ブログスレッド
- A health-conscious Japanese restaurant
Japanese Sake : All Japan News,Inc
https://jp.bloguru.com/JapaneseSake_AllJapanNews
自己紹介
By All Japan News,Inc
Yuji Matsumoto
Master Sake Sommelier
Finalist of the 2nd World Sake Sommelier Competition. Graduated from Keio University Faculty of Law, Department of Political Science. Worked for Nomura Securities for 10 years. Former president of California Sushi Academy Former chief of planning dept. at Mutual Trading. Currently working for Kabuki Restaurant Corp. as a Beverage Manager of Sake.
Kosuke Kuji
Fifth Generation / Brewery Owner
Nanbu Bijin, Inc.
Born May 11, 1972. Entered Tokyo University of Agriculture's Department of Brewing and Fermentation. In 2005 became the youngest person ever to receive the Iwate Prefecture Young Distinguished Technician Award. In 2006 was selected to be a member of the board of trustees of his local alma mater, Fukuoka High School. Currently is featured in a number of media outlets including magazines, radio, and television.
*Positions of Public Service: Chairperson, Cassiopeia Corporation Youth Conference; School Board Member, Fukuoka High School, Iwate Prefecture, Vice-Chairman, Technology Committee, Iwate Prefecture Brewers and Distillers' Association.
Ayaka Ito
Owner of BESHOCK Ramen Sake Bar
Born in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture. Started going abroad including the US, Canada, and South Korea to study and deepen knowledge while still in high-school. Encountered with Japanese sake in Tohoku, while being involved in a long-term volunteering activity for the Great East Japan Earthquake. Sake of Miyagi, a famous region for sake making, was so impressive- ”I didn’t know such delicious domestic sake existed in Japan!” BESHOCK was opened in San Diego to let the world know the goodness of Japanese sake and Japanese cuisine for a responsibility as a specialist/Sake sommelier.
Ryuji Takahashi
Regional Sake Specialty Store "Ji Sakeya" Owner, Master Sake Sommelier, Shuto-Meijin, and the charismatic guru of ordinary sake.
Plans and manages events and seminars with his own unique flare to introduce the appeal of Japanese sake and cuisine, unaffected by the latest trends, while managing a jizake retail store.
David Kudo
Sake Sommelier
Master Sake Sommelier
President, All Japan News Inc.
Born Kita-Akita City, Akita Prefecture. Took over as Executive Officer of the Japanese Food Trend News founded in 1991, when the predecessor was assigned back to Japan. Currently distributed as Japan Restaurant News (20,000 issues published electronically) in North America, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
最新コメント
A health-conscious Japanese restaurant
By Keiko Fukuda
Lately, more and more restaurants are adopting a popular concept called “Farm to Table”. As it says literally, “Farm to Table” is a method of cooking knowing exactly which farms the ingredients are from. “necco”, a Japanese restaurant near Westwood is one of those restaurants which uses this concept.
The owner/chef, Kenji Koyama, goes to Santa Monica Farmers Market 3 times a week to select vegetables by himself carefully with his own eyes and hands. He says, “I go there as early as 7 o’clock in the morning. Otherwise somebody else can get better produce before me.” On the days when the farmers market is not open, he goes to a few different grocers which carry organic and natural produce.
The ingredients carefully selected by Kenji himself get transformed and appear on the menu, and served at “necco”, a health-conscious Japanese restaurant. Many of the menu items are safe with vegetarian customers because they are gluten-free, prepared with vegetarian mayonnaise, and no MSG. For sweetness, beet sugar is mainly used instead of regular white cane sugar. One of the secrets to the popularity of this place seems to be the fact that meat lovers and vegetarians can come together to dine.
Kenji’s career as a chef spans over 25 years. His career started by working for an izakaya during his high-school days. After graduating, he came to the U.S., and worked for a Japanese restaurant near Los Angeles for 3 years. During that time, he felt the needs of serious training as a chef, and went back to Japan to be trained as a sushi chef in Tokyo.
He says, “My specialty is sushi making, however, after I came back, I realized that so many people in Los Angeles area are very health-conscious. For instance, people who practice Yoga have the extension of a healthy Yoga concept in their diet. I opened this restaurant hoping to offer a new style of cuisine which is natural and based on Japanese cuisine.”
As the location, he initially wanted somewhere between downtown L.A. and Hollywood such as Echo Park or Silver Lake where many health-conscious restaurants already existed, but none of them were based on Japanese cuisine.
Unfortunately, at the time, he could not find any available property that matched his conditions. However, he could still expect many vegan or vegetarian customers who live in the area to come to the current location near Westwood which is also right next to Beverly Hills.
