http://www.soshiok.com/articles/12797/
Kentaro Kobayashi cooks delicious, filling donburi
Fri May 08 2009
Tom Baker
Yomiuri Shimbun
Six of Kentaro's cookbooks were listed in the top 100 best-selling cookbooks on amazon.co.jp.
Tokyo, April 8, 2009 - The sign on a certain door in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, says "Kentaro Motors."
Inside, visitors from The Daily Yomiuri last week were greeted first by a friendly black Labrador retriever named Kurotaro and a few minutes later by his owner, a bearded thirty-something man casually dressed in Bermuda shorts and rubber sandals.
This is Kentaro Kobayashi, known to his fans simply as Kentaro (written in katakana). Kentaro Motors might sound like the name of a garage, but it is actually the headquarters of one of Japan's most successful--and laid-back--chefs.
Explaining the sign on his door, Kentaro said: "I like cars...I wanted to be a mechanic. But now I find myself a chef. I never meant to be a chef. But that's life."
It's a commercially flourishing life.
Early this week, six of Kentaro's cookbooks were listed in the top 100 best-selling cookbooks on amazon.co.jp, including Danshi Gohan no Hon (The book of men's cooking), a collaboration with pop star Taichi Kokubun that was holding steady at No. 1 in cookbooks and hovering in the top 10 across all book categories. (Picture of book above)
Now he is going international. Donburi Mania (95 pp, 14.95 dollars), the first volume in his "Easy Japanese Cooking" series, was recently published by Vertical, Inc.
The second book, Noodle Comfort, is due out in June, with Bento Love to follow in August and volumes on appetizers and vegetables possibly coming after that.
His taste in cars might reveal something about his cooking.
"They're not very rare, not very expensive. Just old," he says of the cars he collects. "I love the styles, and I love mechanical things. They're very primitive and very simple."
He's especially fond of his 1967 Plymouth Barracuda: "It's very, very powerful--maybe over 300 horsepower. But its handling is so bad...Maybe the Americans in 1967, the engineers were thinking, 'Just go straight, very fast.' I love that."
Go straight, very fast, is one way to approach the recipes in Donburi Mania, in which various toppings are served on bowls of rice.
Before meeting Kentaro, I tried five of them at home, sometimes late at night after a long day of work. Even under less-than-optimal circumstances, it took very little time or effort to prepare a delicious and filling meal.
Tuna Avocado Donburi was the simplest recipe I tried. Just chop the main ingredients and mix with wasabi, lemon juice, soy sauce and mayonnaise, then serve over rice. Done!
Even the relatively complex topping of Pork Stroganoff Donburi can be prepared in less time than it takes to cook the rice it goes over.
This recipe was super-fatty--containing olive oil, butter, cream and pork fat--and mind-blowingly rich in flavor, with the pan juices from the pork combining perfectly with the creamy sauce.
I ran into some minor trouble with the Kinpira Lotus Root Donburi. I used a thick root, sliced into wide pieces that sent sesame seeds flying all over the kitchen when I tried to stir-fry them in a pan.
Later, I tried again with a thin root for a less messy process, but the crunchy, sweet-spicy, sesame-coated results were equally enjoyable both times.
There's a reason Kentaro didn't specify what size root to use. He pares his recipes down to the bare bones to allow his readers to improvise. "I want the readers to kind of respond to the availability of ingredients," he said.
"I list the seasonings and things for flavor, but you always can change them. You can even change all of them, according to your taste."
"However, there are things that I want readers to follow. These are the things that I put in my books," he said.
Kentaro's philosophy is that "Donburi is a very casual food. I don't want to be very strict, but very free."
In keeping with that, he plays music in the kitchen every day. "In the morning, something to get you up, like funk music. Something more quiet in the afternoon." In the evening, he puts on something "harder" and "more danceable, more emotional."
Just keep it casual. "Among Japanese food, donburi is a kind of fast food, so to speak. You eat it like"--he did a quick pantomime of greedily shoveling food into his mouth from a bowl--"like a dog."
But Kurotaro, the black Lab, doesn't get to feast on his master's cooking. Instead, the casual chef buys high-quality organic dog food for his four-legged friend.
If dogs could read, though, you might find them sneaking into the kitchen at night with copies of Donburi Mania clamped in their jaws.
