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Marybeth Boller: Discovering the kitchens of the world
Roundtable
TIMOTHY SCHULTZCONTRIBUTING WRITER

The renowned international chef Marybeth Boller was the latest guest in the Japan
Times’ Roundtable series, and she did notdisappoint. Interviewed by Ross Rowbury,
the conversation was delightful to watch:
two curious intellectuals, sharing theirexperiences of Japan.
Begun earlier this year, the Roundtable
series has been truly eclectic, ranging froma Japanese AI-pioneer physician to a Singaporean environmental activist. But acommonality is clear: These are interesting people, pushing the boundaries of theirprofession here in Japan. Rowbury, an Australian senior PR executive who has lived
in Japan for over 20 years, is a delicate andurbane host, and gives his guests space totell their story while often adding delightful details of his own experiences. Together
the conversations often reveal little-known
aspects of Japan, and his chat with Boller
was no different.

Kitchen trailblazer

Boller has lived one of those lives thatshould be a multiseason BBC series, bothlucky and challenging, sophisticated yetgritty, pursued with a kind of off-hand bravery that only the best hero could hope for.
Now a striking professional blond-haired
woman, her commanding presence is soft-ened by a light laugh and self-depreciating
frankness that comes from having nothing
to prove (or “zero f**ks to give,” depending
on how old you are). Encouraged by Rowbury, she started from the beginning: in
Manhattan.
Born into a cultured family of medical
professionals, she traces the roots of herlove of cooking to the presence of two
sophisticated aunts who held “internationalnights” of cooking different cuisines for thechildren of the family. One aunt also had
the tradition of taking her niece to the finest
restaurants in Manhattan for afternoon tea,
where a young Marybeth first tasted French
cuisine. Post-college, a lucky family introduction led to her first sweaty job in one of
the city’s finest kitchens, with Jean-Georges
Vongerichten.
It is here that Boller’s story of a trailblazer
begins. “My biggest challenge was being
taken seriously, as a young woman. I mean
… there just weren’t that many of us backthen! But it never stopped me. My family
were seven females!” Sharing the memoriesof that time, she has the sense of looking
back with bemused amazement. “I mean,in England and in France, people would
ask me: ‘Why are you here? You’re 21, youshould be home having babies!’” But thena frank laugh and a shrug of her shoulders
dismisses any sense of outrage. “It was hard.
It’s still hard. And if you don’t really love
(being a chef), you really shouldn’t do this. Ilove what I do, and I’m very happy with thechoices I made.”

Marybeth Boller andRoundtable hostRoss Rowburry
discuss the use of soy
sauce as a sweetenerin baking.
YUICO TAIYA FORPHOTOMATE

never stopped. “I took the path of always
wanting to work with different people. I’ve
learned so many great things, from people
I’ve ever worked with, in every kitchen. Like
when I was the chef at Great Performances— it’s a large catering company in Manhattan. There were people there who were dishwashers. But they were also amazing cooks,
who would cook for staff meals. I learned somuch from them.”
And it was here, in the melting pot andhigh society, that a new invitation wasoffered. And season three (or would it
be four?) of her life story began. Newly
appointed ambassador to Japan Caroline
Kennedy, someone whom she had cooked
for in family and professional settings,
needed a chef. Would Chef Boller be interested? “The decision wasn’t difficult! I had
known Ambassador Kennedy and her family for years and was just crazy about her.”

