Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking

by Masaharu Morimoto

Iron Chef star Masaharu Morimoto describes his cuisine as "global cooking for the 21st century" with its distinctive Japanese roots and multicultural influences. Morimoto's flavorful cooking is characterized by beautiful Japanese color combinations and aromas, while his preparation infuses influences such as traditional Chinese spices and simple Italian ingredients, presented in a refined French style. Bringing all these elements home, with helpful step-by-step instructions and gorgeous photography, this accessible book explains Chef Morimoto's cooking techniques and plating philosophies and brings Japanese cooking to you at home.

This sumptuous book brings Morimoto's unique style to the home cook through over 100 accessible recipes, gorgeous four-color photography, and helpful step-by-step instructions. In addition, Chef Morimoto delves into the importance of such topics as slicing and curing fish, how to properly eat sushi, the origins and significance of rice, dashi, soy sauce, tofu, blowfish, and other hard-to-find ingredients.

Whether you're a fan of "Iron Chef," or just want to learn more about Japanese tradition or bring fusion cuisine to your own kitchen, this is the first truly accessible cookbook from one of the world's most inspiring chefs.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Japan, Culinary, Japanese Literature

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 20, 2007

About the author

森本 正治

Reviews

[Siriusly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being totally biased, having admired Chef Morimoto since the late 90s/early 2000s, I find this is a great Japanese cookbook. Each section focuses on different cooking styles/dishes (steaming, tempura, soups, salads, etc.) along with an explanation. Each recipe also has an explanation and why Morimoto enjoys it. Every so often, little asides called Japanese Grandmother Wisdom give tips and techniques.

Gimme all the Japanese food. Except octopus. Although tasty, I'm pretty sure that they're sentient.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know who he is. You either think his food is too fusion oriented or you don't. I happen to think it's a wonderful expression of what I'll call "post-modern cuisine". It really is food from the increasingly Balkanized planet we call home. That being said, I'm not going to attempt most of it and I certainly wouldn't recommend it for a home cook to try.
What I will say is that the book is worth having for the introduction and the chapter on sushi.
The introduction is well written and contains some really great insights on what food and cooking as art mean to a talented chef.
As a gaijin who's made a pretty good career out of cooking Japanese food it was funny for me to read Morimoto's comment that people sometimes tell him that his food isn't "really Japanese". He is as confused by this as I am when I hear it.
The chapter on sushi is honestly the most informative piece of writing in English on the subject. He shows you the basic techniques that it took me two years of 12 hour days to learn.
This kind of information just doesn't come along every day in easy to read, well illustrated form.
Another thing I LOVE is that instead of going with one of the big coffee-table like cookbook publishers, Morimoto went with DK. This means that EVERYTHING is shown in great detail through lots of photographs.

[Anina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only put cookbooks in my read list if I was actually compelled to "read" the whole thing. This falls into that category. Beautiful pictures and the book contained informative sections on traditional Japanese ingredients and techniques. Every recipe looks insanely delicious although most of them are a bit artistic and would only be made by the average person for special occasions.

[Wendy Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chef Morimoto is a food genius and this book is beautiful, including explanations about important elements, like sushi rice. Lots of recipes for mains and sauces, and the photography is great. I recommend making tempura with his tempura batter recipe, and also the black cod. Four and a half rounded down to four as some of the ingredients are hard to come by.

[Dray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good book, written by an artisan. Although the recipes tend toward fish I found some excellent recipes for vegetarians. I especially liked his explanations on food sidelines like dashi and wasabi. well worth reading.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating introduction and tips, I look forward to making many of these recipes.

[Theodor Papachristodoulou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great source for inspiration and Japanese fusion cooking

[Cathy Barrow]

I'm just starting to cook from it.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I must say that I honestly enjoyed reading and reviewing Morimoto's book vs. Chang's "Momofuku". Why? There are more recipes that I would enjoy crafting and it's (surprisingly) more approachable with more cross applications for food parings and out of book uses.

From Rock Shrimp Temura to Snapper Chips (snapper sliced thing and fried), Morimoto's book brings the reserved intelligence of Japanese cooking to the home cook. I learned more about the craft of Japanese cooking (the differences in rice, wasabi, how to properly eat sushi to taste it and not just to have a medium to slap soy sauce and wasabi on) and developed a keen interest in learning more and actually applying what the book teaches.

I will actually cook from this cookbook. And that is the highest honor I can give.

[Jess Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book, and some surprisingly accessible recipes.

Read it if only for the the neat little chunks of food history sandwiched between recipes.

There's quite a bit of stuff that is straight-forward but pretty time consuming, and a whole section entitle "Recipes for Contemplation," where he gives ingredients and methods for things that aren't necessarily practical for a home cook, like blowfish carpaccio (blowfish is not only expensive, but requires a license to serve because it's so potentially toxic.)

[Lance Cheuvront · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first it would have been easy to pass this book off as simply eye candy, and it would be worth having just for that, but there is a lot more to it. The recipes run the gamut from the nigh impossible to quite simple and many of them are even possible for first time cooks. The photography is lush and in my opinion almost perfect. The descriptions of techniques and uncommon ingredients make the recipes approachable and I have used many of them in the year or so since the book was gifted to me. It is definitely a keeper and a favorite.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love watching him cook and I've seen this book in the store, and the pics are beautiful. I can bet that the food should be very tasty as well...
Pictures of the food and the chef were gorgeous, and I found his personal story interesting as well as his fusion cuisine, and why he does it. Not sure if I would be skilled enough of a chef to do them, but I loved reading through them. I might try a couple.

[Ragallachmc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful cookbook that really conveys the chef/author's philosophy and style. The brief biography at the beginning was interesting and insightful, but the meat of the book are recipes that are brimming with exotic ingredients and requiring sharp skills and knives.

If you love Morimoto, Japanese cuisine, or food porn than you should pick this one up.

[Riegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm probably never able to make most of these, but Japanese food is truly an art. If you want to get a good overview of the techniques, terms, and flavors, and just enjoy mouthwatering pictures of food, try this.

[Elissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic cookbook. Morimoto turns food into art.

[Anquan Le · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've gained respect for Japanese cuisine after sampling this book.

[Doron Yam · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best for Japanese-Love-Cooking.

[Monica Albright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great pictures...but complicated dishes...not practical

[Alisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging photos and nice design, but many recipes aren't practical for daily use. This is a special occasion or "inspired by..." cookbook, not a collection of traditional staples.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful pictures. Lovely insight into techniques.

[William Graney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it's a beautiful book but the text is very hard to read.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

After meeting Mr. Morimoto, I didn't realize he was such a warm heart and commedian.