Product Description

Since its release twenty-five years ago, Shizuo Tsuji's encyclopedic and authoritative work has been the acknowledged "bible" of Japanese cooking. Unrivalled in its comprehensive explanation of ingredients, tools and techniques, the book guides readers through recipes with clear prose, while technical points are made understandable with deftly executed line drawings. Much more than a collection of recipes, the cookbook is a masterful treatise on Japanese cuisine. In his preface, the author (who was truly a Renaissance man of Japanese and world gastronomy) discusses the essence of Japanese cooking, with its emphasis on simplicity, balance of textures, colours, and flavours, seasonal freshness, and artful presentation. M. F. K. Fisher's introduction to the 1980 edition is a not-to-be-missed work of food writing. A new foreword by Ruth Reichl and an additional preface by Tsuji Culinary Institute president Yoshiki Tsuji provide culinary and historical context for the 25th Anniversary Edition. Eight pages of vibrant new colour photographs illustrate over seventeen finished dishes. After introducing ingredients and utensils, the twenty chapters that make up Part One consist of lessons presenting all the basic Japanese cooking methods and principal types of prepared foods - making soup, slicing sashimi, grilling, simmering, steaming, noodles, sushi, pickles, and so on - with accompanying basic recipes. Part Two features 130 carefully selected recipes that range from everyday fare to intriguing challenges for the adventurous cook. Together with the recipes in Part One, these allow the cook to build a repertoire of dishes ranging from the basic "soup and three" formula to a gala banquet. Still the foremost source book of cooking concepts and recipes from Japan, the 25th Anniversary Edition of Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art invites a new generation of readers to take a journey to the heart of one of the world's great culinary traditions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #62287 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 508 pages

Nigella Lawson
"... quite the most illuminating text around on Japanese food..."

The New York Times
"I found in Mr. Tsuji's elegant presentation a real-world
articulation of the aesthetic and ideological purity that i had perceived
as the essence of the Kurosawa film; if Kurosawa had ignited my love for
the country, Mr. Tsuji deepened and defined it."

Intelligent Life
"Rare is the cookbook you can read from cover to cover. Rarer
still is one that gives the reader a novel sense of a world discovered...
[Japanese Cooking] is just such a cookbook. For those with even a passing
interest in Japanese cuisine, it is indispensable."

Customer Reviews

The bible of Japanese cooking
Don't be put-off by the fact that this book is over 25 years old, has few photographs, more than 500 pages and that it "takes 20 years to acquire enough experience to make truly perfect rice"!
This book is packed with 220+ authentic, easy-to-follow recipes with interesting comparisons of traditional vs modern preparation techniques and plenty of fasinating background information. Buy Kimiko Barber's "Sushi: Taste & Technique" (Dorling Kindersley) for the basics and the photos but buy this book as your trusted reference work. A must for Japanese foodies.

excellent: ingredients, methods, menu planning
This is an excellent book with an absolute wealth of information on ingredients, cooking techniques, background information and presentation. Several colour plates compliment the recipes but I would have liked more of them. Some menu planning ideas and lots of line drawings illustrating technique. Rather short section on sushi - look elsewhere for that.

The best and most comprehensive Japanese cookbook I know of...
This book is essential if you want to cook proper Japanese food that tastes like Japanese food should do. It covers a wide range of Japanese food types that don't get much coverage outside Japan but are at the heart of Japanese food culture. From fried foods (agemono) and traditional one pot dishes (nabemono) to how to make your own Japanese pickles (tsukemono), you don't get more comprehensive or authentically Japanese than this.
The author is well know and respected in Japan and I know some Japanese people also use this as a reference for cooking, even though this is designed for a Western audience as the introduction shows.