SOTO
Japanese Restaurant
-since 1995,Atlanta,New York,Toyama
"Joy of having seasonal ingredients." become old fashion?
After having spent a long time living abroad, I recognized the rarity of the unique culture of Japan. It comes from the sensitivities individual to Japanese people who love the seasons and receive seasonal items nearby.
In my US era, I enjoy meeting beautiful people from all over the world, and I recognized that all world people could be the same as the joy of the meal. It's essential for me to know, and I will keep in mind.
Ingredients wise in the big city like New York, I could get fish from all over the world. But that was why I could not use the word "seasonal"("Shun" in Japanese) without specifying the area where ingredients come from.
Also, I was wondering what the degree of freshness in the high-mileage-based cooking world is? I continued to have the question that.
Recently, when good fish on a global scale move to a market with high price purchasing power. As a result, Producer and distributor at the local production area are tend to pay more attention to the far way market area, such as a big city.
In any case, local production areas will turn into just production areas for high-purchase markets. It's OK, but what loss I think is that those movements will leave out their original food culture and loss of freshness from the sea.
I was concerned about it and became my primary reason to make a U-turn into Toyama.
The near-field fishing area due to
the unique geographical features of Toyama Bay allows us to get the live quality of seasonal seafood. Also, Skill full fisherman lands a wide range of seafood with meticulous care into nature gift.Besides seafood, Toyama has clean, soft water rapidly down from a high mountain near the city and delicious rice.
So, my new goal and rule now is enhancing the advantage of the production area
that cannot appear the flavor after long-distance distribution and introducing people ephemeral ingredients that emit the flash of deliciousness only on that day at bay.
Chef Sotohiro Kosugi