WHO does not know Japanese cuisine? It’s famous the world over because it’s light, fresh and healthy because it banks on the quality and freshness of ingredients used. It is an art form by itself, characterized by attractive colors, shapes, textures and contrasts, and the best thing about it is that it tastes as good as it looks.
To make sure that Japanese cuisine stays as popular as it is now and to promote traditional Japanese cuisine known as Washoku, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan recently staged Taste of Japan in Manila. It’s a cooking demonstration featuring Japanese chef and inventor Machiko Chiba, who invented an innovative cooking gadget called Cook-Zen, a pressure cooking pot made of polypropylene material that has been designed for use in a microwave oven. With it, she turns out traditional Japanese or Washoku dishes made easier and faster to prepare by modern technology. No dish, even those requiring slow cooking to tenderize the meat, takes more than 10 minutes to prepare.
Now based in New York and Tokyo, Chef Machiko teaches cooking at the Nippon Club Culture Center and conducts cooking demonstrations at Stony Brook University, Williams-Sonoma and the French Culinary Institute in New York. Prior to her breakthrough Cook-Zen invention, she has won in several major cooking competitions in Japan. She has likewise authored quite a number of cookbooks, particularly those that teach readers how to prepare delicious and easy recipes with the Cook-Zen.
Both in the United States and in Japan, where she is now based, Chef Machiko conducts cooking demonstrations to teach chefs and cooking enthusiasts the original microwave cooking techniques made possible by the Cook-Zen, which is very easy to use. Just dump all the ingredients in the cooking pot, place it inside a microwave oven, and cooked according to recommended cooking time.
She did just that when she conducted the Taste of Japan in Manila cooking demonstration at Restaurant 9501 in Quezon City last January 21, 2016, and she made another run of all seven easy-to-prepare Japanese Washoku dishes in the same venue last Monday, March 14, 2016.
The dishes that she featured in her cooking demo were Green Beans and Fried Tofu (which took only 4 to 5 minutes to cook using the Cook-Zen in the microwave oven), Simmered Eggplant and Chili (5 to 6 minutes), Japanese Clams Steamed with Sake and Garlic (6 to 7 minutes), Special Spicy Pork Adobo (10 minutes), Spareribs (10 minutes), Japanese Roast Beef (4 to 5 minutes) and Baked Apple (1-1/2 minutes). Healthy, delicious and beautifully presented, all seven dishes conform to the principles of Washoku which, incidentally, has been registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. Washoku is also a social practice based on the essential spirit of the Japanese and their respect for nature.
“It’s healthier to cook using original microwave cooking techniques with Cook-Zen because you use less oil and the natural juices and flavors of meat and vegetables really come out,” says Chef Machiko, who was assisted by her daughter Akiko, a classically trained concert pianist who grew up with her mother’s healthy cooking and is now also based in New York.
Cook-Zen is not yet available in the Philippines. It can be bought via Amazon, though.