The simple wooden interior provides natural warm ambience. You can see the chef cooking in their open kitchen from all angles inside of the restaurant. Some customers want to sit at the counter in front of the kitchen to watch Kenji cook closely. They even thank Kenji for the enjoyable cooking show when they leave.
Although the number of customers are increasing through word of mouth, Kenji knows well how effective it is to use social networking is in this modern society, and formed a special marketing team for it. He kept showing the news, press releases and photos of the menu items of the restaurant on the media such as Instagram and Facebook, which led to being featured in some magazine articles and interviews.
The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner every day except Tuesdays, the regular day-off, and Sunday lunch. The lunch menu includes 15-dollar one-plate lunches such as the meat plate, fish plate, and vegetable plate. I went there to have lunch for the first time with a friend of mine who recommended the place. I had the chicken plate, and my friend had the salmon plate. I was impressed with the tender flavor of my dish, and how money-worthy the meal was thanks to the generous portion of the side vegetables. You can enjoy a variety of foods in this one dish. For the dinner time, this place attracts many health-conscious customers as a tapas restaurant where you can enjoy the tapas menu with organic sake.
Kenji told me about his future prospect, “I want to offer omakase style dishes. My motto as a cook is to preserve the sense of fun in cooking, and to value the caring thought about making delicious dishes.” It sounds like he really cares about the health and the happiness of the people who eat his cooking. When I asked him about the possibility of having the second location, he said that he really wanted to concentrate on building a solid ground there first.
ヘルスコンシャスなジャパニーズ
ここ数年、「ファーム・トゥ・テーブル」というコンセプトを採用するレストランが増えている。その言葉通り、農園から食卓へ、つまり、どこの農園や牧場で育てた食材かを把握した上で調理するという手法を指す。
ウエストウッドからほど近いneccoも、まさにこのコンセプトの日本食レストランだ。オーナーシェフの小山健治さんは、週に３度はサンタモニカ等のファーマーズマーケットに足を運び、自ら野菜を目で見て指先で触って選ぶと言う。「朝７時から出かけます。早く行かないといいものが他のお客さんに買われてしまいますから」。ファーマーズマーケットが開催されていない日は、ナチュラル系のマーケットを巡る。
こうして健治さんが厳選した食材は、「ヘルスコンシャスなジャパニーズタパスレストラン」であるneccoで、さまざまなメニューに形を変えて登場する。その多くはビーガンやベジタリアンの顧客が安心して食べられるグルテンフリーでマヨネーズもベジネーズを使用し、MSG不使用、甘味は白砂糖は使わず甜菜糖中心によるもの。肉や魚料理も充実しており、ベジタリアンと肉好きな人が一緒に来店できるのも人気の秘密らしい。
健治さんのシェフ歴は25年。高校生時代に居酒屋で働き始め、卒業後に渡米してロサンゼルス近郊の日本食レストランで３年間働いた。その間に本格的な修行の必要性を感じ、いったん帰国、東京で寿司職人としての経験を積んだ。
「本来は寿司が得意ですが、再びアメリカに来た時に、ロサンゼルスにはナチュラル志向の人が多いということを実感したんです。たとえば、ヨガをやる人は、その考えの延長で健康的な食生活を送っています。そこで、日本食をベースに、ナチュラル志向を取り入れた新しいスタイルを提案できれば、と思って、この店を開けました」
当初は、まだアメリカ料理で健康志向な店は多いものの、日本食レストランでその手の店は見当たらないエコーパークやシルバーレイクといったダウンタウンとハリウッドの間のエリアを希望していたが、なかなか条件に合う物件がなく、現在のウエストウッドに近いロケーションに決定。それでも、ビバリーヒルズからも目と鼻の先である今の場所は、健治さんがイメージする「ビーガンやベジタリアンの顧客」が多く暮らすエリアでもある。
店内は木のぬくもりが感じられる素朴な雰囲気。また、どこからでも調理をするシェフの姿が見られるオープンキッチンスタイルだ。客の中にはキッチンの目の前のカウンター席に陣取り、健治さんの手元をじっと見つめる人も少なくない。そして「素晴らしい料理ショーをありがとう」と礼を口にして帰って行く。
客は口コミ中心で増えてきたが、現代社会ではSNSが大きな影響を持つことを認識している健治さんは、専門のマーケティングチームを編成。インスタグラムやフェイスブックで店のニュースや料理の写真を発信し続けた。それを見たメディアに取り上げられたこともあれば、店から送信したプレスリリースを見て取材につながったこともある。
火曜の定休日と日曜のランチ以外は昼も夜も営業。ランチは15ドルで、肉のプレート、魚のプレート、野菜のプレートといったワンプレートランチが食べられる。最初に私がこの店に友人の推薦で足を運んだ時もランチだった。私はチキンのプレート、友人はサーモンのプレートをオーダー。印象的だったのは、何よりもその優しい味わい。そして、豊富な副菜が付いてくるので、１皿でバラエティー豊かなメニューが楽しめるというお得感も大きい。夜はさらにタパスメニューをオーガニックの日本酒と共にいただけるタパスレストランとしての顔で、健康志向の人々を引き付けている。
今後の計画については、「おまかせのメニューを提供していきたい」と健治さんは語る。料理人としてのモットーは「遊び心を忘れないことと美味しく作ろうと思う気持ちを大切にしている」。それは食べる人の健康と幸せを考えているからに違いない。２号店に関しては「まずは今の場所にnecco（根）を張ってから」と答えた。
necco
1929 Westwood Blvd.,Los Angeles
Mon.& Wed.-Sat.11:30-2:30LC,17:30-22:30LC
Closed on Tuesday and Sunday Lunch
310−446-5241
http://necco-restaurant.com/'rel="nofollow">http://necco-restaurant.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/necco_japanese/'rel="nofollow">https://www.instagram.com/necco_japanese/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neccorestaurant/'rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/neccorestaurant/
