Tokyo New Wave

JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • Showcasing the new talent of Tokyo's vibrant food scene, Andrea Fazzari profiles 31 chefs who are shaping the future of one of the world's most dynamic cities. In a luxe collection filled with portraits, interviews, and recipes, author and photographer Andrea Fazzari explores the changing landscape of food in Tokyo, Japan. A young and charismatic generation is redefining what it means to be a chef in this celebrated food city. Open to the world and its influences, these chefs have traveled more than their predecessors, have lived abroad, speak other languages, and embrace social media. Yet they still remain distinctly Japanese, influenced by a style, tradition, and terroir to which they are inextricably linked. This combination of the old and the new is on display in Tokyo New Wave , a transporting cookbook and armchair travel guide that captures this moment in Japanese cuisine and brings it to a savvy global audience.

"Fazzari employs all of her skills as a writer, photographer, and dining consultant living in Japan in this insightful look at the current Tokyo food scene. . . . This is a unique cookbook, and in Fazzari’s hands, Tokyo’s culinary culture comes to life."
--* Publishers Weekly *

"For all of us cooks, Japan, Japanese cuisine, and Japanese chefs spark fascination—fascination for their movements, their ingredients, and the richness and appreciation of details. Japanese cuisine teaches me that the simple is complex and that the complex is not easy. . . . When I went to Japan the first time I believed that I knew a little bit about Japanese cuisine, but I was wrong. Today, after more than ten trips to Japan, I can assert that I don’t know anything about it, which enhances my fascination. Andrea Fazzari’s beautiful, captivating book enhances this fascination even more."
-- Alex Atala, Chef, D.O.M, São Paulo, Brazil

"It is so exciting to read Andrea Fazzari’s striking book about this collection of young Japanese talent. They have opened the doors for the world to see one of the most dynamic culinary traditions in full-on evolution. I see cooks from everywhere who are influenced by their ideas and are racing to see more." 
-- Michael Anthony, Chef, Gramercy Tavern, New York City

"Andrea Fazzari is one of the most amazing photographers and food writers. . . . Her photographs always make the food look so seductive."
-- Gaggan Anand, Chef, Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand

"Looking at the pages of this striking book filled with Andrea Fazzari’s beautiful photography and insightful words, I inhaled the aroma of a fascinating culture as if I were actually on a journey through Tokyo. Its chefs, although young, are mature beyond their years, constantly offering extraordinary emotion to the world. Buon viaggio!"
-- Massimiliano Alajmo, Chef, Le Calandre, Padova, Italy

"I love Tokyo. It has one of the very best dining scenes in the world, and I have been fortunate to eat in many of the featured restaurants. I am a true fan of Andrea’s work; she is an exceptionally talented photographer. Due to her utilization of natural light, she gives each picture so much appeal and a true storytelling quality. Tokyo New Wave is an amazing work of art that will not only appeal to chefs and foodies, but also to travelers and all those who admire beauty."
-- Richard Ekkebus, Chef, Amber at The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

Autorentext

Based in Tokyo, ANDREA FAZZARI is a photographer and writer who specializes in portraiture, travel, and the culinary world. Fazzari was chosen as one of "30 Photographers to Watch" by Photo District News in 2004. Her editorial and advertising clients include Travel + Leisure, Departures, Saveur, Cathay Pacific Airlines, and Four Seasons Hotels. Visit tokyonewwave.com to learn more.

Zusammenfassung
JAMES BEARD AWARD WINNER • **Showcasing the new talent of Tokyo's vibrant food scene, Andrea Fazzari profiles 31 chefs who are shaping the future of one of the world's most dynamic cities.

In a luxe collection filled with portraits, interviews, and recipes, author and photographer Andrea Fazzari explores the changing landscape of food in Tokyo, Japan. A young and charismatic generation is redefining what it means to be a chef in this celebrated food city. Open to the world and its influences, these chefs have traveled more than their predecessors, have lived abroad, speak other languages, and embrace social media. Yet they still remain distinctly Japanese, influenced by a style, tradition, and terroir to which they are inextricably linked. This combination of the old and the new is on display in Tokyo New Wave, a transporting cookbook and armchair travel guide that captures this moment in Japanese cuisine and brings it to a savvy global audience.

Leseprobe
INTRODUCTION 

Above all, this is a book of portraits, visual and written, of thirty-one chefs: thirty men and one woman. 

It is a book about personality, identity, feeling, emotion, food, and Japan itself. 

These chefs share their lives, their city, their country, and their humanity with me through the medium of food. Dining at their restaurants is never just about food; it is an accumulation of countless aspects that come together in the final expression on the plate, in hospitality, in service, in decor. 

Food is at the center of culture—inherent in it is ceremony, politics, health, tradition, art, pleasure, satiation, agriculture, storytelling, and science. It is life itself. For many of these chefs, this is the first time they are part of a book, the first time they are even photographed or written about in this way, let alone by a foreigner. I am privileged to learn about these people, and privileged to spend time with them. I feel a great sense of honor and responsibility. This project is personal and has filled me with emotion, as does Japan itself. 

In a country where craftsmanship, hospitality, and attention to detail are an art form, it is here in Tokyo that I feel drawn; it is here that I feel compelled to live, learn, explore, and understand. Both tradition and innovation are alive and well here, and it is this mix that is utterly compelling and vibrant. 

Many in this newest generation of established Tokyo chefs are quite different in their attitudes and approach to dining than chefs were just ten years ago; as a group, they are much more open and less strict or mysterious than their predecessors. Japan is still a country not only deeply entrenched in local culinary tradition, but also fascinatingly influenced by other cultures, perhaps more so now than ever. Many chefs of this generation have lived abroad and are as consumed by social media as people are anywhere else; they are curious, ambitious, funny, warm, exacting, confident, sometimes complicated, and unsure. 

Many are good friends, and if not, they at least know of each other, as they are part of a rather small community within a vast city. Their precision and pride, their sense of honor and dedication to their craft, their grace and the manner in which they manifest who they are and what it means to be Japanese, is, to me, an unparalleled way of existing in the world. Any chef who has never been to Japan, anyone who is fascinated by food but who has never been to Japan, is simply missing out. He or she is unknowingly unaware of a whole universe that embodies the epitome of gastronomy, where the array of flavors, of techniques, of ideas, and of ways of cooking, thinking, and behaving, are on some other sublime plane separate from the rest of the planet. I came to live here amidst all of this, amidst all the countless details, in appreciation of the millions of peopl…