And Now For Something Completely Different

I know I've used that title before, but it's so appropriate! Personally I think most Japanese vegetables taste like crap, but who am I to judge?

The Japanese Food Report Presents:

From Soba to Artichokes:
Vegetarian Cooking, Japanese-style

A Workshop and Tasting at the Saveur Magazine Test Kitchen

Featuring Chef Masato Nishihara of Kajistu restaurant
Moderated by food journalist and blogger Harris Salat

With Special Sake Sampling from Boutique Importer Joto Sake

Monday, October 26th, from 7 to 9:30pm, at the Saveur Test Kitchen

In a culture where eating meat was taboo for a thousand years, vegetarian fare became an essential element of Japanese cooking. No other cuisine prepares vegetables as sublimely and beautifully, with such reverence for the seasons, peak flavor and an ingredient’s intrinsic natural state.

Join Chef Masato Nishihara of Kajitsu, New York’s acclaimed Shojin-style Japanese vegetarian restaurant, and food journalist and blogger Harris Salat for an intimate look at the Japanese approach to vegetarian cooking, presented at the Saveur magazine test kitchen.

Chef Nishihara will introduce practical, simple and utterly versatile techniques to prepare a multitude of vegetarian dishes—methods perfect for home cooks. Through demonstration and tasting, the chef will help participants understand the umami flavors that inform this cooking; vegetarian varieties of dashi, the fundamental stock; and how to work with ingredients as varied as soba, lotus root, fennel and artichoke.

The workshop will include a special sampling of artisanal sakes with Henry Sidel, president of boutique importer Joto Sake.

• Limited to 20 participants
• Standing only in the test kitchen (no seats)
• $35 per person
• To register, please visit www.japanesefoodreport.com/2009/10/workshop.html

About the Presenters:
Chef Masato Nishihara cooked for ten years at Kyoto Kitcho, one of Japan’s most revered kaiseki restaurants, before heading Kajitsu’s kitchen.

Harris Salat’s stories about Japanese cuisine have appeared in Saveur, Gourmet, The New York Times, and other publications. He edits the Japanese Food Report.

Henry Sidel founded boutique importer Joto Sake in 2005 to introduce artisanal sake produced by family run brewers following age-old, traditional methods.