Dining with the Chef Season 4

Our theme of this episode is seafood. For our main dish, we'll be making asari littleneck clam rice. Littleneck clams are in season right now, so Rika will be introducing this original recipe inspired by Fukagawa-meshi, some of Tokyo's regional cooking. We'll also be learning how to make a soup with oysters and turnips, which are sweeter and tenderer in the spring, as well as nokke tofu, or tofu topped with whitebait and shrimp, rounding off our three seafood dishes for this episode.

Our main recipe in this episode is tofu hamburger steaks, a healthy variation on the Japanese western-style standard, made with tofu and low-fat ground chicken instead of beef or pork. By steam-frying these hamburger steaks in a frying pan, they'll come out nicely light and juicy, and the sauce we'll make for them with ponzu and grated daikon radish gives them a deliciously light, clean flavor. For our sides, we'll also be making pumpkin salad, sugar-glazed carrot and shiitake mushrooms, and sugar snap peas, making for a beautifully colorful spread perfect for spring.

This episode's theme is Japanese home cooking, bridging the gap between East and West. Our main dish this episode will be shrimp doria with fava beans. While doria looks like a dish originally from Western Europe, its roots actually trace back to a long-established hotel in the port city of Yokohama. Buttered rice, topped with seafood and white sauce, then covered in cheese and baked, is the usual simplified homemade style that Rika will be making her own variant on, using a microwave to make a simple white sauce and flavoring the buttered rice with soy sauce. As a side dish, Rika will be making a fresh mushroom and shungiku chrysanthemum leaf salad with a hint of sesame oil, and for dessert, we have pudding made with matcha green tea, well known even overseas nowadays. We'll show you the secret to heating your pudding to give it a perfect, beautiful finish!

Delicious food served on top of a deep bowl of rice, known as donburi (or just -don), is a favorite style of Japanese cooking. In this episode, we'll be introducing one of the most popular donburi, Oyakodon, topped with egg and chicken. We'll show you how to prepare Rika's own spicy variation, made by simmering chicken and onions in a sweet and spicy sauce. Add some beaten egg to bring it together and ladle it on top of rice for a bowl of happiness. We'll also be making a salad and a soup with chicken, culminating in a full course meal perfect for enjoying a variety of different textures, all from the same type of meat.

Our theme this time is frying. We'll be making golden-fried scallops and shrimp, shaped like old gold coins used in Japan. Our chef will show off how to make the unique sauce with butter and soy sauce that coats the scallops and shrimp before they're fried to a golden finish. We'll also be making rapini flavored with mustard. The pungency of the mustard gives the rapini an addicting flavor. Finally, in The Master Chef's world, we'll learn about the importance of expressing the feel of each of the four seasons in Japanese cuisine.

The theme of this episode is “pressing.” We'll be making pressed crab sushi, concentrating the delicious flavor of crab. By using crab, egg, and mitsuba honewort, we'll be making layered that's as beautiful as it is delicious. For our second item, we'll be making clear soup with bamboo shoots and wakame seaweed, taking advantage of the tender bamboo shoots that are currently in season.

Our theme this time is "rolling." We'll be making harumaki spring rolls: crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The ingredients include firm yet tender shrimp, fluffy egg, and nori to give them a hint of distinctly Japanese flavor. For our side dish, we'll be making the Japanese favorite kimpira, a colorful and delicious combination of sweet carrots and fragrant sesame oil.

In this episode, we'll be cooking rice with the increasingly popular worldwide favorite, edamame. Our main dish will be a steamed dish featuring celery, our MC Patrick's favorite. We'll layer the celery with both pork and chicken and flavor it all with a sauce made from doubanjiang, a spicy seasoning paste from China, and miso paste from Japan. This easy-to-make recipe provides a wonderfully complex blend of vegetable and meat flavors, making it the perfect dish to serve guests.

Our theme this episode is deep frying. We'll be making that Japanese favorite, tonkatsu pork cutlets, made with pork tenderloin - crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside. To get the perfect crispy crust, you have to fry them twice, and we'll teach you everything you need to know about how to do that. We'll also show you how to make our own original tonkatsu sauce recipe with dashi stock. For our side dish, we'll be making tonjiru soup with pork belly, full of deliciously chunky ingredients and rich in nutrition. Finally, we'll take a look at the history of the long-beloved tonkatsu in Japan.

Our main dish this episode is a hot pot dish with tsumire meatballs made from fresh sardines, simmered in a delicious dashi stock-based miso soup with plenty of vegetables for a delicious and irresistible dish, even in the hot summer months! Eating hot food to make you sweat is a popular way to beat the summer heat in Japan, and this delicious hot pot is a great way to do so.

