Japanese influence on modern French cuisine

[pierre45]

Recently on my 4th trip to Japan I spent 2 weeks eating my way through its various regions . I covered most types of Japanese cuisine :vegetarian buddist temple fare, Kaiseki dinner in a famous restaurant in kyoto , at kikunoi -honten, and various sushi, tempura places as well regional eateries of okonomiyaki and izakaya, and noodle places of ramen,odon and soba

What struck me as uniquely Japanese are presentation and high qualty ingredients.

The meals consisted of several small plates, and every dish was designed and color coordinated, and the total was harrmonious to the eye and the palate. This is especially true in Kaiseki and Japanese traditional cuisine. Modern French cuisine has adopted this approach of using high qualty ingredients , presented bautifully in small portions. OF course, the spices used are very different , and therefore the tastes vary greatly.

THis approach to cooking specially in French 2 and 3 star restaurants is the current trend .

No wonder Tokyo has more starred restaurants than Paris according to Michelin.

[Shalmanese]

There's some intriguing information in this egullet thread about whether Fernand Point may or may not have gone to Japan and how that may or may not have influenced him.

Enjoy!

[prasantrin]

For additional comments (not mine), there was a similar topic discussed.