There’s a new chef in town

Chef Marybeth Boller combines Japanese and Western ingredients . YUICO TAIYA FOR PHOTOMATE

Food can take you anywhere

Boller’s training started in Manhattan, but
simple ambition meant it couldn’t end
there. “After two years, I told Jean-Georges I
was a bit bored. And that I had realized that
because I was working with such … experienced gentlemen, that I would never be incharge, not even of my station. And that’s
when he organized sending me to France.”
And just like that, a young kitchen assistant went international. It is here that Boller’s
story continues as the bingeable nostalgic
series we all want to watch. “The food there
was so different. So heavy! I remember

cleaning 15 kilograms of foie gras every
couple of days. It was amazing!” Her training and experiences weren’t limited to thekitchen. Telling her story to Rowbury, thatsame light laughter rippled out: “I lived in afarmhouse with migrant vineyard workers
for four months. There were farm animals
roaming the house. I wore sneakers in theshower. … It was great! I was very afraid of
those chickens!”
Enabled by her French training, Boller
returned to New York and took positionsin the finest restaurants and most exclusive
event companies in the city. Her training

Working in the American Embassy in Tokyo
brought new challenges: that of a being notjust a woman, but being a gaijin. It helped
that a strong woman was leading the charge.
Kennedy “wanted to elevate things … andbring her touch to the embassy. She knewthat I ‘got it’ and that I don’t take ‘no’ for ananswer. If things are a challenge, well, youturn a ‘no’ into a ‘maybe,’ and you get it done,right?” She got a particular laugh out of Rowbury when she continued: “You hear, “Oh,that’s not how it happens in Japan.’ But thenyou just say, ‘OK, well … it’s gonna happennow!’”
Not that Boller wasn’t listening. She wasinnovating. The food at the embassy becamea chance to blend the amazing ingredientsof American producers with the cuisine andcooking of Japan, and vice versa. “For theFourth of July celebration, we gave North
Dakota buckwheat to smaller soba producers. We found a newly opened taco shop,and we supplied to him the pork shoulder
and cheddar cheese from America. It was agreat commercial event for them, but it wasHomemade cookies baked using soy sauce as themain flavoring YUICO TAIYA FOR PHOTOMATE

also showing how great American products
could be.”Her latest role: the explorer

The election of Donald Trump put a stop
to such embassy events. But not to Boller’sinterest in Japan. The sophisticated chef
still has the curiosity of her 20-year-old self.
Instead of returning to New York, she stayed.
And for the past six years, she has been ona mission to find and elevate unique artisan
products of Japan. “You’re standing on theshores of Saga, and you’re looking at thousands of poles. And they’re telling you: Thisis the nori farm. The labor involved in theseproducts is incredible! These things are sospecial. People should be shouting from therooftops about these products. Not only isthe quality undeniable, but the traditional
methods should be treasured.”
Boller’s interview with Rowbury gives
hope. Hope that as the lockdowns finally end
there are still people like her here in Tokyo.
Experts and adventurers are still discovering
Japan; in fact, they never left. When thoseartisan Japanese products appear in Manhattan, they will have been brought thereby a woman who has spent her life turning“no” into “maybe” — in any language, evenJapanese.
Roundtable is a monthly series of Englishlanguage events organizedby TheJapan Times Cube. For
more information visit https://sustainable.japantimes.com/
roundtable

Experts weigh Japan and Italy’s
optimism about hydrogen

Green finance: The quiet
revolution of sustainable bonds

ESG / SDGs

ESG / SDGs

JACOB REEDCONTRIBUTING WRITERTIMOTHY SCHULTZCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Developing renewable solutions for everincreasing energy demands is one of thepillars of sustainability. In a concerted effort
to move toward a carbon-neutral world
by 2050, Japanese and Italian experts havebeen looking at opportunities to collaborate
internationally.
One recent example was a webinar on
the current state of hydrogen deployment,
hosted on Feb. 9 by the Italian Embassyin Tokyo. This continued a series focusing
on scientific and technological cooperation between Italy and Japan. The Italianambassador, Mr. Giorgio Starace, opened bysaying: “I am proud to represent a leading
country in the use and production of energy
from renewable sources. This engagement
is reflected by the fact that Italy, a founding member of the European Union, is cohosting the COP26 with the U.K. and holds
the G20 presidency, where climate change
issues will have a paramount role.” For its
part, Japan is a nation that has spearheadedhydrogen development for decades and led
the world in government subsidies targetingthe sector in 2019.
Japan’s hydrogen efforts were represented
by professor Kazunari Sasaki, the director ofthe International Research Center for Hydrogen Energy based at Kyushu University, andShoei Matsuda, the fuel cell technical general manager at Toshiba’s Hydrogen Energy
Business Division. On the other side of thetable, the Italian perspective was provided

