Nikkei Cuisine: Japanese Food the South American Way

by Luiz Hara

At its simplest, Nikkei cuisine is the cooking of the Japanese diaspora. Japanese immigrants have found themselves in a variety of cultures and contexts, but have often maintained a loyalty to their native cuisine. This has required local adaptation over the last 100 the so-called Nikkei community has embraced a new country’s ingredients and assimilated these into their cooking using Japanese techniques. Nikkei cooking is found wherever in the world Japanese immigrants and their descendants are. But, for historical reasons, two countries have had substantially more Japanese immigrants than the rest of the world – Brazil and Peru.

Nikkei cooking has gained popularity in Europe and the USA due to the influence of chefs Nobu Matsuhisa and Toshiro Konishi; the last two decades have seen the emergence of a number of outstanding, creative Nikkei chefs and restaurants all over the world – including Pakta in Barcelona by Albert Adria.  This stunningly photographed cookbook includes 100 Nikkei recipes, including 10 contributed recipes from top Nikkei chefs from around the world such as celebrated chefs Toshiro Konishi and Mitsuharu Tsumura ('Micha') from Peru, Tsuyoshi Murakami from Brazil, Jorge Munoz & Kioko Li of Pakta in Barcelona and Jordan Sclare & Michael Paul of Chotto Matte in London.

Nikkei Cuisine is a ground-breaking cookery book and a must-have for anyone with an interest in Japanese or South American cooking, as well as for those keen to discover cutting-edge cookery and flavours. The recipes range from the simpler Nikkei family favourites (the dishes eaten at home) to the more elaborate and elegant Nikkei dishes served in restaurants around the world.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2015

Reviews

[Nelly Santanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such unique recipes! And very delicious too!
Les traductions en français sont très bien et les recettes faciles à exécuter ! Une bonne manière de découvrir la cuisine péruvienne !

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upfront, I'd note that I read the Spanish version of this, Cocina Nikkei, so I'm making somewhat of an assumption that the content and prose are more or less the same. I'm sure there's some variation just based on the translator, but I'd hope that the gist of the book stays intact. Obviously, anyone who knows me or reads these pages, knows I'm not only fascinated by Peruvian cuisine, but in particular by some of the modern fusion versions, like nikkei cooking, which is the Japanese-Peruvian style that's sort of taking the world on these days. This particular book is more focused on recipes than anything else, but there's a decent amount of history, and personal story, to make it very readable as well. The recipes themselves seem to have been well tested, they're easy to follow (at least from a chef's perspective, but I saw little that I would think a good home cook would have any difficulty following), and sound delicious. I have yet to try any out of the book, but they make my mouth water when I read them, and that's pretty much the goal of most cookbooks!

[Tommy Nakamura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely pictures and recipes.
Bought a copy for a friend whose recently had a baby. A great present especially for Xmas.