Nihon jaia

INTERVIEW WITH JAPANESE COOK YUKIO HATTORI (服部 幸應)

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The board team of the Cultural Meeting of Japan "Nihon Jaia" wants to pay special attention to the gastronomic aspects of this reunion, so with the very important collaboration of Slow Food Bizkaia, is planning some great activities about gastronomy that will be published as soon as the schedule is complete. The presence at Donosti of the famous cook Yukio Hattori gave to us a great chance to get his opinions about his role as President of the Hattori Cooking & Nutrition School. Mr. Hattori meet at Palacio of Aiete (Donostia) with 8 other famous international cooks (Ferran Adrià, René Redzepi, Heston Bluementhal, Michel Bras, Alex Atala, Gastón Acurio, Mássimo Bottura and Dan Barber) as member of the next Gastronomic University of Euskadi´s advisory board, the Basque Culinary Center (BCC), opening at the "Parque Miramón" of Donostia in October of 2011.

The advisory board of the BCC just joined for the first time at Donostia. Which were the most important aspects there?

Well, this was our first meeting, and we did talk about some basis of the project. We did talk about the very next things to do and the long term ones. Also we agreed on having yearly meetings at different countries.

You have worked with some of the best Basques cooks, as Andoni Luis Aduriz or Martín Berasategui. What is your opinion about Basque cooking?

The Basque cooking is developed by cooks who want to go deep on the local culture. So it is not Spanish or French cooking because here the important thing is the total trust on local products. The big quality of the product before entering the kitchens is extremely important here, as is at Japan, and I like it very much.

Right now, Hattori´s Cooking & Nutrition School is a main reference of the Japanese cooking. What is your position about making it big?

The school is becoming really important at Japan. It is already working at other 208 schools there, and I am myself working with the Japanese goverment at the Health Bureau, the Agriculture & Fishing Bureau and the Education & Culture Bureau, trying to make the healthy food an important matter. So it is not just teaching cooking, but teaching people about nutrition, even teaching how to choose the products at the markets.

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Speaking of that, one of the mottos of the School is "Education at Nutrition" or Shoku-Iko. What does Shoku-Iko mean to you?

Shoku-Iko´s concept is based on 3 aspects: First, is really important to know deeply which products can we choose in order to cook some tasty food but also healthy. Then is important to keep the local culture of cooking, that´s why we try to encourage the transmission of knowledge from grandparents to nieces at homes. And finally developing politics against starving around the world and a gastronomy respectful with the environment.

The Japanese cooking is having great success around the world but, is there good Japanese cooking outside Japan?

Generally speaking is not bad. But we need to do it better, and we are working with the Japanese Gov. about it.

You have said many times that "cooking makes people good". Related to it, what is your opinion about Slow Food?

I like it very much, because is not just keeping quality of products and the local gastronomy but is healthy too. Slow Food is making a very important job developing healthier food against cardiovascular diseases.

To end this interview, you are a great celebrity at Japan and also abroad, what is your opinion about the cooking shows on TV?

It is ok. As a matter of fact, I am working with most of the Japanese TV shows. Eleven of them to be precise right now.

Yukio Hattori

Born in Tokio in 1945, Professor Yukio Hattori was graduated at the University of Rikkyo, and got his teaching grade by Showa´s University Medicine Department. After his studies he focused on nutrition and food matters, his career now is centered on the collaboration with Japanese Institutions, teaching, giving speeches etc about the great importance of the correct habits of eating in order to avoid many diseases caused by the current way of life, and also about the environment protection.

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Mr. Yukio Hattori is involved in many programs about safety and health in food with Japanese boards and very relevant positions (President of Japan Association of Training Colleges for Cooks). Also he is vice-president of the Japan Association of Training Colleges for nutritionists, president of Cooking of East Japan, advisor of the Group of Technological Schools of Tokio, president of the Technological Schools of Shibuya district and finally member of the "Committee of Investigation about Nutrition & Food at the XXI Century" of the Japanese Bureau of Health, Work and Wellfare.

Source: EuskadiAsia

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