University of West London Triumphs in Zest Quest Asia 2023

University of West London have won Zest Quest Asia 2023. This marks the third time since the launch of the student culinary competition ten years ago that a team from the university’s London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism has taken first place.

The results of the live cook off and knowledge presentations that comprise the finals of Zest Quest Asia were announced at a Gala Dinner and Awards Night held at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Centre London Heathrow on Friday, 17^th February 2023. Some 250 guests, including representatives from colleges, industry, and the media attended the glittering evening, which included a raffle and auction to raise funds for the Todiwala Foundation.

For their efforts, Nekeshia Alcee, Olivia Parker-Smith and Prema Rebekah Kaur Sembi-Harding and their tutor, Nathan Vasanthan, bagged a trip of a lifetime – a week-long culinary and cultural journey to Bangkok, Thailand. Nathan is a seasoned Zest Quest Asia tutor, having coached and accompanied previous University of West London Zest Quest Asia champions to Manila and Hanoi.

This year, the judges were impressed by the team’s Vietnamese-inspired 4-course menu consisting of an amuse bouche of Dorset clam dumplings with Sriracha and mixed herbs; a starter of Tomato and mushroom Pho with tomato brittles; a main course of Banh chung – a Northern Vietnamese rice dish served during the Lunar Year, Lemongrass and Chilli Chicken with stir-friend broccoli stems and cabbage served with carrot, daikon and Kohlrabi pickle; and a dessert of Honteri-miso glazed sticky rice banana cake with creamy coconut sauce, roasted peanuts.

Cyrus Todiwala, co-founder with Pervin Todiwala of Zest Quest Asia, said, “This was a truly magnificent evening. After 10 years, Zest Quest Asia continues to fire the creativity and imaginations of young student chefs. People are taking Asian cuisine seriously as an artform and the performance and dedication of our finalists proves that Zest Quest Asia is making a positive difference in the perception of Asian food. Congratulations to University of West London for their fabulous hat-trick and to all the finalists who have emerged as winners as well.”

The finals drew compliments from the hospitality establishment:

Sheila Dillon, presenter of the BBC Food programme, commented on Twitter: “So heartening. So admire @chefcyrustodiw1 @mrstodiwala. They stick at it and change what needs changing – pushing high standards, creating jobs.”

Robert Richardson FIH MI, chief executive of the Institute of Hospitality, who attended the Gala Dinner and Awards Night, tweeted “A pleasure to celebrate the talent, skills and outstanding knowledge of Asian cuisine at Zest Quest Asia…congratulations to each and every finalist this evening. You are all winners!”

Other winners of the evening were:

• Best Menu Planning and Presentation Award sponsored by Ian MacLeod Distillers – The Sheffield College
• Best Use of Tormek Knife Sharpener Award – North Hertfordshire College
• Minimum Wastage Award sponsored by McCormick – University of West London
• Andrew Bennett MBE Team Work Award – University College Birmingham
• Spice it Up with Schwartz Award – Cheshire College South and West
• Best Use of Hallde Food Processor – North Hertfordshire College
• Best Use of Panasonic Accelerated Combination Oven – University of West London
• Best Use of of Mizkan Japanese Seasonings – UHI North Highland
• Best Use of Tilda Rice – North Hertfordshire College
• Most Sustainable Menu Award sponsored by Meiko UK – North Highland UHI (Dornoch)
• Runner-Up of Zest Quest Asia 2023 – University College Birmingham

Zest Quest Asia was founded in 2013 by Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala, with the support of The Master Chefs of Great Britain, to address the gaps in skills and knowledge of classical Asian cuisine and to stimulate interest in Asian cookery as a viable, long-term career.

Trading in Genuine Dining for the Spirit of Hospitality

The lengths some people go to raise money for charity is nothing less than extraordinary. In December of the this year Chris Mitchell and Robbie Laidlaw of private catering company Genuine Dining will swap suits for rowing gear and cross the Atlantic for Hospitality Action. The epic voyage will require the pair row for 3,000 miles, most of the time alone.

