A MirAcle in courses
in the annals of culinary history, few genres of haute cuisine originated in the monastery instead of the palace, and only one takes its name from a warm stone clutched against the stomach to stave off hunger. But this is Japan, where a foundation of function ballasts every form, and a minimalist disguise obscures the extent of its elaboration. In a land without ostentation, a meal of a lifetime should follow suit: strict in its sourcing, formal in its structure and jaw dropping in its most-minute execution. Perhaps nothing is quite as stunningly PHOTOGRAPHS by TeTSuyA MiuRA Japanese as the dozen-odd courses of exquisite execution known as kaiseki. When you consider that in Japan, chefs apprentice for years to devote their craft to the most minute of subgenres — cooking only the breaded cutlets known as
The epicurean arT of kaiseki is finding new forms in Tokyo. Lauren sandLer is enTranced
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Spring 2012