Story of Commit

The owner met Mr. Yoshida, an organic vegetable farmer, in Inagawa-cho, Hyogo, about15 years ago.
It all started when Mr. Yoshida, who had been searching for restaurants that would make use of his organic vegetables, came to Sakurae.

The owner had already been using organic vegetables at the time, but was not satisfied with the ones available in the market. So he visited Mr. Yoshida’s farm at a later date.I remember us talking about “the kinds of vegetable I want” and “the kinds of vegetables he wants to make” on and on for half a day at his farm.Many years have passed since then. Mr. Yoshida continues to make tasty organic vegetables only for Sakurae.

As I am meticulous when it comes to ingredients and ways to savor them, Mr. Yoshida’s vegetables are indispensable for my dishes.These days, I take my apprentices and students from cooking school to his farm to show them that “excellent dishes are born when the passion of producers who grow good ingredients earnestly and our passion for cooking are combined.”

I have always liked trying new cooking methods and continued to commit myself to finding “ways to relish ingredients themselves.”

For example, there is a cooking method in Japanese cuisine called “taki-awase”.
Multiple ingredients are cooked separately, then served together in one plate. But I start to think that “they could be cooked together with the cooking techniques of nowadays” or “the flavor may even deepen” and I cannot stop widening my imagination.I bring in various kinds of utensils, too.

Grill in Grill made by Vita Craft brought in recently is an excellent utensil for cooking soft and hard ingredients at the same time. We cannot reveal the cooking temperature since it’s our business secret, but potatoes, which becomes mushy in 20 minutes, and abalone, which needs to be cooked for at least 3 hours, can be cooked together in this grill. After cooking for 90 minutes, they turn out soft yet firm, each flavor enhancing one another.The difficult part is that the cooking methods change depending on ingredients and their combinations. I suppose finding out the best methods through trial and error is my lifework.

It is natural that French restaurants have many kinds of wines, but when Japanese restaurants have various types of sakes, people tend to think them as izakaya (casual pub). I have always wondered why.

Sake is only the alcoholic beverage in the world that has “four seasons.” Sake’s flavors change with the seasons, but as they are not suitable for maturing or storing like wines, sake was rarely shipped to faraway places and mainly served hot just until a while ago.
However, thanks to the development of distribution networks, sake can be enjoyed cold nowadays. At Sakurae, we have many kinds of sake selected by me, regardless of brands.
I can say my sake mentor was the lateMr. Yoshimasa Ogawara, the President of Shinkame Brewery. Thanks to him, I have been able to hold sake lectures and events featuring sake and Japanese cuisine in the recent years.

In addition, I am also focused on offering a good selection of wines so that both wines and sake can be enjoyed at our place. My wine mentor is Mr. Tsuneo Imamura of Chateau Katsunuma. He produces a wine named after our restaurant.

The interior of the restaurant is combination of classic and modern styles, and its key element is Japanese classical culture. The frame at the entrance encloses a writing by Raitei Arima, the head priest of Shokoku-ji Temple School of the Rinzai sect.

The leading authority of Zen and chanoyu (tea ceremony), gave us the following message: “Naonokoto Gennogotoshi” (straight like string). We always try to cook with sincerity to live up to these words.