Kayahara.ca

Tomorrow, I’m leaving on vacation for Japan, where I’m planning to enjoy lots of noodles and dashi-based dishes. I’ll definitely be taking lots of pictures, and if I get a chance I’ll post some here while I’m gone. Otherwise, posting will be pretty sparse, but I’ve got lots of great topics planned for when I [...]

Prior to this past Wednesday night, I had eaten at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa exactly twice: once, during my undergrad days, for a pre-concert Valentine’s Day dinner, and once for a wedding. Both meals were solidly executed, but neither was especially memorable. I wrote off the cuisine at the NAC and its restaurant, [...]

I’m a week behind on this, but it bears mentioning anyway: last week, the team at the always-informative Cooking Issues blog announced that they would be launching forums in order to increase interaction with their readers. Cooking Issues is the blogging face of Dave Arnold and Nils Norén of the French Culinary Institute. In addition [...]

I’ve been cooking a lot of Japanese food this year, in preparation for an upcoming trip to Japan, and time and again I’ve come back to one observation: dashi is the heart and soul of Japanese cooking. Dashi is to Japanese cuisine what veal stock is to classic French cuisine, only more so. The most [...]

With the weather being so unusually warm this spring, I’ve been drinking a lot of rum cocktails lately. Among rum drinks, none are tastier or more complicated than the family known as faux-Polynesian, or “Tiki,” drinks. And among Tiki drinks, none packs a bigger punch than the Zombie. Originally devised by Don the Beachcomber in [...]

Here’s a recent video of a menu development meeting with the staff at Alinea. It’s an interesting inside look at how Chef Grant Achatz and his team take on the challenge of staying constantly at the forefront of modern cuisine. In particular, Achatz talks about how easy it is to identify certain plating styles with [...]