Interview

Ken Sakamoto (Owner and chef of " cenci ") Part 1

 

" Cenci " is an Italian restaurant located in Okazaki, Kyoto.

Ken Sakamoto, the owner and chef of " cenci ", is a chef who places the utmost importance on ingredients. By taking the time to prepare the ingredients, he brings out their best qualities and delivers them to diners along with the thoughts of the food producers. At " cenci ", everything from the ingredients to the tableware and cutlery, tables and chairs, architecture and gardens all have their own story to tell.
Chef Sakamoto's dishes were paired with HOSOO styling mats. Each dish resonated with the textile, bringing special inspiration.
This will be a two-part interview with Chef Sakamoto. In the first part, we asked Chef Sakamoto about his philosophy on craftsmanship and the passion he puts into his cooking.

Origin of the store name

 The name " cenci " comes from a place where I came across a second-hand clothing store called " cenci " in London when I was traveling in Europe as a student before I started my career as a chef. The store was a second-hand clothing store that handled deadstock (unsold items and distribution inventory) clothing, including pre-war clothing.

I liked vintage clothing back then and wore it a lot, but when I talked to the owner of the store, he told me, "It's amazing that clothes can be worn for 40 or 50 years." "The clothes that are presented at fashion week these days are mostly superficial. After fashion week is over and the information is released in the media for a month or two, everyone is already thinking about the next year's new products. No one wants to wear those clothes for 30 years. I understand the necessity as a business, but I think that if people don't properly understand the goodness of old clothes and then make new clothes, the number of clothes that are just thrown away will just increase." Hearing those words, I thought they were amazing and wonderful. He really valued "treating things with care," and I still remember his words from time to time.

The importance of learning from the past

I think cooking and traditional crafts are similar in the sense that they both value things that have been around for a long time. It is important to learn from the past. When you want to do something new, if you only take inspiration from modern new things, it will end up being very shallow. That is why it is important to know the techniques that have been passed down since ancient times. For example, in cooking, why the dish was created, and what is the deliciousness of the traditional combination of ingredients? For example, "fried tofu and green vegetables cooked in a pot" is an everyday dish that everyone knows in Kyoto, but it is very delicious. It is just a dish of green vegetables and soup stock mixed with the oil of fried tofu, like a boiled dish, but it is very important to understand the relationship between the fried tofu and the green vegetables, and therein lies the secret to its deliciousness. The more you dig into it, the more you will learn than by reading a recipe book.

For example, when I dig deeper into "Fried tofu and green vegetables," I think about what ingredients I could use to replace the fried tofu to make it taste better. Because it has oil, it might have a certain texture. What kind of fish would it be? Is it a muscular fish or not? Is it raw or cooked? By digging deeper into the combinations of ingredients that have been passed down since ancient times while letting my imagination run wild, I can sometimes find new ingredients that go well together.

So rather than jumping straight into a new dish all at once, it's important to learn the existing "teppanyaki" combinations and try them for yourself. In that sense, going to an obanzai restaurant is a great learning experience. I can't move around much right now because of COVID-19, but when I go to Asian countries, I often go to food stalls to eat local food rather than going to high-end restaurants. The food is prepared very well using ingredients that have been around for a long time in the area, so it's fun to discover "deliciousness" that I didn't know existed. I make associations by thinking about what ingredients I would use to replace the dish if I were to make it using ingredients from Kyoto. I think that the ability to dig deeper comes from the habit of constantly breaking down and thinking about the reasons why something is naturally delicious.

Japan's world-class technology

Nishijin-ori is a textile that is very deep and has been hand-crafted. If people from overseas saw the actual weaving process, they would be shocked and ask, "Why are they so particular about the details?" It is a special craft that focuses on the fine details of the fibers. I think that the Japanese people's ability to continue to pay attention to such fine details is something that we can be proud of in the world. This is true for traditional crafts, cooking, and agriculture. It is the best weapon to compete with the world. I feel this especially in cooking, but in France, for example, restaurant chefs unanimously say, "If you want to get three stars in the Michelin Guide, you should definitely hire a Japanese person. The level of the cooking will definitely improve." That is how dexterity and diligence of the Japanese are skills that can win the world.

But I think society is in a very precarious situation right now. You can get by without necessarily being diligent. Smartphones are convenient for our generation, but for young people, they have been in front of us since they were born. If you know how convenient they are, you probably won't feel like you're taking a detour to learn anything. In our generation, we would go to the library to look for books and guess, "This book might suit me," or we would see a book in the library and think, "That's cool," and become interested in that field out of admiration, and we would have the determination to "improve my skills to get there." But now, even if you don't hone your skills as a craftsman, everyone can search on their smartphones at the same level.

However, whether it's cooking or anything else, time-consuming work or tasks are time-consuming for a reason. I think that the genre we work in, which is called "innovative," can be dangerous because of its innovativeness, but even in new fields, I definitely want to preserve the traditional techniques that Japanese chefs value. Although we do make dishes that look flashy or catchy, I think it's very important to do a good job while keeping traditional techniques in mind.

 

Communicating a message through food

" Cenci " is now in its seventh year since opening. We believe that because we have been appreciated by everyone, everyone is watching everything from our cuisine to our business model. That's why we feel that " Cenci " needs to be a restaurant that embodies the worldview that we should all strive for in the future. In a world where being "sustainable" is becoming increasingly important, we need to not just talk about it, but actually take on "sustainable" initiatives as a matter of course. This includes "not using rare ingredients" and "not eating too much beef." " Cenci " delivers food with such messages.

I hope that the message I put into the food will be conveyed in some way to people who think, "This is delicious, I love this restaurant." I want our restaurant to convey the feeling that "we have to do our best for the future."

 

 

Continued in " Part 2 "

 

Ken Sakamoto

Born in Kyoto in 1975 , he discovered the deliciousness of Italian cuisine while traveling in Europe while attending university, and decided to become a chef. After graduating in 1999 , he began his career at trattoria Il Pappalardo in Higashiyama Shichijo, learning cooking under chef Yasuhiro Sasajima who was the chef at the time. In 2002 , following Chef Sasajima's independence, he moved to Il Ghiottone, where he created new Italian cuisine using Japanese ingredients. After nine years as head chef, he went independent in 2014 and opened Cenci in Okazaki. He serves Italian cuisine that brings out the best in the ingredients and conveys the passion of the food producers in a tasteful space, from tableware to architecture.