Customer Reviews

Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

IMO, one of the most innovative chefs of our time. I absolutely love his combination of knowledge of tradition, combined with his blatent disregard of the constraints of tradition. The photography is superb, showing his mastery of plating skills and hinting at his highly advanced knife skills. He clearly goes beyond traditional Japanese cuisine, bringing in influences from multiple other cuisines. While this is certainly a great coffee table book to look through just for inspiration and to stir conversation, it is also a great book for the innovative chef to cook from.

My only minor, very minor, criticism is that a few of the pages have the text written over a background pattern, making it a bit difficult to read those few pages. It's worth the effort to read them anyhow.

This book has been carefully edited and is a most readable English, having lost none of the skill of the chef from it's editing. Actually, the editing enhances your understanding of what Morimoto is thinking. He is an obviously sophisticated thinker in terms of how he designs 'his cuisine.' The recipies are really quite straighforward, simple in the Japanese sense of having worked hard to remove complexity. Some of the ingredients are not common, but to worry about that is to miss the point of the book - innovative fusion cuisine at it's finest. You are given sources for ingredients, so you should be able to duplicate the recipies nonetheless. This book challenges your preconceptions with stimulating recipies, beckoning you to stretch your own culinary skills.

When the likes of Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, and Ferran Adrin, all masterfully innovative chefs, praise this work, I know I'm in good company.

I simply love Morimoto!

The best part of this book is not so much the recipes, but the insight into japanese cooking, tools, spices and flavoring. If it were not for Morimoto, I would never have know that I have been eating sushi the wrong way all of these years!

The recipes that you will most likely use and find invaluable can be found in the back of the book and include broths and sauces. Many of the dishes seem rather simple to make and do not require any high end items or foreign ingredients - the Japanese Egg Castella being my personal favorite.

This book receives four stars only because I wish it contained more recipes!

Aesthetically, this cookbook is quite grand, offering tons of full-page, color pictures, and even entire spreads dedicated to demonstrating the process of properly slicing fish, sashimi-style. The pictures pop on nearly every page, and it gets you ready to cook, ready to sharpen your knifes. The only issue? Almost every recipe contains very difficult-to-find ingredients, and a quick read through of what is actually needed can be a bit of a reality check. You realize that only by going to a specialty market will you be able to recreate the dish, and therefore cooking these recipes requires a bit more dedication than you may be used to with your other cookbooks--this one can require planning ahead.

But don't get me wrong--if you are serious about cooking and about experiencing some of Morimoto's brilliant, layered flavors, then this cookbook is a great item. From what I have made, I can say that all the dishes have been fantastic--worth the effort, and really tasty (I've cooked the steak with Asian seasonings, the prosciutto-wrapped diver scallops in roasted sweet onions, and the tuna pizza). The only thing I wish the book went into a bit more is the process of making sushi. Morimoto does include his recipe for the perfect sushi rice, but never really gets into the specifics of making sushi at home (and it doesn't help that there are tons of colorful pictures showing vast arrays of sushi, none of which are joined by a recipe).

In the end, you have a section of the cookbook titled "For Contemplation," and some desserts. Both include many somewhat bizarre-sounding dishes created around seafood--squid, for example, and whether or not I would ever actually consider cooking any of these dishes I'm not sure. This cookbook, to be sure, is for those that enjoy the time spent in the kitchen, and want to take on some challenges. Morimoto don't play around, and he certainly doesn't play by convention....

For celebrity cookbooks, sometimes it's tough to determine how much the book is about the chef, and how much is about the food. In this case, the book falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

The lessons on knives, rice, and sushi, for instance are very tough to apply. Hard to relearn his 4 years of being a rice apprentice in just a few pages, and other than "Get great fish and sharp knives" it's hard to pick up the sashimi cutting techniques. Most of these sections are, "I'll have to try it at his restaurant"

On the other side, there are several "I think I can do that" recipes. The recipe for Pork Kakuni (a fantastic dish at restaurant) leaves the reader thinking, "I can do that" as does the braised Cod. Many of the other recipes are somewhere in between. The caveat on practicality is the book definitely assumes access to a good Japanese food and grocery store. Fair enough given the author.

Try it out!

