Really enjoyed this as an interesting coffee table book on the food culture - not fancied trying any of the recipes myself though.

I thought this book was very informative with lost of knowledge. Not a quick and easy book but a good read.

Thirty-one chefs, food and Japan. An interview and recipes from each chef. Fascinating cookbook, beautiful photographs.

What an insightful way to get to know the chefs and food that are unique to the Japanese culture! When most people think of Japanese cuisine, they think of sushi, and yes there are some fantastic sushi chefs in this book!
But there are also chefs who specialize in certain foods, such as Hayato Takahashi, he is a restaurant of one! He does all of the shopping, preparing and cleaning up by himself! When you are dining at his restaurant, all of the Italian appliances are out in the open for all to se, especially a large red prosciutto cutter!
Hayato studied in Parma, Italy, and he learned how to make chicken broth with Lambrusco, homemade pasta with prosciutto, basil, red and yellow peppers, white wine, fresh tomato,salsiccia and Parmigiana. His specialty is prosciutto, which he unwraps and slices thinly before his customers, his dishes are the closest thing to the finest trattoria dining in Italy!
You will meet Fumie Takeuchi, one of Japan’s only female sushi chefs, she lived in London for a while but she eventually settled in Tokyo. She visited Tsukiji fish market
to study all of the fish and she ran into a chef buying fish for his sushi shop who eventually became her teacher. That chef had to ask his master if Fumie could be his apprentice and he agreed, even though women are usually not encouraged to be chefs as the jobs are usually dominated by males.
You will discover a world of people who love what they do for a living and why they love to do it. These chefs come from all kinds of different backgrounds, some of them were raised in poverty, some of them are 2nd generation chefs, and some of them traveled abroad to learn how to cook a new type of cuisine they fell in love with!
Enjoy!

This book profiling young master chefs from Japan is a betwixt and between kind of book. Ms Fazzari's access to and personal acquaintance with the people she profiles is admirable, but the profiles are too short and, in my mind, gives us too little. I am reminded, a bit, of Aleksandra Crapanzano's "The London Cookbook" which is a quick guide to the 100 or so hottest restaurants and chefs in London in 2016. Ms Crapanzano's tone is more informal and fun, and London is well known for its exciting food scene. I contrast "Tokyo New Wave" also with "Relæ: A Book of Ideas", one of my favorite profile books in recent years, also from Ten Speed. Relæ is a book-length exploration of one restaurant and its creator. That kind of depth is not Ms Fazzari's purpose, but she might have gathered some writing tips from author and chef Christian Puglisi.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2G32Q0SSAPGZ6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B01AQO167K
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2XS6K69Q2NOPT/ref=cm_cr_getr_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00K4C4IQ6

Ms Fazzari's profiles are rather like snips from the culture section of a weekend newspaper. There isn't much about the training of the chefs and their rise in their profession. If they trained overseas there is no discussion of why they returned to Japan to work. The short summaries of personal philosophies hardly helps us to understand how personalized food theory is translated into a restaurant experience, and the recipes presented with each vignette are too short and disconnected from the text. (The link between text and application is the strength of Relæ.)

I can't imagine how the book would be relevant. I almost never stop over in Japan and even if I do I would be hosted by someone or some company who will host me. Independent short-stay visitors and tourists will choose restaurants based on their itinerary, prior research on the intended stopovers, and whether they can get a reservation. Serious food hunters will use in-depth research and personal introductions to make their choices, not this little book.

I received a review copy of "Tokyo New Wave: 31 Chefs Defining Japan's Next Generation, with Recipes" by Andrea Fazzari (Ten Speed) through NetGalley.com.

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