HOTEL ROUTE-INN KUSATSU RITTO - Ritto interchange Route 1 -

The chef seeks to feel and convey the terroir of Ohara, through its climate, landscape, and produce. Early each morning he visits the market, to listen to the farmers and think about recipes for the vegetables on offer that day. Prix fixe menus interweave wild mountain greens and flowers with game, drawing the diner into the natural milieu of the rural mountain communities. Food is cooked over a wood fire fed by lumber from forest thinning. In the counter kitchen, he tends a brightly burning flame, his attention focused on the food he’s preparing.

There’s no point in cooking, says Kenya, if it doesn’t make the food tasty. Bringing fun and happiness to guests is important above all. Rice and sake both come from Aomori, where the chef comes from. His character reveals itself in his face when he lifts the lid on a pot of freshly steamed rice. Western music, classical music and Showa-era ballads are chosen to suit the cuisine, expressing the joy of good cooking as if weaving a tale. Flavours are fun here.

The nation’s finest pork brands cascade across the menu, so you can choose the type and grade of pork that suits you best. The best is the ‘jukusei-buta’ aged pork that gives the shop its name. Sourced from a butcher in Fushimi, the pork this restaurant handles is rested to enhance its flavour. The plaque on the wall says, ‘Timing is everything’; the pork is deep-fried twice in low-temperature oil, the cooking time expertly judged. Pork katsu curry, seasoned with ginger and spices, is also tempting.

When kneading soba, start with the raw ingredients: that is the credo here. The chef tills his own fields and harvests his own grains. Focusing all his efforts on soba, he populates his menu with soba mash and soba only. His disdain for compromise extends even to kneading the soba dough only after the guest has been seated. Juwari soba, made from 100% buckwheat, are thick-cut so that chewing can bring out their flavour. Determined to spread the gospel of soba to the world, the chef actively travels overseas, spreading the techniques and culture of soba.

Ramen that’s all about the goodness of chicken, imparting its flavour in purest form. Ramen Touhichi’s signature soy-sauce ramen uses dashi made only with locally raised free-range chicken and water, mixing it with raw soy sauce kaeshi. Other offerings include richly flavoursome chicken boiled in plain water, cold noodles soaked in kombu dashi soup served with dipping sauce of chicken soy sauce, and chicken-oil noodles served without soup. ‘Touhichi’ is named after the house where the chef was born. See him at the counter full of pride in his native Kyoto.

His grandfather was a caterer, his father a baker, so the path of the chef was a natural one for this owner-chef. Determined to be a culinary artist with roots in his community, the chef hung out his noren in a residential district. Seasonal menus weave in vegetables grown in his home region of Ohara. Fish come from Awaji, where the place he trained has ties. Items on the plate nestle together, evoking a sense of connections among people. Friendly service also puts the heart at ease.

Japanese