Christmas Day '07 - I decided to make a dinner solely out of recipes from Chef Morimoto's cookbook. My first course consisted of the miso braised short ribs tempura. The short ribs that are available to most grocery customers are definitely not a good or as meaty as the ones restaurants receive. This is common knowledge. The ribs lacked the flavor I expected and I thought that the ribs were better without the tempura than with. My second course was the crispy duck. I followed the directions and bought all the necessary ingredients, but was disappointed with the results. For all of the rubbing and dipping I expected the duck to have killer flavor, but it fell short of my desires. All the food I made tasted good it was just not as good as I had hoped. You just can't beat the real deal.
The introductory pages and informational inserts were excellent. There is a ton of worthwhile educational reading in the book. Sadly, there are some pages with a horizontal background that are difficult to read. I have watched Chef Morimoto on television and have frequented his restaurant and will leave our relationship that way.

Length:: 1:40 Mins

Masaharu Morimoto is one of the few chefs I've seen on tv that I've been really impressed with. His execution is flawless, everything he makes looks delicious even if it involves a food I don't like, and he just plain seems like a cool guy. His book, Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking offers a ton of great recipes as well as some background information on Morimoto, and his insights on certain aspects of Japanese cuisine and presentation. There have been some minor criticisms that this book isn't exactly traditional Japanese cuisine, and the title of the book should make it clear that he wasn't going for that, but reading the introduction, you'll understand why Morimoto doesn't want to be held back by tradition. He wants to make new things, try new takes on old dishes, and enjoys combining one style with another. Take one look at his tuna pizza, found in the Sashimi and Sushi section, and you'll see how seemingly crazy ideas work.

The book is divided into the following main chapters:

Sashimi and Sushi
Rice, Noodles, Breads, and Soups
Fish and Shellfish
Duck, Chicken, Pork, Beef, and Lamb
Vegetables, Tofu, and Eggs
Recipes to Contemplate
Desserts
Stocks, Oils, Spices, and Sauces

I'm no chef, but recipes are written so simply that it's hard to mess up anything in here. Ingredients that might not be found at your local store can be found at the specialty markets in the back of the book (though there is a typo saying that one Uwajimaya shop is in Beaverton, Washington...when in fact Beaverton is in Oregon). The majority of the recipes have short introductions by Morimoto where he describes the dish or talks about how he came up with it, and the presentation of the book is beautiful. If anything, my only complaint is that there could be a few more pictures for some dishes, but 90% of them are covered perfectly. I especially liked the chapter breaks where Morimoto talks about Japanese knives, seaweed, plating and more. He comes off as a teacher giving history lessons on the subjects, and genuinely wanting to help out those who read the book, and never sounds full of himself. The introduction alone is worth checking out this book. Morimoto really did work his way to the top, and I have full respect for the guy.

If you haven't picked up a copy yet, do so before it goes out of print again. I'm a picky eater but this book has encouraged me to try new things. Here's hoping for a second book that's just as good or even better, if possible, than this one.

Cooking. For me this is an orgasmic book of unmeasured proportions.

I have loved Iron Chef. I have loved Japanese cooking and finally the two have merged and come full circle. On viewing the book it's self - wow. A nice presentation. A heavy slightly over sized cookbook. The editing of this book is very well done. Nice graceful modern designs. Page after page of glossy step by step images and techniques, and notations on traditional Asian ingredients and how that translates to using and accessing them (or a finding suitable substitutions) in the US . If I ever wanted to publish a cookbook, it would be in this style.

This book showcases why Chef Morimoto is at the axis of a foodie empire, in this creative and intuitive take on Japanese cuisine. When I read this cookbook, I felt like the foodie version of Being John Malkovich , as this book allows you to peer inside the thoughts and actions of this culinary genius.

In relation to skill level, I would recommend this book to people who have at least an intermediate knowledge of culinary techniques. The beginning home cook might not know how to utilize or apply the techniques Chef Morimoto has outlined in this book.

It would be wise to do some further research on Japanese Culinary techniques also, as this book can only highlight certain facets of the cuisine itself and not act as a reference manual or course book on Japanese Cuisine as a whole.