“We’re rowing 3,000 miles for Hospitality Action,” Mitchell told The Chefs’ Forum. “The route takes us from the Canary Islands to Antigua and we’ll be completely alone rowing two hours on and two hours off 35-50 days. We’re leaving in December to take advantage of the trade winds which will help us to make the journey. We’ve named our boat The Spirit of Hospitality.

We’re doing this to raise money for an excellent charity and it’s going to be an incredible adventure. Chefs have suffered a lot during the recent pandemic and Hospitality Action were there to support them. Now it’s time for us to give back.”

“Although our boat is filled with tech we will spend much of the time alone. It will be just us and the sea. We may see the odd freighter but the challenge will be dealing with the mental side of rowing this vast distance.”

Jonathan Parker of Foodari, one of the main sponsors of the adventure commented: “We wholeheartedly support Chris and Robbie at this difficult time for chefs. Hospitality Action do a great job and we’re only too pleased to help.”

Catherine Farinha added: “At The Chefs’ Forum we are all about helping anyone in hospitality to shine whether it’s college students, chefs of any rank or experience and front of house staff. We fully support this great cause and are hoping to get Chris and Robbie to talk at some of our events. We wish them all the best.”

From Japan to… Latvia!

The Chefs’ Forum is spreading its wings across the globe and working with international partners to share the culinary skill of UK chefs in new ways. Last month The Chefs’ Forum was in Japan visiting the Fukushima reactor and this month we went to Latvia and Lithuania where three chef stars showed-off their skills to a new, and receptive, audience.

At a special event put on by the largest and longest-serving Baltic supplier Reaton in Riga, chefs Hywel Griffith (Beach House Oxwich)  and Simon Wood (Wood Restaurant) shared their experiences of cooking at the top- level, showcasing their admirable culinary skill-set. Hywel Griffith cooked roasted veal chop with sweetbread and cep mushroom as well as roast loin of red deer with carrot and caraway puree.

Hywel is a stalwart proponent of meat and game and prides himself on innovating the finest flavour combinations, that have led him to both attain and retain a Michelin Star for the past three years.  This is the fist year that the highly-coveted and respected Michelin Guide and reviewers have come to Latvia, hence the reason why The Chefs’ forum was invited to introduce Latvian chefs to a UK chef who has managed to gain a star outside of 5-star hotels in London, rather at a costal dining destination in Swansea, with sustainability and provenance at the epicentre of everything they do.

Hywel said

“The produce was great and there was an exciting vibe about this brilliant event to celebrate 30 years of Reaton for Latvian chefs suppliers and buyers.  I was delighted to give the chefs from the Baltics tips, on how I worked my socks off, to gain my Michelin star for Beach House and also, most importantly,  the ways in which to retain it.  Great ingredients, provenance, meticulous attention to detail, innovation, creativity and passion is what it takes and wish my fellow chef peers in Riga and beyond, all the very best of luck in gaining well-deserved Michelin recognition.”

Simon Wood cooked salt and pepper prawns with toast and cavolo nori as well as turbot with coconut, continuing his journey of promoting Royal Greenland as a much-valued National Sponsor of The Chefs’ Forum in the UK…meanwhile in Latvia, he said

“It was fantastic to meet Royal Greenland Country Manager for Finland, Jarmo Eklund at our ‘post show’ suppliers’ dinner at Reaton  HQ in Riga.  Their prawns are superb and the Turbot that I had the privilege of cooking with on stage in Latvia was one of the largest and finest I’ve ever seen – The fact that they have been in business together for the past three decades speaks for itself!  I strongly believe in using the highest quality ingredients and incorporating them in an exciting tasting menu, so that my guests at Wood Restaurant can experience a culinary journey, that is not too filling, rather excites and thrills in every course. I’m really looking forward to continuing to champion Royal Greenland halibut and their exciting array seafood species and the hard work that goes into safeguarding the integrity of the produce.”