Lately, more and more restaurants are adopting a popular concept called “Farm to Table”. As it says literally, “Farm to Table” is a method of cooking knowing exactly which farms the ingredients are from. “necco”, a Japanese restaurant near Westwood is one of those restaurants which uses this concept.
The owner/chef, Kenji Koyama, goes to Santa Monica Farmers Market 3 times a week to select vegetables by himself carefully with his own eyes and hands. He says, “I go there as early as 7 o’clock in the morning. Otherwise somebody else can get better produce before me.” On the days when the farmers market is not open, he goes to a few different grocers which carry organic and natural produce.
The ingredients carefully selected by Kenji himself get transformed and appear on the menu, and served at “necco”, a health-conscious Japanese restaurant. Many of the menu items are safe with vegetarian customers because they are gluten-free, prepared with vegetarian mayonnaise, and no MSG. For sweetness, beet sugar is mainly used instead of regular white cane sugar. One of the secrets to the popularity of this place seems to be the fact that meat lovers and vegetarians can come together to dine.
Kenji’s career as a chef spans over 25 years. His career started by working for an izakaya during his high-school days. After graduating, he came to the U.S., and worked for a Japanese restaurant near Los Angeles for 3 years. During that time, he felt the needs of serious training as a chef, and went back to Japan to be trained as a sushi chef in Tokyo.
He says, “My specialty is sushi making, however, after I came back, I realized that so many people in Los Angeles area are very health-conscious. For instance, people who practice Yoga have the extension of a healthy Yoga concept in their diet. I opened this restaurant hoping to offer a new style of cuisine which is natural and based on Japanese cuisine.”
As the location, he initially wanted somewhere between downtown L.A. and Hollywood such as Echo Park or Silver Lake where many health-conscious restaurants already existed, but none of them were based on Japanese cuisine.
Unfortunately, at the time, he could not find any available property that matched his conditions. However, he could still expect many vegan or vegetarian customers who live in the area to come to the current location near Westwood which is also right next to Beverly Hills.
The simple wooden interior provides natural warm ambience. You can see the chef cooking in their open kitchen from all angles inside of the restaurant. Some customers want to sit at the counter in front of the kitchen to watch Kenji cook closely. They even thank Kenji for the enjoyable cooking show when they leave.
Although the number of customers are increasing through word of mouth, Kenji knows well how effective it is to use social networking is in this modern society, and formed a special marketing team for it. He kept showing the news, press releases and photos of the menu items of the restaurant on the media such as Instagram and Facebook, which led to being featured in some magazine articles and interviews.
The restaurant is open for both lunch and dinner every day except Tuesdays, the regular day-off, and Sunday lunch. The lunch menu includes 15-dollar one-plate lunches such as the meat plate, fish plate, and vegetable plate. I went there to have lunch for the first time with a friend of mine who recommended the place. I had the chicken plate, and my friend had the salmon plate. I was impressed with the tender flavor of my dish, and how money-worthy the meal was thanks to the generous portion of the side vegetables. You can enjoy a variety of foods in this one dish. For the dinner time, this place attracts many health-conscious customers as a tapas restaurant where you can enjoy the tapas menu with organic sake.
Kenji told me about his future prospect, “I want to offer omakase style dishes. My motto as a cook is to preserve the sense of fun in cooking, and to value the caring thought about making delicious dishes.” It sounds like he really cares about the health and the happiness of the people who eat his cooking. When I asked him about the possibility of having the second location, he said that he really wanted to concentrate on building a solid ground there first.
