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| A waitress relaxes in the Japanese garden of Kicho Arashiyama Honten in Kyoto |
In the hushed, private tatami rooms of a gracious, old wooden building in Japan’s cultural capital of Kyoto lies an exclusive and arcane world of elite gastronomy: kaiseki ryori, or Japanese haute cuisine.
Served by kimono-clad waitresses over several hours, the painstakingly prepared dishes of new-season vegetables, costly seafood and other prized ingredients are arranged like precious artworks on hand-crafted ceramic and lacquerware vessels.
Kaiseki cuisine was first developed in the 16th century to ward off hunger during protracted tea ceremonies, but this version, known as cha-kaiseki, then gave rise to a fuller, banquet form .
Even today, all forms of kaiseki are rooted in ritual and seasonality, and while a new generation of chefs is dispensing with some of the old rules, the structure of a full, traditional kaiseki meal remains strict. Chefs have some leeway with ingredients and preparation methods, but only within a rigid framework.
A single dish in a top kaiseki restaurant can require many hours’ work by four or five people, though it can also be as simple as one I once had in Kanda, a three-Michelin-starred Tokyo restaurant: shin-wakame, or young seaweed, parboiled and served with only a citrus-soy dipping sauce.
That single dish exemplified kaiseki’s central rule: whether simple or elaborate, the key is to focus on the freshest and best-quality ingredients.
The time, cost and labour required to produce a kaiseki banquet demands a high price. In a traditional Kyoto ryotei (a large, established restaurant) a full kaiseki course, usually nine to 12 dishes, can easily cost from Y20,000 (£133) to Y58,000 (£383) per head or more – for food alone.
Over such a meal at an old Kyoto ryotei, one gets the feeling that not much has changed over the centuries. Indeed, adherence to tradition is, for many kaiseki devotees, the key attraction.
This is the world that Michelin finally penetrated after numerous rejections by Kyoto restaurants. Two years after launching its inaugural Tokyo guide, Michelin earlier this month published its first on Kyoto and Osaka, bestowing 189 stars on the cities’ restaurants and hotels – second only to Tokyo’s haul of 227.
But, despite enthusiastic validation from Michelin, there is a dark side to the kaiseki tradition – one that patrons almost never get to see. It lies in the sometimes Dickensian kitchens of some of the top and outwardly most elegant establishments, yet even here there is a fin de siècle feeling of an ancient tradition slowly breaking down.
In one ryotei , which employs more than 20 kitchen staff, the day begins virtually at dawn and ends nearly at midnight for younger staff. Many toil 80 to 90 hours a week, starting in their first year at 6am each day and working through until 11pm or midnight. Junior kitchen staff get a half-hour break; more senior workers might get an hour off and start, say, at 8am.
In the first five years, a kitchen worker typically gets leave only at new year, for a week. Juniors are assigned the most menial, grinding tasks – gutting fish, cleaning floors, washing dishes and dealing with garbage. They barely touch food for their first few years on the job.
Even as they climb the hierarchy, the traditionally compartmentalised nature of kaiseki cuisine means that a worker might spend several years doing only garnishes, say, or grilling fish. In this paternalistic system, most kitchen staff live on the premises, in crude dormitories with shared bathrooms. They eat cheaply prepared staff meals – a far cry from the elaborate creations they help to turn out for customers. For all this, they earn little more than Y100,000 (£672) per month for the first five years, said a senior employee who declined to be named – the amount a customer might drop on a single meal in a top ryotei.
Not surprisingly, the burn-out rate is high, but this harsh approach to training is not confined to kaiseki. From baseball to sumo wrestling, Japan’s traditional system of “shugyo” – or apprenticeship – metes out brutal lessons over almost inhuman hours for pitiful pay. No one with less than 100 per cent commitment can survive.
Kyoto remains a culinary world largely closed to outsiders. Indeed, few top foreign chefs have set up there, preferring to focus instead on Tokyo for their flagship Japanese restaurants.