If you have ever had an inkling of adoration for Asian style cuisine, or are awestruck at the complexities of the full spectrum of Professional Japanese Culinary , as I am, you would enjoy this book.

Highlights of this book include:

* An in depth look at how the Japanese chef works his knife magic to create beautiful Sashimi w and Sushi w works of art out of various ingredients - parts of fish, Octopus , and Various Vegetables .
* Recipes that are full of depth and charisma.
* Master recipes of various sauces and marinades.
* Text about the origins and importance of ingredients utilized in Japanese cuisine.
* Beautiful photography displaying the frame by frame procedures for each culinary technique, and the eloquent plate presentation for each recipe.
* A glossary of Japanese terms , as well as a source guide for obtaining specialty ingredients.


Overall this book is a wonderful culinary journey that enables the reader to cultivate a better understanding of chef Morimoto, Japanese cuisine and the culinary revelations that Morimoto has contributed to todays culinary field. I loved this book!

Morimoto's book is just simply gorgeous. You may want to transfer the recipes to a card and leave the book out of the kitchen if you tend to try and cook and read the recipe at the same time (a bit messy and you definitly do not want a stain in this book).

Others have mentioned that some of the ingredients are difficult to find. I think they have not gotten to the end of the book where there is a listing of suppliers. Most of the items can be found easily in a good Asian grocery store if you are lucky enough to have one where you live.

This book also gives you great insight into the mind of an amazing chef and the care taken from the choice of ingredients to the preparation, execution and presentation of a dish.

I don't know about other readers, but I enjoy watching "The Iron Chef." Whether it's Bobby Flay or Cat Cora or Mario Batali or Morimoto or. . . . It's just fun to watch the challenger and the Iron Chef take some specified food and try to build a meal around it. And this represents Morimoto's art and craft.

On the inside dust jacket, a key phrase reads: "Masaharu Morimoto's cooking has distinctive Japanese roots, yet it's actually, as the Chef calls it, 'global cooking for the 21st century.'" I suppose one could, then, refer to this as a kind of fusion cooking. Whatever one calls it, the recipes included here are intriguing. I look forward to trying a number of these.

One interesting passage, at the outset of the volume (Page 7): "After dinner at one of Morimoto's restaurants, diners often say to him, 'We love what we've eaten, but it was not Japanese food.' His response, 'Why isn't it Japanese, and why must it be?'"

Perhaps sensibly, the recipes begin under the heading "Sashimi and Sushi." Then, a section on "Rice, Noodles, Breads, and Soups." One recipe that struck my fancy was "Morimoto Chicken Noodle Soup." It includes some standard elements, but also some things one might not ordinarily experience in chicken noodle soup, such as sake, Sichuan peppercorns, Shanton broth, white soy sauce, ginger, and so on. It looks like it takes a fair amount of preparation, but, boy, does it look tasty!

Under "Fish and Shellfish," there is an interesting Braised Black Cod recipe. Cod fillets, cooked with sake, ginger, soy sauce, mirin, tamari, and sugar. One also creates a vegetable ragout, with carrots, bamboo shoots, burdock root (!!), shiitake mushrooms and so on. The photo accompanying this gets my taste buds going!

No need to go on and on, but one more example. . . . Asparagus salad looks most tasty! Green and white asparagus spears, prepared along with tomatoes, shiso leaves, olive oil, black pepper and juice of one sudachi or key lime.

So, this looks like a lot of fun. It also looks like it's going to take a fair amount of preparation for many dishes (on lazy days, that would deter me; on more creative days, that would spur me on!). So, if you are interested in Japanese cooking that is not necessarily Japanese cooking, this could be a nice find.

Just got this book, and it's really great, I'd say it's a must have for foodies and fans of japanese cooking. There are lot's of recipes and how to instructions, great photos. I wasn't a fan of the Iron Chef, but then on a whim we tried his restaurant in Philadelphia and all I could say was "WOW, this man is a genius". I have been waiting for a cook book from him ever since. It really was the best food I've ever eaten. I don't take seriously the celebrity chef TV stuff, glitzy restaurant, it's only intriguing to me. But his genius with food has made a believer out of me. For me, Morimoto the chef means quality and perfection, this book is exactly that. I plan to buy several copies this Xmas for gifts.