Tokyo Cult Recipes

by Maori Murota

With more than 100 recipes from the gastronomic megacity, Tokyo Cult Recipes demystifies Japanese food to make it simple for everyone to enjoy. Maori Murota, a Japanese cook who was born and bred in Tokyo, is passionate about the Japanese cooking she learned from her mother, and wants to share the dishes eaten in homes and local restaurants across the city. From the cult classics of sushi and miso to the perfect rice, gyoza, ramen, donburi, bento, tonkatsu, and mochi, Tokyo Cult Recipes will transport you to the heart of the city and its food culture.

Following on from the best-selling New York Cult Recipes and Venice Cult Recipes, Tokyo Cult Recipes is another beautifully illustrated recipe book and travel guide in one, with bespoke photography of Tokyo food markets, street scenes, kitchens and food producers.

About the author
Maori Murota grew up in Tokyo and is a freelance Japanese cook now based in France, specialising in Japanese family cooking. Maori has worked as a chef at Parisian restaurants D\o and Bento at La Conserverie. She is now an event caterer and private chef, giving classes in Japanese home cooking.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Japan, Reference, Asian Literature

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Maori Murota grew up in Tokyo and was inspired to write this book by her mother’s cooking and memories of growing up in Tokyo, cooking at home, eating out. Her mission is to demystify Japanese food, to make it accessible and understood by anyone and everyone interested in learning about a food culture and eating well. Maori left Japan when she was 17 to live in New York, and also spent time in Indonesia. In 2003 she settled in Paris, where she worked as a stylist, before exchanging the world of fashion for food in 2009. Completely self-taught, Maori became chef at Parisian restaurants D\o and Bento at La Conserverie. Now an event caterer and private chef, she also gives classes in authentic Japanese home cooking.

Reviews

[Maud]

Finally found a good Japanese cookbook that is about more than just sushi and noodles. The book itself is gorgeous, drawings and pictures are included on almost every page. The recipes are easy and clear and I can't wait to try some of them out myself. Highly recommending if you want a more traditional cookbook that is also easy to follow if you are not from Japan.

[Liselotte]

So about 6 years ago I wrote a review on this book and being all like: "yeah nice but not foro me" and I do not understand what's wrong with me because obviously this has some great recipes that I'm dying to try out noow???? Truly, I'm dumb and this is just a cookbook full of comfort meals on the most part.

[Bloodorange]

Nie dogadałam się z tą książką. Większość przepisów wymaga nieoczywistych składników/ zieleniny/ przypraw, lub bardzo tłustych mięs. Do tego dużo zdjęć, i _malutka_ czcionka.

Jako alternatywę polecam "Japoński rok od kuchni".

[Tea]

Great pictures and recipes that look good

[Sandra || Tabibito no hon]

Było pięknie i pysznie, czyli jak na japońskie jedzenie przystało. Książka jest podzielona na 6 rozdziałów - śniadanie, obiad, bento, podwieczorek oraz kuchnia barowa i rodzinna. Najwięcej przepisów znajdziemy w tym przedostatnim. Różnorodność dań jest na spora, znajdziemy tu te najbardziej typowe, ale i takie, o których słyszę po raz pierwszy. Oczywiście przekąsek również nie zabrakło. Na samym końcu dostajemy aneks, szczegółowy spis treści (co jest niezwykle pomocne!) oraz kilka adresów do odwiedzenia, o ile uda nam się wpaść do Japonii, z wyjaśnieniem dlaczego warto tam zajrzeć.

Jak oceniam zrozumiałość?
Autorka bardzo prosto tłumaczy czynności i czasem prezentuje sposób przygotowania na zdjęciach, co jeszcze bardziej ułatwia sprawę. Do tego często po bokach można znaleźć nadrukowane dopiski i rysunki (notatki), byłam nimi zauroczona. Bardzo spodobało mi się również zachowanie japońskiego nazewnictwa w nagłówkach - każdy trzymał się schematu: transkirypcja polska - tłumaczenie - zapis japoński.

Jak to wygląda?
Przy każdym daniu na samym początku dostajemy informacje o czasie przygotowania, dla ilu osób jest przeznaczone oraz spis składników. Niżej znajdziemy zwięzły opis czynności, a treść jest wzbogacona o piękne ilustracje, czasem między przepisami są wstawki zdjęć sklepów i dzielnic - wizualnie jestem kupiona.

Przeczytałam wszystkie przepisy, by zweryfikować poziom trudności - bo właśnie tego mi zabrakło, jakiejś skali! Zapisałam sobie dania, które będę w stanie przygotować, na pewno postawię na tamagoyaki oraz tonkatsu. Jednak w słodkościach też się zakochałam i na pewno coś wypróbuję! Bardzo spodobał mi się szczegółowy opis przyrządzenia ryżu, bo dla mnie zawsze było to wyzwanie, nie lubię się z ryżem, mam nadzieję, że ten przepis to zmieni!

Smakowo jeszcze nie ocenię, ale na pewno będę stopniowo wszystkiego próbować. Na ten moment, jeżeli lubicie japońską kuchnię i szukacie inspiracji do gotowania, to zdecydowanie ten przepiśnik jest dla Was - sporo różnorodynych pozycji i zrozumiała treść, autorka przedstawia japońską kuchnię z sercem. Ja na pewno będę korzystać.

[Thomas]

This recipe book is a collection of authentic, simple and easy to follow Japanese dishes, organised by meal type. Each recipe comes with a beautiful photo of well presented food, with additional helpful drawings, shop/restaurant photos and explanation around Japanese food culture that provides some context to people new to Japanese cooking.

