In between closing the original Noma and opening its successor, also called Noma, chef Rene Redzepi embarked on a worldwide pop-up tour that included an extended stay in Tokyo. In a recent interview in The New York Times he explained that, in Japan, "The study of umami was mega for us."
On a recent visit to Sato no Ie Hanase, a kaiseki (multicourse) restaurant in Osaka's white-collar neighborhood of Honmachi, chef Tsutomu Nakajima delivered an impromptu lesson in just how "mega" umami is, and how moribund it can be.
I sit at the restaurant's long counter, which provides a view of the cherry tree painting that dominates the kitchen wall. Nakajima jokes that he'd like to make the counter shorter — his ultimate goal is an intimate five-seat restaurant, but he admits that would present some economic challenges.