料 理

The word kaiseki here refers to the seat — the gathering where poets met to compose linked verse. What was served at those gatherings was a simplified version of honzen ryori, the formal banquet cuisine of the samurai class. The rigid trays were loosened, sake was poured, verses were exchanged. Kaiseki cuisine grew out of that room.

It is often confused with cha-kaiseki, the light meal served before a tea ceremony. Written differently, the two point in opposite directions: cha-kaiseki prizes the season at its peak and the restraint of a single unadorned bowl, while kaiseki is built around sake, favours the first produce of a season, and welcomes refinement and artifice.

The present form — sake and its accompaniments served first — settled in the Kansei era, and by the late Meiji period kaiseki was established in the restaurants of Tokyo and Kyoto. At its core lies ichiju-sansai: a soup with three dishes of sashimi, grilled and simmered food, to which fried, steamed and dressed dishes are added.

A meal moves from sakizuke through wanmono, mukozuke, kuchigawari, grilled and simmered courses, a vinegared dish, rice, and finally fruit. Yet there is no fixed rule; the composition is left to the chef. That is precisely why no two kaiseki dinners taste or look alike.

Dinner here runs to eight courses, from the grilled hassun platter to dessert, brought out one at a time so that each dish reaches you at its proper temperature. It is composed by a head chef who has spent more than forty years on kaiseki alone, and who has cooked for the Emperor of Japan.