Monthly Memo From Doi's Culinary Philosophy
Original text by Doi Yoshiharu
Translated by Yoshiko Fukuda
October-Kannazuki
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◎Service and Tableware
○There are some restaurants that use dishes as consumable supplies. Popular restaurants that serve moderately priced meals often use dishes that are ordered in mass amounts from similar catalogues that targets a particular sort of business. Those dishes are meant for short term usage, meaning they are 'expected to break' and are replaced often. Only in very expensive restaurants do they use valuable dishes that are not imitations of modern ceramists' works.
●Of course there are no dishes that are truly meant for short term usage. But for business reasons there are dishes that is, like said before, 'expected' to break and are substituted easily. In those businesses, dishes are often seen as consumables even in expenses. That is why service at Japanese restaurants have degraded considerably. When they bring out the meals they are careful enough yet when they clean the tables, they stack up, in a clamorous manner, the dishes on either a tray or a cart and avoid repetitious walks to the tables. This kind of treatment of tableware was never accepted in Japanese culture.○Good Treatment of Tableware is Service
●At Ajiichii, we do not consider our dishes consumables. Even though it has become accepted that at restaurants the serving dishes are consumable to cut expenses in the end, at Ajiichi we decided to use expensive dishes and use it to our benefit. The benefit is, surely, better service. By handling the dishes carefully, the quality of service will go up. Using expensive dishes, as was discussed in the essay from September, they will better present the food and provide a more agreeable atmosphere for eating. As listening to good music and appreciating good painting influences the mind, good dishes affect the mind of the ones who eat; like drinking tea in a good ceramic work soothes the mind more even if the tea is of average quality.
●Because dishes are fragile and liable to much damage, the longer one succeeds in maintaining the original shape and form of a dish, the more one gets attached to a particular work. Well known works of pottery that have remained are ones that were preserved with great care. In tea ceremonies, one of the virtue is to take great care of the pottery and make it last as long as possible.○Few Tips on how to NOT break dishes
●Not even by stressing and warning others to be careful when dealing with dishes, unavoidable accidents occur, never lessening the actual number of dishes getting shattered to pieces. That is why I, in stead of reminding others again and again not to ruin the dishes, tell them to make an effort to not make a lot of sound when they are handling the dishes. Treating the dishes carefully does not necessarily mean that they have to move in a exceedingly slow manner, but it actually means to not forget little pointers. For example, when the dish is placed on the table or come in contact with something hard, then allow ones' pinky or any other finger for that matter, to touch the table before the dish meet the surface. That little caution lessens the noise that the contact brings forth, and everyone is capable of being quick but not making any sound. Making less sound means one is being more careful, which reflects in one's service. In driving a car similar things can be said. A qualified driver can distinguish when to slow down and when to check for safety. Even if a race is a competition of who drives the fastest, it also is a test of who can drive safely the fastest. Clearly, the racers cannot win if they retire in the middle of the race by crashing.
●It is common knowledge to not stack up dishes. There are dishes like expensive glasses that cannot ever be stacked up yet there are others made to maintain their balance when stacked up. In the end, however, it depends on a person's individual skill, how many dishes can be stacked up without losing its balance. Nonetheless, stacking up dishes should not be applied to good dishes. There are waiters and waitresses who stack up as many dishes as possible with so much pride, yet from others it appears very dangerous. Also, it is extremely unacceptable to stack up dishes on plates that still have left over food.○The Importance of Hands
●In tea meals, different meals are brought out on trays. First the trays are placed on the table and then individual dishes are lifted and placed by both hands on each tray set. But when the tray set is far away, serving dishes with both hands jeopardizes the balance of the servers' body. Therefore, the left hand is used to support the body, and the right hand is mainly used for serving. In any case, using both hands to serve dishes is very essential. That is why at many cafes when the foods are brought out on a tray lifted by the left hand and served hurriedly before you by only on hand, the food seems blatant and unappetizing. Occupying both hands signifies that one is centering his focus on that specific thing. And by concentrating that much energy to one thing only, it clearly heightens a certain thing's value. Doing another thing or directing the body somewhere else and bringing the food, is just like handing or passing out an uninteresting flier in the streets. By the subtle difference in serving food results in either making a 1000-yen meal degrade to half that price or making it worth even more.
●Even in a three star Michelin restaurant in France, the food is brought out on a big silver tray which is once taken to a side table near the customers. Then once the waiter is ready, he serves the dishes one by one to the customers.
●In some restaurants, the waiters bring out two to three dishes casually balanced out on their left arms. That is pleasant to look at for sure. Similarly, traditional Japanese restaurants like soba-ya(servs mainly noodles) and meshi-ya(serves unexpensive traditional Japanese meals) that have a very speedy service, are known to have swift workers. They are always awfully busy. That is one of the reasons that their kind of service is accepted. What is considered of more importance determines the way of the restaurants' service. If the customers only have little time saved for eating, then quick service should come first. Needless to say, one rule never satisfies every condition given so good service changes its definition under different situations. If during busy times, the waiters explained carefully every single thing on the menu and took time with their service, then it is being unperceiving to the customers needs and the kindness would be taken as rudeness. Being too careful would be being tedious and being to kind neglects what is really needed.
●Chef Alain Passard of the three-star-restaurant in Paris, Arpege, is in charge of the rotisserie. Everyday at seven thirty in the morning, he will prepare lamb chops, chunk of beef and even a whole chicken in order to cook them later to perfection. He is said to be the master in able to distinguish different whispers of the flame.
●Three years ago I had a chance to taste his veal roast assorted with small potatoes, and carrots flavored with garlic, which was served with a waitress' compassionate assistance.
●In later years when he was invited to Japan to be on the T.V. show, The Iron Chef. Coincidentally, I was watching the show when he aired on it. I was astounded by the way he dealt with his foie gras. It was a simple gesture with his hands of just lifting the ingredients and carefully placing it on a small plate. But even in that kind of a small action his hands demonstrated his sincere attitude and affection toward cooking and his confidence. It was filled with it. His hands told me that his cooking always would turn out to be nothing but perfectly delicious. Even now, as I remember that overwhelming sensation, I am filled with a sense of awe and respect.
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