Last month in Tokyo, a group of environmental radicals got together and discussed
how they might save the world. Except
these radicals wore bespoke suits instead ofhoodies and carried meishi instead of placards. They plan to make finance sustainable— and with it, the world.
This year the Tokyo-London GreenFinance Seminar 2021 was held in Ginza
but was mostly attended virtually, byfinance professionals around the world.
In a 98% empty corporate conference hall,Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike appeared on ahuge screen, delivering a polite message
of welcome to the hundreds of remoteattendees. Her appearance at the seminar
was a demonstration of power: not of thegovernors, but of the bankers themselves,
who represented some of the biggest banks
and funds in the world.
The opening speaker, William Russell,lord mayor of the City of London, followed
Koike. He spoke not only as an honorary
politician but also as a financial professional. It was here that the environmental
ambitions of the gathering became clear.
Russell declared the changes and rules theseminar was studying would “reallocatecapital for a new sustainable economy.”
He ended with a hearty, enthusiastic tone.
“This is the future of finance. Soon, every
financial decision will consider climatechange. ...We have no time to waste.”
Instead of financial bubbles, these bankers were investing in the health of theEarth. And so far, they were confident inmaking a profit, too. But how?

Speakers at the webinar about hydrogen deployment, from the top and left: Enrico Traversa,Bianca Longobardi, Kazunari Sasaki, DarioMontinaro, Antonino Arico and Shoei Matsuda
EMBASSY OF ITALY

Official logo of the Italian G20 presidency
EMBASSY OF ITALY

by Dario Montinaro of SOLIDpower Group,
a company involved in manufacturing anddeveloping solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology, and Antonino Arico, director of theInstitute for Advanced Energy Technologies.

A hydrogen society?

A futuristic society powered entirely bygreen hydrogen — created through electrolysis using energy from renewables suchas solar or wind — has long been a goal ofenvironmentally conscious nations andorganizations. From automobiles, ships andtrains powered by clean fuel-cell technology
to providing electricity in residential communities, industrial complexes and even portable electronics, the potential applicationsof hydrogen are staggering.
Both Japan and Italy have been engaged inrealizing a hydrogen society for many years
through government subsidies and privatesector initiatives. More recently, a Toshibaoperated hydrogen energy research facility
opened in Fukushima Prefecture in March
2020, and some of its solar-produced hydrogen goes to power a roadside rest stop, a test
bed for the reconstruction of the town ofNamie. In addition, the company is collaborating with other Japanese industry giants
to manufacture commercial ships equippedwith high-power fuel cells that produce zeroemissions. If research and development continues smoothly, the ships should be on thesea by 2024, according to Matsuda.
Solid oxide electrolyzers produce hydrogen as storage vehicle, which can then beused by solid oxide fuel cells for electricity supply without emissions. Montinaro
explained that the company has now
installed more than 1,900 units across 12
countries for a range of uses such as data
centers, hotels and restaurants, and on-sitehydrogen production for industries. “Ourmarket today is mostly concentrated inEurope, but we are expanding in the U.S.

Italian Ambassador Giorgio Starace expresses
his thoughts. EMBASSY OF ITALYand Asia.”

