Intro to Advanced

    Advanced Japanese Cuisine is a three-week course taught by Chef Martin Matysik and Sam Lozoff who assited chef. In this class we are going to learn some dishes and ingredients that make up a traditional kaiseki meal. The items we made are sakizuke, hassun, otsukuri, takiawase, suimono, yukimono, futamono, mushimono, su-zakana, hiyashi-bachi, sukiyaki, gohan, ko no mono, hojicha-wanmushi, and more. In this class we learned many dishes that you may see in a Kaiseki meal. These dishes are only some of the few you will see in a traditional meal, there are many variations out there. we utilized some of the skills and techniques that we learned in basic in this class. In this class we will continue to the learn about the different ingredients and dishes that make up Japanese cuisine. In this class we will learn about seasonality, tableware and kitchenware and the way to serve a Kaiseki. We will learn how to plan and run a traditional Kaiseki.

    My expectations for this class is that we will be able to properly utilize the skills learned in basic and be able to be more innovative. With this class still being more based on learning rather than innovation, we still get more freedom than basics. I want to learn how to make a dish more innovated and be able to call it really my creation by tweaking the dish while still being traditional. We see the basic flavors are mirin, dashi, and sake and soy sauce, I hope in this class I will be able to train my taste bud to properly balance these flavors in a dish. I hope in this class I will be able to experiment more with pickles, as I enjoy pickling products. With Kaiseki, I do not have an expectation because I have never had a kaiseki meal. I wish that we will be able to have different flavors and textures in our kaiseki meal, as well as be able to maintain a balance without it tasting off. I want to also be able to have a more artistic vision when it comes to plating, just like most Japanese platings have.