-time favorites) -- who go to a villa in France with the goal of eating themselves to death. What follows is an orgy of lavish food and sex (added to the festivities almost as an after-thought).

I found the movie to be black, indeed, but not comic. Indeed, it is profoundly sad and a reminder that food is not the be-all and end-all of life. Worth seeing, as any film with these four great actors would be, but not if you're expecting to laugh.

Bobby Jay

Food Movies Revisited

In my post on Food Movies I noted that I had not seen Eat Drink Man Woman. Recently some friends suggested that I this was a major omission and lent me the DVD. They were totally right. How could I have missed this movie for so many years?

Directed by Ang Lee, this is a lovely film in which magnificent Chinese food plays a starring role; indeed, food is the means by which the family that is at the center of the film communicates. The food is sumptuous beyond description and the story of how a widowed master chef and his three daughters seek to find themselves, happiness and one another is moving and well-told. Definitely among the top half-dozen food movies ever made.

Bobby Jay

Oops, Left Out the Best Food Movie

Hard to believe, but my earlier post on food movies omitted the best food movie of all time (well, maybe second after Babette's Feast): Ratatouille. My wife saw it without me and concluded that I, Bobby Jay, am in fact Remy (see portrait above left), the charming Parisian rat/chef in the film, or vice versa; either way, I take that as a compliment. Thanks to the person who reminded me (and who wishes to remain anonymous).

Bobby Jay

Food Movies

Food movies form a subgenre of food literature, and there have been some good ones. Of course, the best ones are not just about food, but about people in interesting situations. I list a few below, but solicit recommendations from others because I am sure I am omitting many.

The greatest food movie is certainly Babette's Feast, a French/Danish movie in which a French chef uses her dazzling cooking skills to wake up an entire Danish town of straight-laced protestants.

I also love The Big Night, which has a lot to say about the origins of interesting Italian food in America but also about family.

An excellent but less well-known food movie is a French movie, A Chef in Love, about a French chef in Georgia during the period of the Russian Revolution.

I also liked Mostly Martha (a German movie) and, to a lesser extent, the American remake, No Reservations.

And Chocolat, a nice story with the wonderful Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.

Although not a food movie, there are some magnificent (if somewhat implausible) food scenes in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence.

Finally, two well-respected food movies that I don't know well are Ang Lee's The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.

Bobby Jay