More cookbooks featured in -> Cook This section
Kentaro Kobayashi cooks delicious, filling donburi
Fri May 08 2009
Tom Baker
Yomiuri Shimbun
Six of Kentaro's cookbooks were listed in the top 100 best-selling cookbooks on amazon.co.jp.
Tokyo, April 8, 2009 - The sign on a certain door in Suginami Ward, Tokyo, says "Kentaro Motors."
Inside, visitors from The Daily Yomiuri last week were greeted first by a friendly black Labrador retriever named Kurotaro and a few minutes later by his owner, a bearded thirty-something man casually dressed in Bermuda shorts and rubber sandals.
This is Kentaro Kobayashi, known to his fans simply as Kentaro (written in katakana). Kentaro Motors might sound like the name of a garage, but it is actually the headquarters of one of Japan's most successful--and laid-back--chefs.
Explaining the sign on his door, Kentaro said: "I like cars...I wanted to be a mechanic. But now I find myself a chef. I never meant to be a chef. But that's life."
It's a commercially flourishing life.
Early this week, six of Kentaro's cookbooks were listed in the top 100 best-selling cookbooks on amazon.co.jp, including Danshi Gohan no Hon (The book of men's cooking), a collaboration with pop star Taichi Kokubun that was holding steady at No. 1 in cookbooks and hovering in the top 10 across all book categories. (Picture of book above)
Now he is going international. Donburi Mania (95 pp, 14.95 dollars), the first volume in his "Easy Japanese Cooking" series, was recently published by Vertical, Inc.
The second book, Noodle Comfort, is due out in June, with Bento Love to follow in August and volumes on appetizers and vegetables possibly coming after that.
His taste in cars might reveal something about his cooking.
"They're not very rare, not very expensive. Just old," he says of the cars he collects. "I love the styles, and I love mechanical things. They're very primitive and very simple."
He's especially fond of his 1967 Plymouth Barracuda: "It's very, very powerful--maybe over 300 horsepower. But its handling is so bad...Maybe the Americans in 1967, the engineers were thinking, 'Just go straight, very fast.' I love that."
Go straight, very fast, is one way to approach the recipes in Donburi Mania, in which various toppings are served on bowls of rice.
Before meeting Kentaro, I tried five of them at home, sometimes late at night after a long day of work. Even under less-than-optimal circumstances, it took very little time or effort to prepare a delicious and filling meal.
Tuna Avocado Donburi was the simplest recipe I tried. Just chop the main ingredients and mix with wasabi, lemon juice, soy sauce and mayonnaise, then serve over rice. Done!
Even the relatively complex topping of Pork Stroganoff Donburi can be prepared in less time than it takes to cook the rice it goes over.
This recipe was super-fatty--containing olive oil, butter, cream and pork fat--and mind-blowingly rich in flavor, with the pan juices from the pork combining perfectly with the creamy sauce.
I ran into some minor trouble with the Kinpira Lotus Root Donburi. I used a thick root, sliced into wide pieces that sent sesame seeds flying all over the kitchen when I tried to stir-fry them in a pan.
Later, I tried again with a thin root for a less messy process, but the crunchy, sweet-spicy, sesame-coated results were equally enjoyable both times.
There's a reason Kentaro didn't specify what size root to use. He pares his recipes down to the bare bones to allow his readers to improvise. "I want the readers to kind of respond to the availability of ingredients," he said.
"I list the seasonings and things for flavor, but you always can change them. You can even change all of them, according to your taste."
"However, there are things that I want readers to follow. These are the things that I put in my books," he said.
Kentaro's philosophy is that "Donburi is a very casual food. I don't want to be very strict, but very free."
In keeping with that, he plays music in the kitchen every day. "In the morning, something to get you up, like funk music. Something more quiet in the afternoon." In the evening, he puts on something "harder" and "more danceable, more emotional."
Just keep it casual. "Among Japanese food, donburi is a kind of fast food, so to speak. You eat it like"--he did a quick pantomime of greedily shoveling food into his mouth from a bowl--"like a dog."
But Kurotaro, the black Lab, doesn't get to feast on his master's cooking. Instead, the casual chef buys high-quality organic dog food for his four-legged friend.
If dogs could read, though, you might find them sneaking into the kitchen at night with copies of Donburi Mania clamped in their jaws.
More cookbooks featured in -> Cook This section
