As part of the “JAL Furusato Project,” JAL held a dinner event “Traveling Makers Dinner” at Ore no French Grand Maison Otemachi on February 26, 2012. This was the second event held at the restaurant, this time in collaboration with Tokushima Prefecture, and a course meal was served that used many of the prefecture’s brand-name ingredients.
The event featured a special dinner course prepared by the restaurant’s chef, Ryo Kamiki, and manager and sommelier, Junichi Hasegawa, who actually visited Tokushima Prefecture to interact with producers. The large screen at the venue showed the scenic beauty of Tokushima Prefecture and the scenery of its production, giving the audience a rich sense of travel.
During the meeting, a live performance was given by Chiharu Kanayama, a biano player, and Mr. Hasegawa entertained the audience with a variety of entertainment elements, including a dekpaje (carving service) of roasted whole Awa Roosters to accompany his performance.
The menu included six dishes, including desserts, and wines selected to pair with each dish. The first dish was a combination of “Sake Lees Financier and “Sakura Momo Strawberry” paired with Champagne.
Sakura Momo Strawberries are a brand of strawberries grown in Sanakawachi Village, and only large berries with an average sugar content of 12 degrees or higher are carefully selected for shipment. They are very popular, and at the first sale, a box of strawberries sometimes fetches more than 100,000 yen. The drink is “DELAMOTTE BRUT BLANC DE BLANCS,” which is used in JAL’s international business class flights. It is a Champagne with a clean, dry taste and a good amount of fine bubbles. The sweetness and aroma of the strawberries and the refreshing aroma and bubbles of the Champagne made for a pleasant start to the meal, making us look forward to the next dish.
The small plates used for serving were Oya-yaki, Tokushima’s pottery, and a pleasant surprise was prepared for the guests to take home as souvenirs.
Served next was a cold appetizer of “Salmon and Golden Village Caviar Lime” paired with “GEORG BREUER RAUENTHAL ESTATE RHEINGAU” Riesling wine from Germany.
The fatty Norwegian salmon is coated with sour cream, and the sauce is made with Tokushima sudachi. The caviar lime served with the dish is characterized by its crunchy texture and intense acidity, and is meant to be enjoyed while dissolving the rich salmon fat.
Mr. Hasegawa noted that it is quite difficult to match wine with a menu with strong acidity, but he chose a wine made from Riesling, a grape variety said to have the highest acidity. He also explained that he chose a German wine because Tokushima Prefecture and the German state of Lower Saxony are sister cities, so he took into consideration the story behind the wine. The pairing of the rich flavor of the salmon with the acidity of the sauce and wine, while retaining a persistent aftertaste, was a dish that was sure to become addictive.
The hot appetizer was “Boar and “stork lotus root” falsies” paired with Bulgarian orange wine “VILLA MELNIK ORANGE WINE”. The combination of wild boar caught in the lush green mountains and lotus root grown with reduced use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers is said to have been created to evoke the earth of Tokushima Prefecture.
The wine chosen for the pairing is an amber-colored orange wine, known overseas as amber wine, which they say goes well with sushi and root vegetable dishes. Normally, they would have chosen a bottle of Georgian amber wine, which is a typical orange wine, but they prepared Bulgarian amber wine this time because it has a slightly strong astringent taste, which is one of its characteristics.
Mr. Hasegawa explained that orange wine has the characteristic of being fermented and aged in a ceramic jar, and that the scenery of the jar was similarly sympathetic to that of an Oya-yaki pottery studio, and he hoped that the audience could sense the connected travel feeling. The boar meat, which is not often eaten, had no odor at all, but had a powerful flavor similar to that of high quality pork, and matched very well with the crispy lotus root. The unique character of the orange wine was an interesting drink that made us understand the difference in the manufacturing process.
The fish dish was “Naruto sea bream anglutte with Naruto wakame seaweed in a vin blanc sauce,” which was served with “Naruto Tai LED,” a Japanese sake made by the Honke Matsuura Sake Brewery in Naruto City, making the dish all about Naruto. The event was a Naruto-focused affair. The Naruto Straits, where the whirlpools of Naruto occur, produce rapids that give the sea bream excellent meat quality, and the wakame seaweed, which is thick, firm, and full of flavor, is used in a variety of dishes.
