“Japanese Food & Sake Festival” in L.A.
-Discover Japanese Food & Culture-

On Thursday March 13, the Japanese Food Association sponsored the "Japanese Food & Sake Festival," held lavishly at the Hyatt Regency Orange County. This event is a follow-up to the "Sake Festival in Los Angeles," sponsored last year by the Consulate General of Japan, JETRO Los Angeles, and private businesses.
 In southern California, over 1,800 Japanese restaurants are in business and the number is growing steadily. The Japanese restaurant industry is expanding with support from people with diverse cultural backgrounds. Recently, kaiseki dishes and tempura were featured in the Los Angeles Times, encouraging locals to further indulge in the intricacies of Japanese cuisine. Not only is Japanese cuisine appreciated for their culinary taste as “food,” but also from the perspective of “health benefits” and as a great “introduction to Japanese culture.”    
For this year’s event, approximately 41 Japanese restaurants and businesses affiliates of the Japanese food industry displayed their products in booths. Local Japanese food enthusiasts, representatives from local food industries, restaurant affiliates, and the media were introduced to “traditional Japanese food products” passed down from ancient times, such as traditional ingredients, health-conscious food products, and Japanese sake.
 The festival commenced with the rhythmic taiko drumming by Kokura Gion Daiko, followed by cooking demonstrations by chefs from Sushi-Roku, Kitayama, and Katsuya, which attracted visitors to the stage. One member of the sponsoring organizations this year is Ted Wakao, President of the Japanese Food and Culture Association. “I participated in the “Sake in Los Angeles” in West Los Angeles last year,” said Wakao.     “This year, the stage for the festival was Orange County, an economically developed region considered home to the “Newly Rich.” The OC was chosen for this year’s festival to promote further interest in Japanese food in this region. Japanese cuisine offers a wide range of dishes, from high-end courses to local favorites like the okonomiyaki (pancakes with various selections of meat and vegetables). However, all dishes share the common denominator as ‘Japanese cuisine.’       
 How are the dishes cooked, and how are the ingredients used most effectively? Japanese dishes are prepared based on answers to these questions, along with the various techniques acquired by highly-trained chefs over time. Today, approximately 70% of Japanese chefs in the U.S. are non-Japanese. The objective of this festival is to have them to practice and pass on food safety measures to spread great-tasting Japanese food.”  
 Takashi Hiranaka, Consul, Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles / the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said, “Los Angeles is the center of Japanese cuisine in the U.S., so I organized this festival to have the locals sample Japanese beef and other food products. I wasn’t expecting such great feedback, so I was pleasantly surprised. My target audience was local Chinese, Koreans, and Americans, and the targeted participants came, which makes me happy as organizer of this event. In this year’s event, my goal was to have the locals sample the highest quality of ‘Japanese rice and beef,’ which I brought from Japan. Another goal was to spread public awareness of other Japanese dishes, like ramen and yakisoba. I was happy to see many exhibitors demonstrating the various dimensions of Japanese cuisine.”
The screen installed at the festival showed footages of various regions in Japan, while koto music was performed in the background to offer the ambiance of Japan. Keizo Tsuchiya, Chief Executive Director of JETRO Los Angeles, explains why Anaheim was chosen as this year’s location. “I’ve been planning this festival in Los Angeles since three years ago. As a test marketing area, West Los Angeles is frequently used. However, since Orange County offers a large population of high income earners near the beach, I decided to have it here this year. As a result, the turnout was more than we expected, and we are short of food products. In California, there is approximately 1800 Japanese restaurants.” The restaurants exhibiting today are known to offer high-end Japanese cuisine, and the public perception of Japanese food may be different from what these restaurants offer. Since there are many Japanese dishes that are not familiar to the American public today, I want to continue introducing them at the Japanese Food Fair. Next year is the 100th Anniversary of the foundation of Japan America Society, I don't want to limit myself to the Japanese Food Fair alone, but I also want to introduce Japanese pop culture, music, and games. By promoting further understanding of Japan, I want to promote demand for Japanese products and culture. J-pop (Japanese pop music), Japanese cuisine, and the Japanese tourism industry all share a common denominator of 'Japan.' In that framework, we want the public to appreciate the commonality between "tasting Japanese cuisine," "visiting Japan," and "enjoying Japanese entertainment." I think that will become more important later on."   