Our theme this episode is "rolling up." Cabbage is in season, so we'll be using it to make Japanese-style stuffed cabbage rolls, filled with chicken and full of the rich flavor of dashi stock. Our chef will demonstrate the secrets to rolling the cabbage just right, adding tororo shredded kombu kelp to give this dish the perfect finishing touch. Green asparagus is in season right now as well, so we'll also be making delicious asparagus rice, cooked with fresh asparagus and abura-age fried tofu.

Our theme this episode is kabayaki grilled unagi eel. We'll introduce you to the traditions of this Japanese favorite, starting with the chef cutting up the eel while it's still alive, then putting the meat on skewers, dipping it in a soy sauce-based sauce, then grilling it until it's perfectly browned and delicious. On this episode, we'll be visiting a long-established unagi eel restaurant, where we'll learn about the impressively complex world of working with unagi eel, and we'll find out what their saying "three years for skewering, eight years for cutting up, and a lifetime for grilling" means. We'll also be taking a look at the secret techniques used to raise the perfect unagi eels for kabayaki.

Our theme this episode is sakura shrimp. These clear pink shrimp can only be caught in fall and winter, off the coast of Yui, Shizuoka, in the Suruga Bay, making them a rare treat. We'll meet the third-generation chef of a seafood restaurant in Yui that boasts 65 years of history, and he'll show us a number of dishes made using these unique shrimp. In particular, we'll learn about sakura shrimp kaki-age, made with the lightest batter possible to give it a light, crisp crunch, while letting the sakura shrimp's natural sweetness and color shine through.

Our theme this episode is the home cooking of Japan's southernmost prefecture, Okinawa. Okinawa has its own unique food culture, as you might expect from islands so far south, and it has less in common than you might expect with the general Japanese cuisine. Our main focus will be on Okinawa soba noodles, featuring a light soup made from katsuo-bushi bonito flakes and topped with tender pork belly simmered in awamori, Okinawa's famous local spirits. We'll also introduce two vegetable stir-fries that you can make easily and quickly as side dishes.

Our theme this episode is grilling. We'll be using a popular ingredient, salmon, to make shallow-fried salmon. We'll marinate it in a delicious sauce, then sprinkle it with sesame seeds and ao-nori powder and fry it in a small amount of oil. For our side, we'll also be making a salad with firm octopus, crisp celery, and our chef's secret-recipe ume dressing for a light and refreshing Japanese flavor. Finally, we'll talk about the many versatile ways that salmon is used throughout Japan, from shio-yaki grilled in salt to sashimi, sushi, hotspots, and more.

Our theme this episode is vinegar. We'll be exploring the world of vinegar, from the rice vinegar considered a staple of Japanese cooking, to sushi vinegar seasoned with sugar and umami, to red vinegar made from aged sake lees. Rika will show us her own recipe for vinegared sushi rice, topping it with vinegar-marinated aji horse mackerel for a light and refreshing chirashi-sushi with a decidedly grown-up flavor. We'll also be making simmered squid and potatoes with sesame seeds as two simple sides guaranteed to make any dinner lively!

Our theme this episode is "soaking." We'll be making a shojin ryori (vegan Buddhist monk dish) called ganmodoki tofu fritters, simmered for plenty of flavor. The dish starts with carefully strained tofu, with shiitake mushrooms, carrot, lotus root, and ginkgo nuts added, and finally nagaimo yam added before forming it into balls and frying until golden brown. Ganmodoki fritters are delicious on their own, but today we'll be simmering them in a flavorful soup made with kombu kelp. We'll also be making jade-simmered eggplants by half-peeling eggplants in strips, then frying them in oil, and finally soaking them in a kombu kelp dashi to let them soak up the rich, delicious flavor. We'll also talk about the history of shojin ryori, a traditional Japanese form of cooking practiced by Buddhist monks, designed to minimize food waste and to make vegetables look and taste like fish or meat.

In this episode, we'll be introducing the Japanese favorite gyudon, or "beef bowl." Beef is simmered in a flavorful mixture of equal parts mirin, soy sauce, sugar, and sake, making this an easy and delicious recipe even for beginners, and it's made with Japan's unique cut of thinly sliced beef trimmings, making the dish affordable as well. As a finishing touch, we'll add a poached egg on top of the simmered beef topping the rice, perfectly complementing the beef's sweet and savory flavor.

In this episode, we'll be making yaki-udon noodles. Udon noodles are available in Japan dried or frozen. We'll be cooking frozen udon noodles in a frying pan to prepare a simple yaki-udon dish, flavored with the Japanese staple soy sauce and Chinese oyster sauce, as well as the secret ingredients curry powder, giving it a pan-Asian flavor. We'll also be using our spicy seasonings in a simple side dish that lets Rika's personal style really shine.

