Menu evokes emotions
POSTED: Wednesday, December 10, 2008
At chef Masahito Ueki's restaurant, MASAA's in Karuizawa, Japan, the menu doesn't necessarily tell you want you'll be eating, but rather the feelings you'll be experiencing.
'The Three Faces of Japan'For reservations to Kahala Food & Wine Classic events call 739-8760 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
» Tradition: 6 p.m. Friday, Hoku's, $185. A six-course meal by chef Masahito Ueki, with sake and wine pairings. Television screens will show the kitchen action throughout the meal.
» Precision: Cooking class, 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, $75. Ueki explains precision and balance in Japanese cooking. In the interactive class, participants will prepare the dishes along with the chef, with tasting to follow.
» The Art of Cigar Blending and Tasting: 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, $30. Michael Herklots, general manager of Davidoff of Geneva, N.Y., will cover the science of cigars, offering a sampling of several.
» Faces of Wine: Wine and sake tasting, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, $50. Gold-medal winning sakes and Napa Valley vintages presented by Chris Pearce and Rob Sweeney. With tapas pairings.
» Innovation: A Collision of East and West: 6 p.m. Saturday, Hoku's, $185. A more contemporary menu than Friday's, in six course with sake and wine.
» Toes in the Sand ... A Cigar Conversation: 10 p.m. to midnight Saturday, $45. Hosted by Herklots, at the poolside lawn.
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Ueki titles his dishes—“;A Fortunate Encounter,”; for instance, for a dish of lobster and masutake mushrooms in bouillabaisse.
“;Lobster is from the sea and masutake is from the mountain, and when these two met it created something delicious, so it was a fortunate encounter,”; Ueki said.
The chef is re-creating dishes from his menu at this weekend's Kahala Food & Wine Classic at the Kahala Hotel & Resort. He'll host dinners on Friday and Saturday, as well as a cooking class on Saturday morning.
At the classic, his dishes will be detailed on the menus, but at home, his menu would list nothing beyond the title, Ueki said through interpreter June Cappiello, assistant marketing and communications manager for the resort.
The idea is to express his inspiration for each dish, “;so the customer forms an image in his mind.”;
Evocative images, often: “;Temptation by an Alluring Figure,”; for steamed sea eel; or “;Soul of Japan”; for Wagyu beef carpaccio with sea urchin.
“;Enveloped by a Mountain's Breath”;—mushroom rice wrapped in Carta Fata, a heat-resistant, transparent wrap used in steaming foods—captures Ueki's experience of harvesting mushrooms and feeling the mountain breeze. Additionally, the Carta Fata, he said, represents the mushrooms being wrapped in a breath.
Others are more straightforward descriptions. “;Kuroi Hitomi”;—literally “;Dark Pupil,”; but poeticized by the Kahala into “;Dark, Mysterious Eyes”;—is a chocolate-wrapped fig. Sliced through the center, Ueki said, it looks like an eye. A dark one.
Although he uses the ingredients of his home country, Ueki's cuisine is rooted in French traditions, and he is known in Japan for his innovation. At the Kahala events, his dishes will be paired with wines by Robert Sweeney of Vine Cliff Winery in Napa Valley and sakes chosen by sake sommelier Chris Pearce.
The sake will be a “;fun challenge,”; Ueki said, as his restaurant offers only wine.
