Czech dinner in Japan: how to cook potato dumplings in Tottori
"At the yakitori bar Charcoalier Takaki Kobe where we interned, they wanted each of us to prepare one Czech dish on the menu. Jirka cooked chicken on paprika, I cooked Dutch schnitzel," František Skopec begins to tell us. The cooks wanted authentic classics, no twist, so they only reduced the portions so that they could be served on small plates like the other items on the à la carte menu. The second showcase of Czech flavours took place at the restaurant of Mr Torikai, owner of Tottori Chikusan Farm, which sends wagyu to Amaso.
"When Mr Torikai came to us later with the idea of cooking for his friends, we automatically conceived it as a tasting dinner. It was only later that we realised we had misunderstood. He imagined a family lunch, we planned a menu that would showcase the pillars of our cuisine and can be prepared with Japanese ingredients without the dishes losing their identity," says Jirka Horák.
Improvisation, the chef's way
From the small kitchen in Tottori emerged a six-course dinner that captured Czech cooking, although the recipes were a touch exotic. "We had to play with what the market offered, so the taste of some dishes shifted slightly. For example, we struggled with the butter, which emulsified differently than we are used to," František recalls one of the many situations that required culinary improvisation.
From garlic bread to strudel
The basis of Czech cuisine is soup. "Originally we wanted to cook kulajda, but we couldn't find dill, so we changed it to garlic soup. We combined beef broth from wagyu trimmings with dashi, white miso paste, garlic and black garlic. We served the clear soup with a soft-boiled quail egg," says Jirka.
The phenomenon of the Czech slaughter has made its way into wagyu tartare. To flavour it, we cooked cracklings from wagyu tallow, which is usually used in Japan for cosmetics. In addition, a toast made from Japanese shokupan bread was toasted in the fat, while ground beef rump was accompanied by mayonnaise made from mustard and sesame oil, kumquat from Mr Torikai's farm and shiso instead of parsley.
For the third course, the chefs reminisced about the De Luxe pop-up and Mělník-style zander. From the local fish, they chose mackerel, which was briefly poached and served together with a butter sauce of sake, mirin and rice vinegar with wasabi oil, tobiko caviar from flying fish and daikon radish. And also with steamed wild wasabi leaves that Mr Torikai picked on the way to the restaurant.
When the flour and potatoes are combined, a round symbol of Bohemianism is created. And the fourth course, presented by potato dumplings stuffed with pork. The meat was baked with miso paste and mixed with katsuobushi to simulate a smoky flavour, accompanied by steamed spinach and a pile of fried onions. "In the finale, it resembled pork and mash. We used one egg per kilo of potatoes and a minimum of plain flour, so the dough was very thin and soft," František adds.
"At the end we grilled deer heart and leg with juniper sauce ponzu, which we made ourselves. All we had to do was mix soy sauce, the juice from the jambo yuzu donated by Mr Torikai and crushed juniper," comments Jirka on the last savoury course. The meat was paired with enoki mushrooms and kubu made from rice and several types of mushrooms.
The most joy at the table was for apple strudel from puff pastry. "I was surprised at how easy it was to work with the dough. It must be the flour and butter, which have different properties from what we know in Europe," remarks František. Instead of raisins, he wiped umeboshi with sugar and cinnamon to form a sweet and salty, slightly sour paste, which he mixed with the apple slices. For dessert, there was no shortage of vanilla sauce scented with yuzu zest.
Like at home
Encountering a foreign culture broadens one's horizons, allows one to look at one's own traditions from an inverted perspective and to ask questions that bring new context and sharpen an obscure context. Even a trip to Japan can end up being a homecoming.
"Towards the end of dinner, one lady commented on how amazed she was that our cuisines were so similar. And she's right. Both Czech and Japanese cuisine are based on basic ingredients and on the clarity of dishes that are not over-seasoned. In the recipes, they excel pure, natural flavours and it's the classics that show it most. The difference lies in the length of preparation. On the other hand, the Japanese also eat broths and long-cooked meats," František recalls.
There, the perception of the raw material, the lived craftsmanship and the ubiquitous ceremony inspire gastronomy all over the world. "I like the fact that almost all Japanese chefs cook local cuisine. They focus on tradition and spend so long honing and refining it until they arrive at the perfect dish," answers Jirka when asked what the pros from Europe go to Japan for.
"Only the Japanese show you how to use a knife. And they also convince you that there is no one universal recipe or procedure, but countless different approaches. And that a lot of things that are said about Japanese cuisine are just assumptions and legends. Every chef there thinks a little differently, and yet humbly acknowledges that no one way is the only right way, but neither is it wrong," concludes František.
