When it was first published in 1980, Shizuo Tsuji’s “Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art” showed the West a realm of Japanese cuisine that lay beyond sushi, introducing hitherto esoteric dishes to the culinary consciousness of baby boomers who idealized the cuisine of the Far East for its exoticness.
As Japanese food found its way into everyday dining, countless volumes, each with its own spin, were published on the subject. In the 45 years since Tsuji’s book, Japanese food hasn’t changed that much and perhaps that’s a good thing. It has resisted ultraprocessing better than its Western counterpart, with a reverence for ingredients still paramount. More than anything else, what has changed over that period is the interconnectedness of the world we now find ourselves in.
Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares’ first cookbook, “Umai: Recipes From a Japanese Home Kitchen,” reflects this new zeitgeist. Written for an audience that has grown up with the whole world at their fingertips and for whom good food is good food no matter where it comes from — they most likely already have mirin and miso in their pantry — the book has a distinctly Gen Z perspective that food should fit into your modern, time-pressed lifestyle.
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