The long road ahead

However, many obstacles stand in the wayof bringing about a green hydrogen-based
utopia. Enrico Traversa, the moderatorof the webinar, insisted on clarifying thathydrogen “is not the source of the energy,
but just an energy carrier.” He is concernedthat hydrogen produced from fossil fuels —“gray” hydrogen — being bandied about asenvironmentally friendly is misleading tothe public. While both Sasaki and Matsuda
agreed in principle, Sasaki pointed out that
Europe can easily acquire energy from its
neighbors overland, while Japan as an island
nation must contend with the higher costsof importing energy from overseas. “In theend, we must target green hydrogen, but grayhydrogen is temporarily a good approach,”
Matsuda added, to which Montinaro concurred, citing current “technological limitations” in transporting and storing hydrogen.
Japan’s green growth strategy paper
published on Dec. 25 plans for 10% of thecountry’s energy to come from hydrogen.
But pundits were skeptical about its achievability. “(It’s) a very tough target because wemust produce the hydrogen in a cheaperway,” Sasaki opined. Arico echoed this sentiment, saying that even though hydrogen isalready competitive in heavy-duty settings
that require sustained energy consumption(e.g. ships), prices must decrease 70% fromnow for green to compete with gray in widespread applications.
Luckily for hydrogen proponents, anindustry report released by the global Hydrogen Council in 2020 predicts the cost ofhydrogen-based technologies may fall 50%
by 2030 due to increased scale and investment, similar to cost reductions already seen
in solar and wind. “It will be a great challenge,
even though we still have three decades left
to meet the targets,” Sasaki said.

A panel discussion TOKYO METROPOLITANGOVERNMENT

PAGE: 7

Greetings from the governor, Yuriko Koike
TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT

Financial tools of change

Green finance is defined by three things:
risk management, data and debt.
Risk management ensures a company’sfinancial stability. Example: If a company
needs steel every year, it buys insurance
against rising prices. Yet in the long term,
the risk of rising steel prices is trivial compared to the risk of rising temperatures. But
since the impact of climate change has notbeen strictly defined, companies have notseen financial benefits in working against it.
As Russell said, “We need clarity on
climate risk, just as on other risks. It will
become mandatory in the U.K. in only
three years.”

Want change? Get the data

Once companies get better data on environmental issues, they will know how big
the problems are. Then they can gauge
how effective the solutions need to be.
Sherry Madera, a panelist from the dataside of finance, had this to say: “What is thedata that is being disclosed? From countries, regions, industries, companies andissuers across the board. This will be theyear of standardization.”Once these different data sets are standardized, companies and funds can finallyassign value to their environmental efforts
and report on it. As Russell said, “Natureneeds to enter economic and finance decision-making. A good reporting system will
be key to measuring it.” Soon every company won’t report just their balance sheet,but their carbon footprint too.

Green hedges against risk

The third component of green finance isdebt. It is here, in specific financial prod-

Keynote speech by the City of London lordmayor TOKYO METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT

ucts, that the actual profits of green financeare realized.
Green bonds are essentially ways forcompanies or governments to borrowmoney for the purpose of alleviating anenvironmental issue. But they provide
two other values, too. Green bonds allow
companies to invest in green initiatives,
and therefore hedge against their own
environmental risk. They also allow investors to earn money in what they perceive
is an altruistic endeavor. Both factors havecaused a huge growth in demand for suchbonds.
An eloquent Japanese banker named
Hiroyuki Kato who specializes in green
finance was almost ebullient about theirgrowth. “Investors are buying those bonds
and ESG equities in huge amounts. Last
year the number was ¥1 trillion. That’s thequickest growth of any sector in finance.”
The men and women of green financeare a fascinating kind of activist. Their tools
are largely data their profits mostly debt.
They are deploying their rare skills to avert
the slow-motion destruction we all face.
They may be borrowing from future generations to do so. But perhaps those future
generations will be glad to pay, if it means
they might live in a less polluted world.
In finance, greed has always been good.
Now it can be green, too.
“Sustainable Japan,” features issues related tothe environment and a sustainable society.
It highlights the ESG activities
of companies and other organizations.
For more information, see
https://sustainable.japantimes.com/esg