Culinary holiday in Japan

By James Stone

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I had always felt that I had been missing out on something when it came to cooking. I could prepare decent enough meals but lacked any real knowledge of culinary processes. What I needed was a good grounding in the basics of cooking. So it was with a strong sense of running before I could walk that I agreed to go with my old friend and fan of all things Japanese, Colin, and head off to Japan for a week-long immersion in culture and cooking.

The culture shock was indescribable. As you may have gathered from previous entries, I am quite well travelled, but little could prepare me for Tokyo. I was overwhelmed. I would have been thoroughly lost, both emotionally and physically, had Colin not been there. He was able to read enough of the signs to pinpoint where exactly we were in the city at any one time and to guide us to our meeting point on the first morning. Here we met with ten other bewildered looking Brits and Americans, all looking forward to spending the next week together.

After a visit to the incredible Tsukiji fish market, which our guide, Benny, informed us supplied around 12 million people a day, it was off to the local culinary school. Here we met chef Setsu, who had many years' of experience in top Tokyo restaurants. "It takes many years to become a top sushi chef," Setsu told us. We would be getting up to speed in just four hours. Setsu could cut and wrap the fish in to beautiful little parcels at an incredible rate. I was somewhat slower and hindered by my dislike of raw fish. For my own good I was swiftly moved on to producing tempura, which was much more up my street and Setsu commended me on my remarkable ability to batter any vegetable with remarkable ease.

The next day we caught the train on to Takayama, where the quiet of the beautiful temples and mountains was offset by the busy food market, which is said to be 600 years old. Benny pointed out a number of local specialities such as miso, san sai, hida beef and soba noodles.

Next it was off to the atmospheric temples of Koya-san, where we were treated to the monks' wonderful vegetarian cuisine amid the grey mists of the mountains. A quite incredible experience.

Our final stop on our tour brought us to the rice plains of Osaka. Here we were invited in to the kitchen of one of the city's top restaurants to make our own octopus balls. Mine came out looking more like octopus alphabet shapes but were delicious. We were then offered the opportunity to visit a nearby fugu restaurant, where we all tried a spot of poisonous blowfish. Not so delicious but extremely exciting!

The week flew by and I was hankering after more lessons, so Colin and I returned to Tokyo and managed to enrol at the prestigious Hattori Nutrition College for one of the establishment's week-long courses. It was fast paced and the instructors expected a high standard of professionalism but it was well worth it. I am now a regular down at the nearest Japanese supermarket and attempt to add an eastern flavour to as many dishes as possible, much to the annoyance of many. My signature dish? Donburi with tempura and octopus balls.