Still, there are changes afoot. Keiji Mori is the talented owner-chef of Maru, a contemporary Tokyo restaurant where dishes can be ordered à la carte and shared. Mori trained in Kyoto kaiseki restaurants for 10 years, working his way to the top before leaving nearly 20 years ago to travel and, eventually, open his own place. “Kyoto has changed. When I worked there, all the top ryotei were quite big, with beautiful gardens and large tatami rooms ... now many of the m have faded away,” he says.
Some top ryotei, such as Hyotei and Kitcho, are still highly rated, landing multiple Michelin stars. But there are fewer than a dozen big establishments left in Kyoto, and many were not included in Michelin’s guide. Instead, kaiseki restaurants, drawing customers and landing stars, are small and often innovative, says Mori.
“This type of small place is now very popular; it generally means the owner works with care . . . whereas 20 years ago, in Japan’s ‘bubble economy’ era, owners of large, famous restaurants became more like business people. Their food became more careless, more commercial.”
These days, however, some Kyoto chefs believe that aspiring kaiseki apprentices no longer want to spend five years gutting fish and cleaning toilets before being allowed to touch food, and the “new generation” of smaller places simply can’t afford to have one person who just prepares garnishes. Trainees at smaller restaurants learn a bit of everything – and far more quickly than in the old system. This phenomenon, in turn, is helping to break down the old system – and the prices charged.
The big establishments have large overheads, so the three-starred Hyotei charges up to Y42,000 for a dinner course and at least Y20,000 for lunch. But at Sasaki, a smaller, fashionable newcomer, dinner costs Y17,850, and lunch as little as Y5,500.
Among the thriving large ryotei, Wakuden, a relative newcomer with several branches around Kyoto, is innovating in its approach to kaiseki and its more progressive – and faster – training. Two of its three branches gained a Michelin star each but, in addition, at least five alumni have landed Michelin stars in roles elsewhere or in their own establishments.
Is the change a good thing? In the view of David Schlosser, an American chef who has been working in some of Kyoto’s top kaiseki restaurants, the city epitomises a precious tradition. “There are so many influences there, things always change. Kyoto to me means generations of chefs all working to perfect the same thing. That’s why it’s so good, because they have been doing it for so many years.”
Ultimately, diners – and the next generation of apprentices and chefs – will be the judges of that.
Gwen Robinson is an FT correspondent based in Tokyo
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Michelin picks in Kyoto
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| Katsuyoshi Nagata |
Tel +81 (0)75 561 2471; www.kyotochihana.com
More than 400 years old, Hyotei began life as a tea house in the grounds of Nanzenji Temple. Eiichi Takahashi, the 14th-generation owner-chef, upholds the traditions of his forebears.
Tel +81 (0)75 771 4116; www.hyotei.co.jp
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| Hyotei |
Tel: +81 (0)75 881 1101www.kitcho.com/kyoto/english
Housed in an old-style house in Kyoto’s Maruyama Park, Mizai’s long wooden counter gives a traditional atmosphere. Owner-chef Hitoshi Ishihara focuses on cha-kaiseki, and the strict timing and structure of the meals here reflect this traditional spirit.
Tel: +81 (0)75 551 3310; www.mizai.net
Tsuruya’s elegant tea-house structure reflects both traditional and modern styles. The food, however, is focused on traditional seasonal, multi-course meals – a feature of the flagship restaurant and its four branches, including one in Tokyo’s Peninsula Hotel.
Tel: +81 (0)75 761 0171; www.kyoto-tsuruya.co.jp
Gion Sasaki landed just two stars, but it’s the place that Kyoto foodies flock to. Owner-chef Hiroshi Sasaki has made a mark with his inventive cuisine and bold presentation.
Tel +81 (0)75 551 5000
For a complete list of restaurants in the new Michelin guide to Kyoto and Osaka, see www.ft.com/michelinkyoto