Naruto Tai LED is a new-age sake brewed with LED Yume Yeast 3826 Type2, which was created by irradiating existing yeast with LED. Its yogurt-flavored aroma, acidity, and tropical sweetness are different from existing sake, and it was paired with French and other Western cuisine. The powerful tag team of Naruto sea bream, whose flavor expands with each bite, and Naruto wakame seaweed, which conveys the flavor of the seashore, combined with Naruto sea bream LED, which offers a fruitiness reminiscent of white wine, showed us a world we had never known.
The main dish of meat was “Awa Rooster and Chasseur-style Tiankeikou”, and “FRIEDRICH BECKER SPATBURGUNDER DOPPELSTUCK”, a 100% Pinot Noir red wine from Germany, which is used in JAL business class, was served. FRIEDRICH BECKER SPATBURGUNDER DOPPELSTUCK, a 100% Pinot Noir German red wine used in JAL business class, was served. Before the food and wine were served, a piano performance and a decoupage of Awa Rooster were added to heighten the anticipation of the audience.
Awa Rooster is a premium chicken raised for more than 80 days in a land of rich nature, and Tenkeikko is a large shiitake mushroom from Tokushima Prefecture that contains three times more guanyl acid, a flavor component, than conventional varieties. Chasseur style means hunter, and it was also introduced as a sauce made of mushrooms, shallots, butter, and other mountain delicacies cooked down with white wine. The Awa Yuchiken, which incorporates the technique of “loupozé” (resting cooked ingredients), was juicy without being dry, and alternated with thick shiitake mushrooms to create a taste with full flavor and chewiness.
The German red wine, as Hasegawa explained, had a very floral aroma, but it had a lingering aftertaste that evoked the land without jarring the strong flavor of the food.
Before the final dessert was served, a live video from the Otsuka Museum of Art was delivered to the audience on a screen. The museum, located in Naruto City, features approximately 1,000 full-scale reproductions of Western masterpieces from 26 countries on ceramic boards, and the viewing route is an astonishing 4 km long. Among the full-scale reproductions of masterpieces were Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” before and after restoration, a complete reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and a series of images that gave visitors the illusion of having visited the actual site.
For dessert, “NARUTO KINJI Crème Brûlée with Yuzu Fragrance Sauce” and “Le fleuve Tokushima Shinemuscat” by Nissin Sake Brewery were served. The smooth sweetness of sweet potatoes and the fresh aroma of the dessert wine wafted through the nostrils, bringing the traveling makers’ dinner to a crisp conclusion.
Mr. Hasegawa, the manager and sommelier, and Chef Kamiki actually visited the area to come up with this menu. They explained that what they imagined and what they actually experienced were different. “We planned to modify the strawberries in our initial conception, but the moment we tasted the ones harvested close to the ground, we changed our minds to value the taste of the land,” they said. He explained that it is very important to interact with the producers to confirm the location, and that this is where the story is born. He also told us that he hoped this experience would encourage more people to visit Tokushima Prefecture.
Shunsuke Honda, Executive Officer and General Manager of JAL’s Regional Business Division, said that this event is one that embodies the creation of reasons for people from large cities to visit Japanese regions, explaining that it is very important to have famous chefs and sommeliers help to introduce the many regional ingredients to a large audience.
Now that inbound demand, which had been halted due to the Corona disaster, has begun to pick up again, “We would like to invite people not only from Japan but also from other countries and hold events like this overseas in the future so that we can bring people to Japan through local products,” he added. I would like to invite people from overseas and hold events like this overseas in the future so that we can bring people here with local products,” he said.
The third installment of the traveling makers’ dinner featuring Amami Oshima is scheduled to take place on March 19. The fourth and fifth editions are also being considered, so those who are interested in encountering good regional foods and stories are encouraged to check out JAL’s regional revitalization category.
© Source travel watch
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