The previous week, chef Ping Coombes (MasterChef winner) took part in a similar event in Lithuania showcasing Asian food, she said

“Being invited to showcase Asian cuisine in Latvia was really exciting and interesting, especially as my genre of cuisine, although massively popular in the UK is relatively undiscovered or incorporated into menus in the Baltic states.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the Lithuanian chefs and Reaton Development chef Edgars, we all have a common love of food and it’s great to be able to introduce my dishes and Asian cooking techniques and flavours to fellow culinary peers across the globe – My happy place indeed!”

Vija Tirzmale, Head of Brand Development for Reaton in the Baltics said

 “Good food is made by good people and I strongly believe in that. By inviting top chefs over to Latvia from the UK we achieved something I’ve always wanted – exporting our great culinary talent and working with some of the best ingredients in the world – like the prawns from Royal Greenland which were on hand for Simon to work with.”

Catherine Farinha, Founder of The Chefs’ Forum concluded

“In Riga at the Reaton Professional Day, our chefs were able to explain how they cook at the very top level and found a very receptive audience keen to learn how its done in the UK – which is now one of the top culinary destinations in the world.  At The Chefs’ Forum we are delighted to be able to work alongside the students who will become the next top chefs and to be able to take top chefs abroad to show them new things.  Simon and Hywel presented in panel discussions around sustainability, labour and food waste.”

The Chefs’ Forum team is very much looking forward to participating in similar events moving forward and would welcome invitations to collaborate with any global food brand looking to partner with UK chefs and hospitality professionals.

Students Cook up Four-course Feast with Exose Grant

The Maya Sous Chef guided Hospitality & Catering students through a sold-out event.

Promising young chefs at The Manchester College have shared a kitchen with one of the country’s leading professionals, in conjunction with the Chefs’ Forum Academy

Students at the College’s Industry Excellence Academy for Hospitality & Catering worked alongside Exose Grant, new Maya Sous Chef and finalist of ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’, to put on a four-course dinner plus drinks and canapés.

Such was the excitement around the event on 8 February, which was held at 1853 restaurant at the College’s City Campus Manchester, tickets for the evening sold out in record time.

Featuring dishes such as seaweed butter poached halibut and lemon meringue mille feuille, Exose and the students took advantage of the College’s state-of-the-art kitchen facilities to create a delicious menu.

“Working with The Chefs’ Forum our students are able to gain experience of working with top-professionals to really take their skills to the next level.” commented Christine Kenyon, Deputy Principal at The Manchester College. “Nights such as these, where they put their skills to the test in a professional setting, are vital to ensuring they are ready to start a career once they complete their studies with us.”

Incredibly generous with his time, the event was the latest way Exose Grant has supported The Manchester College. He holds regular masterclasses on campus as well as involving students in external events, such as the recent Chefs’ Forum Manchester Chefs’ Lunch at Ducie Street Warehouse.

Exose said: “I enjoy this so much, I only wish I had these fantastic opportunities to work with top chefs when I was at college.  I just love giving back to the community and seeing how much the students get out of being involved in events like this.  It is also fantastic that I get to keep in touch with my former lecturer Mark Cooper, who I’ve always greatly looked up to and support him in enriching the learning of the students at The Manchester College. 

“The new City Centre campus is absolutely amazing and the kitchens, world class – I’m honoured to be the first chef to host a guest chef evening at the college this year and look forward to attending similar evenings hosted by my chef peers and culinary legends.”

Chefs’ Forum director Catherine Farinha added: “We are delighted to be growing our partnership with The Manchester College and help them to enable their students to get a proper feel of working in professional hospitality.

“This is the first in a series of fantastic guest chef nights to be held at the college. Simon Wood of Wood Restaurant and Doug Crampton of James Martin Manchester will also be cooking with the students in the brand-new college kitchens and restaurant at the City Campus Manchester.

“One of the main areas we are working on is to help make the College restaurant profitable and give students a real-life service with real guests. It’s amazing to sell out all 45 covers.