Personally I will be trying some recipes from this book, especially if I don't want to invest too much time in cooking, but I may use this more as a reference for what Japanese recipes I could cook before finding more complex versions elsewhere. Additionally, providing a regional context for each of the dishes would have been interesting if included.

[Shannon]

3.75

[Kris]

Wow, this book is gorgeous!

I'm super impressed with the lovely but simple layout, easy-looking recipes and fun cultural photos thrown in every now and again. I can't wait to stock up my pantry with some basic ingredients and start cooking my way through this book! The only concern is trying to find some of the ingredients listed so easy access to an Asian supermarket is pretty much a necessity for some of the items listed.

Definitely recommended for anyone who wants a simple Japanese cookbook that shows far more than just sushi or noodles shown from a Tokyo perspective. Comfort food here I come!

[Shatiel]

Interessanti alcune ricette, ma veder chiamare degli "spaghetti alla napoletana" e veder tra gli ingredienti il ketchup....mi ha fatto alzare gli occhi al cielo.
Molte ricette poi non mostravano un'immagine del risultato, cosa assolutamente necessaria per una cucina straniera di cui conosciamo quasi niente.
Rimane comunque difficile da realizzare se non si ha accesso a un supermercato rifornito di ingredienti per la cucina asiatica.

[Dave Bruno]

I picked this book up due to its striking cover design and its subject matter. I just got back from Japan earlier this year and had the itch to try and make some of the food I made there. This book is fantastic for that. You may need an Asian Grocery Store near you to make the most of it, but I really love how simply everything is laid out. My most impressive looking dishes have come from this book. I’ve heard this to be considered “the de facto book for Japanese cooking” and I have to agree.

[Felicia]

Uncomplicated recipes and background on ingredients. Some of the ingredients may be hard to source like yukari; acceptable substitutions would be great. I look forward to making many of the meals described starting with the fried lamb and cilantro gyoza.

[Chris Williams]

Fantastic cookbook with a great mix of traditional and modern recipes, and a really useful appendix of ingredients and breakdowns of iconic foods and quintessential Japanese foodstuffs. If you like Japanese food this is well worth it.

[Adam Bailey]

The best Japanese cookbook I’ve come across. A great mix of street food and home cooking. Beautiful photos, great layout and well written recipes. Everything I’ve cooked has worked as expected and been delicious.

[Philip Berghan-Whyman]

Easy and delicious. I've found most of the ingredients through our local Asian market and our butcher. The recipes are simple yet delicious, and I'm getting more adventurous as I cook more dishes. An excellent buy.

[Paul Dupree]

Classic Japanese dishes

I grew up in Japan so when I say this cookbook it reminded me of my childhood. Great selection of everyday foods and wonderful phots of the various dishes. Now, to try and make them all!

[Dray]

This book has excellent fairly mainstream dishes that are popular in Japan, or specifically Tokyo. A few I could characterize as cult. I found the pages on Japanese cooks and food culture to be some of the best I have read (admittedly not a huge amount). Worth reading and making.

[Christina]

I'm 80% done with Tokyo Cult Recipes: A good intro to the mysteries of Japanese cuisine. Easy to read and as entertaining as it is informative the recipes can be accomplished by the average cook and the ingredients demystified for those who are new to Japanese cuisine.

[Zeno]

Tolle Rezepte, sehr praktisch anwendbar und kombinierbar.

Das Buch ist eine Übersetzung aus dem Französischen, leider sind einige Dinge unvollständig/inkorrekt/inkonsistent übersetzt, so dass man manchmal etwas raten muss um die Lücken zu überbrücken. Daher 1 Stern Abzug.

[Alisa Burdick]

Fascinating

Ms. Murota wrote a book that perked my Weeb brain. I found recipes that I really want to try! I even found a recipe from an anime I love! If you're a fan of Japanese culture, anime or cooking; I encourage you to get this book!

[Matthew Woodcock]

Great book with pretty easy recipes. The pictures and instructions were amazing. I am excited to try more and more of these recipes.

[Rochelle Benoit]

Can't wait to try out all of the delicious recipes.

[Nishelle D’souza]

beautifully illustrated book with wonderful recipes

[Meredith]

Really cool cookbook that gives insight on the culture behind each dish - not just the recipes!

[Sarah]

Cook books are a comforting read, and this is a pleasing one, simple and straight-forward.

[Kristin]

Beautiful photos and simple recipes. Can’t wait to try some of these

[Veronica]

Pictures and the appendices were nice, there was an over-hard boiled egg in the ramen recipe picture.

[Teresa]

Qué bien me lo voy a pasar...

[tagiii]

All of this is short recipes with minimal contextual text. Honestly, half of the page count is composed of full page photos that don't offer a lot of insight in the process towards the finished product. Nothing is super secret or rare, easily found on google.

Was this author even a Chef? They claimed to be the Chef of her former restaurant on the back of the book, but I can't find any info on her actually being a head chef. Further research has shown me that they left the restaurant they were working at so they could start a more lucrative catering business. If she held a higher "chef" title like sous or exec, I feel like that'd be mentioned enthusiastically. My intuition tells me she tapped out at commis, chef de partie at best. She claims that she left the fashion world to cook because it was too fast paced.... as if the average line cook's night isn't hell. Pretty disrespectful to people who've worked a decade for the title, when she can just buy her way up.

[Stephen Simpson]

I really don't see what's "cult" about any of this - these are pretty standard Japanese dishes, and certainly not exclusive to Tokyo.

The recipes are okay-to-good, as are the photos. None of the recipes are rare or in any way special, but I suppose this is a more convenient collection for those who want a relatively thorough overview of major Japanese dishes.

[Mehsi]

Prachtig boek met mooie fotos en ook leuke recepten en informatie over Japan en eten. Zeker een aanrader!