Kaiseki Chronicles #3

It’s been almost two months since our kaiseki place opened. Many things have changed already, which was kind of expected. I guess that is the way it is in the beginning stage at most of newly-opened shops/restaurants. More than half of the waitresses left and now the newcomers are trying hard to get used to their new work environment. One of the cooks already left, too. Meanwhile, I discovered some new things about kaiseki cooking in the past two months. One of the new discoveries was the way traditional Japanese chefs use special chopsticks for putting foods in serving bowls or on plates. The chopsticks are longer than regular eating chopsticks, and they have extremely pointy tips. They are called “moritsuke-bashi” and they look like this. 　 When I saw the cooks using the moritsuke-bashi, I understood why they say, “If you are clumsy with chopsticks, you can never be a good Japanese chef.” Often in traditional Japanese cuisine, just a mouthful amount of food is elegantly placed in a teeny-tiny serving bowl and topped with things like a few flower petals or extremely thin strips of citrus rind, etc. I used to think that arranging foods that way must be easier with fingers or a tweezer-like tool than chopsticks, but I was wrong. Fingertips are not pointy enough, and sometimes tweezer-like tools cannot easily release what they picked up. In that sense, I think chopsticks are really something, and I respect those who can use them skillfully. (As you might already know, I’m helplessly clumsy with chopsticks.) Those skillful people must have some extra nerves in their fingers… or maybe I'm lacking some of the nerves that should be there... It is unfortunate that the kitchen staff do most of the preparations in the daytime before I come to work and I cannot see how they cut/season foods. One thing I really want to learn is how they make dashi stock. I like the taste of simmered dishes they serve at this kaiseki place now, and I think dashi stock is the key. They don’t seem to be using extremely expensive kelp or bonito flakes -- the difference must be in the technique. That’s the secret I want to steal… BTW, I have a question to those who work/used to work at restaurants. At your workplace, are kitchen staff allowed to bring their cell phones into the kitchen and use them when not busy? I don't mean to say it is a good or bad thing to do; I'm just curious. Categories: Kaiseki