In this episode, we'll be learning about Chanchan-yaki, a local dish from Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, and our chef Rika will show us her own unique take on the dish. Chanchan-yaki is made by steam-frying salmon with vegetables like cabbage and onions on a griddle, and it's a great example of Hokkaido's hearty cuisine. Rika's slightly spicy miso sauce really brings out the best of the rich, fatty salmon that's in season! We'll also learn about two delicious side dishes made with seasonal Autumn ingredients, like figs and matsutake mushrooms.

Our theme this week is “hand-shaping.” We’ll be making bento meals: a small box packed full of the many different sides. We’ll show you a variety of quick sides that you can make even on a busy morning: the Japanese simmered standard chikuzen-ni, the indispensable egg omelet, and pork with a deliciously gingery sauce. And of course, we’ll be making hand-shaped salted rice onigiri rolls, a bento staple and this week’s theme. We’ll also learn about the fundamentals of Japanese cooking through Chef Saito’s specialty bento lunch, with five colors for plenty of nutrients. Finally, Chef Saito will show us the history of how bento meals have long been closely connected with seasonal events and traditional culture year-round in Japan.

Our theme for this episode is “cooking rice,” and we’ll be introducing the Japanese celebratory staple sekihan rice. Its chewy texture is beloved all across Japan. We’ll teach you the secrets to making the azuki beans a beautiful red, and the trick to making sesame salt, the perfect finishing touch to bring out the natural sweetness of the beans. We will make it in a special way that even Japanese people don’t know about! For our side dish, we’ll be making simmered shrimp coated with egg. This dish is a celebratory standard at high-class Japanese restaurants, and Chef Saito will be teaching us every step of how to make it, from preparing the shrimp to cooking it perfectly. We’ll also learn about the history of sekihan: since long ago, it has been said to have the power to drive off evil spirits, so sekihan has long been a special dish in Japanese cooking. Watch as we unravel the mysteries of the special significance of its red color.

Our theme this episode is seared bonito tuna. We’ll be learning about Kochi Prefecture, located on the Pacific coast and positively overflowing with outstanding seafood, for famously delicious, seared bonito tuna. These fresh and wonderfully fatty tuna are caught with rods and lines, and then briefly grilled to a sear over a straw fire, sealing in the delicious wild tuna flavor that makes this such a popular local dish. We’ll learn from the head chef of one of Kochi’s most famous high-class restaurants, which has been in operation for centuries. We’ll also try moray eel, one of Kochi’s most popular foods, both lightly breaded and deep-fried, and in a hotpot. Finally, in our Master Chef’s World corner, we’ll learn about sawachi-ryori, a style of local cooking that grew out of Kochi’s culture of hospitality.

Our theme this episode is cooking with the su-mikan fruits of Kochi. Kochi is not only a major producer of yuzu, a su-mikan fruit that has garnered attention worldwide of late, but with its plentiful sunlight and clean, pure water, Kochi is a veritable agricultural treasure trove. These su-mikan fruits such as yuzu, encompass a huge number of fruits such as bushukan, naoshichi, and hanayu. We’ll learn from a master chef who has learned in his 45-year career how best to use this abundant variety of local produce as different varieties come into season throughout the year.

The first of two episodes where we introduce Osechi-ryori, the special cooking for celebrating the new year in Japan. We’ll be focusing on O-zoni soup and kurikinton, two of the many different Osechi-ryori dishes. Using a carefully prepared and richly flavorful dashi stock as a base, we’ll be adding daikon radish and carrot cut into auspicious turtle and crane shapes to pray for a long life, as well as other ingredients for a colorful dish full of good luck for the new year. We’ll also learn about regional O-zoni variations like different dashi or differently shaped mochi. Finally, we’ll also be preparing an indispensable Osechi-ryori dessert, kurikinton, made with fresh cream and egg yolks, for a recipe that has a slightly more “international” flavor than usual.

In this episode, we'll be making Japanese-style beef stew. This simmered dish, beloved the world over, is particularly popular in Japan. Usually, stir-frying the ingredients first and then cooking them over low heat takes a lot of time and effort, but in Rika's hands, it's ready in just a moment's time. This dish's combination of delicious flavor and ease of cooking makes it perfect for guests. For our side dish, we'll be making a refreshing salad that combines the slight bitterness of shungiku chrysanthemum leaves with orange, and for dessert, Rika will be making a shortcake of her own devising that combines the best elements of sponge cake and chiffon cake.