According to a report by the organizers, over 1000 people participated in this event. Every booth had a line of gourmets. Margaret Penn, a participant said, “This was my first time attending a Japanese food fair. I never tried the kaiseki before, but I found the palate to be very subtle and enjoyable.” At the sake booth on the other hand, a couple attended the event together. Ted George said, “I started eating Japanese food when I heard it’s good for your health. I was a little apprehensive about trying raw fish at first, but once I tried it, it was so good. Now, I can eat tuna, yellow tail, and even sea urchin, complete with sake. Because sake is organic, it doesn’t harm your body. My favorite sake is Junmai Dai-Ginjo,” he said as he tasted various sake.
Chestor Chong, President of Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, received an invitation to attend. “I love Japanese food; I eat it once a week. Today’s festival showcased only the freshest of ingredients, and I enjoyed them very much. I love how the chefs create ornaments out of bamboo leaves; I admire their mastery of their craft. I was impressed by the subtleness and meticulousness of Japanese cuisine.”     
In this year’s festival, dishes representative of the Japanese cuisine like the kaiseki courses and sushi, considered the “yokozuna” of Japanese cuisine, was introduced along with numerous booths offering ramen, yakisoba, okonomiyaki, soba, and miso soup. One of the most crowd-drawing booths offered soba, provided by Mutual Trading Company. Ami Yamazaki commented, “At our company, we promote renowned healthy food products following sushi, what we call ‘The strategic 3 S’s.’ They are soba, sake, and shoyu (soy sauce). Our goal is to promote soba to the public. Since Americans are familiar with pasta salads through Italian cuisine, they have little resistance to soba. Thanks to this foundation, they will willingly try soba if they know that it’s a healthy food product. Americans are now familiar with tofu, edamame, and other organic food products, and soba is along those lines as well. The challenge for promoting soba in the future is to stress the importance of enjoying them immediately after boiling them, and to have them eat it more frequently. From the whole sale perspective, the important 
Challenge is to find local distributors. What we’re offering today is all available at Whole Foods, but in order to promote Japanese food products, it is our mission to make them readily available through local distributors.”
 One of the highlights of this event was the cooking demonstrations held by the famous “Katsu-ya" from Los Angeles, "Kitayama," and "Sushi Roku." Explanations about preparations were given using simple terms to make it easier to understand for participants. Chefs from each restaurant commented about preparing Japanese cuisine.
Chef Seiichi Goto from Kitayama in Newport Beach said, “I emphasize the importance of demonstrating seasonal differences in all of our dishes. I also provide entrees that showcase the local ingredients. The locals eat sushi frequently, but aren’t used to eating raw fish, so I hope to promote the flavors of fresh fish.”      
Chef Hiroshi Shima of Sushi Roku said, “I stress the basics of Japanese cuisine using seasonal ingredients at their best, and combining them with American tastes to provide fusion dishes. I always think of ways to surprise or entertain my customers as well. Fusion dishes were recently popular around the world, especially for French, Italian, and Japanese cuisine. But now, the trend is to return to the basics. I agree with this trend, and strive to provide authentic Japanese cuisine.”   
Chef Katsuya Uechi of Katsu-ya said, "Customers come to enjoy our food, so not only am I careful about the food, but also the quality. Since I never want to disappoint my customers, I provide dishes with quality that is worth more than the price. Quality is one area that I want to stress in my preparation. I want people to know that Katsu-ya offers seasonal, high-quality dishes that is always changing to never bore our customers." Each chef stressed the importance of using seasonal ingredients and following the basic rules of Japanese food preparation.  

The festival held to promote the enjoyment of Japanese food and culture offered various quality ingredients normally difficult to come by. Participants seemed content with the various lavish dishes offered only for one night.