Clarity, quality, purity and simplicity: The pared-back refinement of kaiseki, Japan’s traditional high-end cuisine, is too often described as formal or minimalist. Yet at its most profound, the alchemic synergy of ingredients, technique, season and setting can be close to transcendent.
That is the level to which chef Takuya Kataori aspires every day. And that is why he likes to open each meal at his intimate restaurant in Kanazawa by preparing dashi, made from scratch in his narrow open kitchen.
In the time-honored style, he uses just three ingredients. He starts with aged konbu (kelp) from the island of Rishiri, in northern Hokkaido. This he steeps for almost two days in spring water that he collects himself from a noted source in the hinterland of the nearby Noto Peninsula. Once the water is up to heat, he adds a mound of katsuobushi — shavings from cured, smoked fillets of katsuo (skipjack tuna) prepared in Makurazaki, on the farthest tip of Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Kyushu.