The second of two episodes where we introduce Osechi-ryori, the special cooking for celebrating the new year in Japan. In this episode, we’ll be focusing on items served inside of a traditional ju-bako box, in particular Chef Saito’s own unique take on nishime and a colorful namasu salad. Nishime is a fairly common household dish, and for the new year, we’ll be preparing it with shiitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, burdock root, and carrot, cut into shapes reminiscent of pine, bamboo, and ume plum trees, signs of good luck in Japan; each item is selected for its meaning, and carefully prepared. Because Osechi-ryori dishes have strong flavors to help them keep, our second dish, namasu salad, makes a great palate cleanser, with the slightly tart vinegar giving a light flavor to the daikon radish and carrot. We’ll be garnishing it with yuzu citrus peel, which has the perfect fragrance for ringing in the new year.

Our theme this episode is “one soup, three dishes,” the traditional structure for Japanese meals. Our main dish is yellowtail teriyaki, made by cooking deliciously fatty yellowtail with a sweet and savory soy sauce-based sauce that complements it perfectly and goes great with rice. For our side dish, we’ll be making a simple daikon radish and cucumber salad with blended vinegar, and our soup will be miso soup full of the rich flavor of mushrooms. Our final dish is karashi mentaiko or marinated spicy pollock roe, a very popular side to rice in Japan, and a very easy way to add a fun bit of variety to your meal: we’ll also show you an easy and unique twist using karashi mentaiko.

In this episode, we'll be talking about kamo-nabe duck hot pot. We'll be making Rika's unique take on this dish, which is more like a multi-course meal than a standard hot pot. By cooking tofu, duck, vegetables, and other ingredients in the same pot, you can enjoy the flavors of all of the ingredients to your heart's content. As an appetizer, we'll be making a tomato and cucumber salad that uses a tomato peel as a bowl, and we'll also be making a refreshing pickled turnip side dish with a hint of yuzu.

Townscapes from the Edo period still exist in the Sawara District of Katori City, Chiba Prefecture, an unexplored tourist spot where visitors can experience traditional Japan. Visiting this town, where skilled chefs demonstrate Japanese cooking techniques, is just like traveling back to that period in time. In this episode, we’ll introduce Kaiseki banquet-style cuisine, a feast for both the eyes and the tongue, made using original high-grade ingredients that are unique to Japanese cuisine, such as traditional seasonings, mizu-shio salted water, and kuzu starch.

In this episode, we'll be visiting Chiba. Its location on the Pacific coast gives it a temperate climate perfect for farming and fishing, making it a great place to find delicious foods. Our host Yu Hayami will be visiting the town of Isumi, located in southern Chiba, to show us the joys of the town through the local people. We'll also be meeting a local chef who will show us a local type of futomaki sushi, a popular food for special occasions in the area. The variety of different traditional rolling techniques on display has earned this local dish a lot of attention in recent years. By using local ingredients, we'll see how to make a futomaki sushi roll full of Chiba flavor.

Our theme for this episode is hot pot cuisine. We'll be making mizutaki, a standard among Japan's many varieties of hot pots. By cooking a chicken over low heat for a long time, the delicious flavor is extracted all the way down to the marrow of the bones, for a collagen-rich soup that goes great with chicken and vegetables. This Hakata favorite has grown popular nationwide, and restaurants specializing in mizutaki can be found all over Japan. In this episode, Chef Saito will teach us how to bring the restaurant-style flavor of mizutaki home with his own recipe, using kombu kelp and rice to quickly reproduce a soup that usually requires simmering a chicken carcass for hours. We'll also learn how to finish off the hot pot with ramen noodles, taking advantage of all of the delicious flavors the soup gets from the ingredients cooked in it.

In this episode, we’ll be making Japanese-style fried meatballs. Rika’s mother taught her this unique recipe, where instead of stewing them, the meatballs are fried. By pre-heating onions in the microwave, their flavor can be integrated into the meat more easily. To add seasoning, we’ll be using soy sauce, ginger, and nutmeg, to give the flavor plenty of complexity. We’ll also be focusing on side dish soups made with ginger and showing a simple recipe for one of the many different Japanese dishes made with ginger.

In this episode, we'll be focusing on super-fast recipes. Chef Saito will be teaching us about two popular home-cooked Japanese dishes, and easy recipes to make each of them in just fifteen minutes! Chef Saito is an expert in authentic Japanese cuisine, not just quick cooking, making for some surprising recipes that you won't want to miss. Our first dish is ginger fried pork, with a sweet and spicy sauce bound to make anyone hungry. Ginger has a lot of fibers in it, so it usually takes a lot of time and effort to grate, making it a dish that can take a while to prepare, and getting the balance of flavors in the sauce just right can be difficult, but by using Chef Saito's unique trick of using ginger ale, you can have the sauce ready in no time! We'll also be making quick niku-jaga, simmered potato and pork, using a surprising technique that involves heating the boiled potatoes in a dry pan.