Uchikawa, who trained at Osaka's Tsuji Cooking School and is employed by the prestigious Hotel Okura in Tokyo, specializes in French cuisine with Japanese accents. He first extracts the juice from the tomatoes, which is used as a base. This juice, the pitted plums and minty shiso are blended in a mixer with some avocado added to thicken. He serves the cold soup immediately in delicate porcelain teacups garnished with tiny orange dicings of pumpkin. For dessert, Uchikawa incorporates ground toasted sesame seeds into traditional cr me br l e. Nora Pouillon, executive chef and owner of Asia Nora, an upscale organic restaurant in Washington, has built her menu around healthful ingredients prepared without butter or cream.
Japanese food relies on the integrity and flavor of the ingredients more than on technique.
To prepare this warming, deep-orange soup, the kitchen roasts cubed squash with oil, salt and pepper, then adds it to sauteed onion, lemon grass, ginger, garlic and chile paste. After simmering in vegetable stock, the mixture is pureed, strained and served in heated soup bowls garnished with coriander oil and crisp ginger. Still, not all chefs think that Americans are ready for pure Japanese flavors. This quality makes it less accessible to American palates, Eric believes, than spicy Thai or Vietnamese cooking. Vida's customers are more willing to try new items when they recognize some of the ingredients, says Eric, who spent nearly a year working in Japan as a cooking consultant and training at a sushi bar, a tempura shop and a soba shop.