ヘルスコンシャスなジャパニーズ
ここ数年、「ファーム・トゥ・テーブル」というコンセプトを採用するレストランが増えている。その言葉通り、農園から食卓へ、つまり、どこの農園や牧場で育てた食材かを把握した上で調理するという手法を指す。
ウエストウッドからほど近いneccoも、まさにこのコンセプトの日本食レストランだ。オーナーシェフの小山健治さんは、週に３度はサンタモニカ等のファーマーズマーケットに足を運び、自ら野菜を目で見て指先で触って選ぶと言う。「朝７時から出かけます。早く行かないといいものが他のお客さんに買われてしまいますから」。ファーマーズマーケットが開催されていない日は、ナチュラル系のマーケットを巡る。
こうして健治さんが厳選した食材は、「ヘルスコンシャスなジャパニーズタパスレストラン」であるneccoで、さまざまなメニューに形を変えて登場する。その多くはビーガンやベジタリアンの顧客が安心して食べられるグルテンフリーでマヨネーズもベジネーズを使用し、MSG不使用、甘味は白砂糖は使わず甜菜糖中心によるもの。肉や魚料理も充実しており、ベジタリアンと肉好きな人が一緒に来店できるのも人気の秘密らしい。
健治さんのシェフ歴は25年。高校生時代に居酒屋で働き始め、卒業後に渡米してロサンゼルス近郊の日本食レストランで３年間働いた。その間に本格的な修行の必要性を感じ、いったん帰国、東京で寿司職人としての経験を積んだ。
「本来は寿司が得意ですが、再びアメリカに来た時に、ロサンゼルスにはナチュラル志向の人が多いということを実感したんです。たとえば、ヨガをやる人は、その考えの延長で健康的な食生活を送っています。そこで、日本食をベースに、ナチュラル志向を取り入れた新しいスタイルを提案できれば、と思って、この店を開けました」
当初は、まだアメリカ料理で健康志向な店は多いものの、日本食レストランでその手の店は見当たらないエコーパークやシルバーレイクといったダウンタウンとハリウッドの間のエリアを希望していたが、なかなか条件に合う物件がなく、現在のウエストウッドに近いロケーションに決定。それでも、ビバリーヒルズからも目と鼻の先である今の場所は、健治さんがイメージする「ビーガンやベジタリアンの顧客」が多く暮らすエリアでもある。
店内は木のぬくもりが感じられる素朴な雰囲気。また、どこからでも調理をするシェフの姿が見られるオープンキッチンスタイルだ。客の中にはキッチンの目の前のカウンター席に陣取り、健治さんの手元をじっと見つめる人も少なくない。そして「素晴らしい料理ショーをありがとう」と礼を口にして帰って行く。
客は口コミ中心で増えてきたが、現代社会ではSNSが大きな影響を持つことを認識している健治さんは、専門のマーケティングチームを編成。インスタグラムやフェイスブックで店のニュースや料理の写真を発信し続けた。それを見たメディアに取り上げられたこともあれば、店から送信したプレスリリースを見て取材につながったこともある。
火曜の定休日と日曜のランチ以外は昼も夜も営業。ランチは15ドルで、肉のプレート、魚のプレート、野菜のプレートといったワンプレートランチが食べられる。最初に私がこの店に友人の推薦で足を運んだ時もランチだった。私はチキンのプレート、友人はサーモンのプレートをオーダー。印象的だったのは、何よりもその優しい味わい。そして、豊富な副菜が付いてくるので、１皿でバラエティー豊かなメニューが楽しめるというお得感も大きい。夜はさらにタパスメニューをオーガニックの日本酒と共にいただけるタパスレストランとしての顔で、健康志向の人々を引き付けている。
今後の計画については、「おまかせのメニューを提供していきたい」と健治さんは語る。料理人としてのモットーは「遊び心を忘れないことと美味しく作ろうと思う気持ちを大切にしている」。それは食べる人の健康と幸せを考えているからに違いない。２号店に関しては「まずは今の場所にnecco（根）を張ってから」と答えた。
necco
1929 Westwood Blvd.,Los Angeles
Mon.& Wed.-Sat.11:30-2:30LC,17:30-22:30LC
Closed on Tuesday and Sunday Lunch
310−446-5241
http://necco-restaurant.com/'rel="nofollow">http://necco-restaurant.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/necco_japanese/'rel="nofollow">https://www.instagram.com/necco_japanese/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/neccorestaurant/'rel="nofollow">https://www.facebook.com/neccorestaurant/