What is the appeal of the COOK JAPAN PROJECT?

The project highlights how world-renowned chefs reinterpret Japanese ingredients through their own culinary language. At the opening reception in Tokyo, Yannick Alléno showcased this appeal with original dishes combining Japanese products and French sauce techniques.

How does Yannick Alléno use Japanese ingredients in this menu?

Yannick Alléno combines Japanese ingredients such as Matsusaka beef, uni, smoked eel, Ariake Sea nori, Shizuoka caviar and Wakayama Kiyomi oranges with French culinary techniques, especially his patented extraction method used in sauces.

COOK JAPAN PROJECT ~A Closer Look at Its Appeal~

What do the world's chefs find in Japanese ingredients, and how do they cook them?

Published on 08/04/2019 at 00:00

COOK JAPAN PROJECT launched on Friday, April 5, 2019, at COREDO Nihonbashi Annex, the former site of “Sant Pau.” What is the appeal of this project? We report part of it through the original dishes by Chef Yannick Alléno served at the opening reception.

Menu pour TOKYO 2019 par Chef Yannick Alléno

1. Tartlet of pumpkin extraction

2. Langue de chat, smoked-eel cream

3. Pie kneaded with Ariake Sea nori, buckwheat-grain risotto

4. Modern remoulade of celeriac

5. Soupe de poisson

6. Cheese soufflé, fresh Shizuoka caviar and a watercress coulis from the Shirakami-Sanchi, Akita

7. Flatfish, green-pea risotto

8. A5-rank Matsusaka beef and uni, smoked eel, an homage to onigiri, with gold-leaf consommé / salad of beef tongue and green asparagus

9. Crème brûlée using Kiyomi oranges from Wakayama, a sweet-spice and citrus pie

10. Mille-feuille of coffee sorbet and chocolate meringue, a chocolate dessert

11. Bonbon caviar chocolate

Modern remoulade of celeriac – a modern reconstruction of France's traditional celeriac salad. Over a jellied celeriac extraction, a sauce of aged-egg-yolk mayonnaise, tomato, curry and balsamic vinegar.

Matsusaka beef and uni, smoked eel – grilled Matsusaka beef topped with smoked eel, uni, and a grilled risotto fragrant with nori and aosa seaweed. The sauce: a caramel vinegar.

Beef-tongue salad – the tongue is wrapped in kombu and cooked at low temperature for 12 hours. Served with three sauces: lemon jelly, turnip extraction with ponzu, and cider vinegar.

Gold-leaf consommé – savor the rich interplay of wagyu, uni and eel, rinsing the palate from time to time with the consommé.

Dessert bonbon chocolate, with caviar – at Chef Alléno's request to “use Japanese caviar,” Shizuoka caviar was chosen. Whereas Russian caviar is usually heated to around 60°C, this one is completely fresh. “It's a stroke of luck to be able to eat caviar this fresh, since imported caviar tends to oxidize,” says Chef Carme Ruscalleda. As it is only caught until the end of March this season, it is truly the season's last domestic fresh caviar.

The sauces that Chef Alléno calls the “verb” of cooking employ, throughout, his patented “extraction” technique. “I want people to enjoy and discover the marriage of Japanese ingredients with French-cuisine sauces made using the latest technology,” he says.

Chef Carme Ruscalleda, who takes the project's final turn, said: “Drawing on the knowledge and experience of Japanese ingredients I've cultivated through ‘Sant Pau,' I want to pair them with Spain's outstanding ingredients such as Iberico pork and olive oil, and devise a menu worthy of closing this project.”

From April 12, the turn of Chef Thibaut Sombardier of “Antoine” (Gault et Millau 14.5 points) in Paris begins. The young chef, who once trained under Chef Alléno at “Le Meurice,” receives the baton from his mentor and takes on Japanese ingredients.

[COOK JAPAN PROJECT official site] https://cookjapanproject.com/

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