“By working with sponsors, we can drive down food costs and bring in top class ingredients that students haven’t worked with before. For this series we are working with Meat & Livestock Australia, Royal Greenland and Dole Foodservice.”

Find out more about Hospitality & Catering courses at The Manchester College and apply today.

Photo credit: Kath Symes

Taste the Difference

The Hospitality and Catering Department at Langley College in Berkshire welcomed 180 students from 10 local feeder schools to a special industry taster day on Tuesday 7th February.

Four top chefs were on hand to deliver masterclasses and give an insight into professional catering and hospitality.

After a canapé and mocktail reception the students enjoyed a pasta making and cookery demonstration led by Chris Hannon, Executive Chef at nearby Cliveden House.

This led on to a bakery class on kneading the perfect loaf by Piotr Lesnianski from The Gatsby Restaurant.

Piotr said “I really enjoy events like this, it is so great to see the students listening intently to the demonstrations and I was very impressed with how quickly the students got to grips with helping me to make corn tortillas on the demo stage.  They really are very lucky to have a fantastic college like Langley on the doorstep and some great chefs coming in to offer curriculum enrichment.”

Fresh from escorting The Chefs’ Forum round Japan, sushi master Keiko Urakawa took the students through the preparation of sushi before chef Louise Wagstaffe created desserts.

If that wasn’t enough the students then decorated eclairs which are featured in The Chefs’ Knowledge, our latest book.

The food and drink was kindly sponsored by First Choice Produce, Premier Foods  and Holdsworth

Anne Entwistle, Principal of Langley College said: “It was lovely to welcome so many aspiring chefs to our campus. The taster day is a great way to introduce students to the practicalities of catering.  They really enjoyed meeting the professional chefs and sampling all the food.

Following the successful launch of our hospitality and catering course this year we will soon be introducing two new apprenticeships for anybody hoping to be a commis or a production chef. These courses have been created with the support of employers to fill the skills gaps and staffing needs of our local community.’’

Catherine Farinha, Director of The Chefs’ Forum, said: “At The Chefs’ Forum we love teaching catering and hospitality through our Academies. Taster days are a part of that and it was thrilling to see so many young and eager faces enjoy the programme and get to see what goes on in professional kitchens.”

Photography and film by www.johnscottblackwell.co.uk

2023 Student Pastry Chef of the Year is Open for Entries!

Take your pastry to the next level and enter our brilliant student pastry chef competition and win big at the same time. The competition is now in its third year and those that enter will be competing in front of the finest pastry chefs in the country. Both Cherish Finden and Benoit Blin from Bake Off: The Professionals are part of the judging panel.

The shortage of highly-skilled young pastry chefs is well documented, so it is our intention to showcase the great student and apprentice talent within the UK’s colleges, learning providers and universities. We also want to showcase the creative and highly rewarding career opportunities available to a wider audience.

The preliminary round is in writing. We need:

• A brief CV and a short introduction about yourself (100-150 words).
• Three photos of either plated desserts, cakes and/or decorative items you have produced.
• A description outlining why you wish to enter the competition. This can be presented on video or in writing.

Timeline

• Friday 3rd March at 17:00 – Closing date for the preliminary round.
• Monday 13th March – The successful student pastry chefs progressing to the semi-finals will be notified by email, with details of the requirements for the semi-final task.
• Friday 31st March at 17:00 – Submission deadline for the semi-final task: From the 20 semi-finalists, the judging team will select the top 8 entries to progress to the grand final.
• Monday 17th April – Announcement of the 8 finalists. Wednesday 10th May – Grand Final, live at West London College.

Meet the Judges

• Michael Kwan – Executive Pastry Chef at The Dorchester and UK Pastry Team
• Chris Underwood – Artisserie
• Michael D’Angelo – Head Pastry Chef at Louie London
• Franciane Tartari – Executive Pastry Chef at Amazonico
• Daniel Pearse – Executive Pastry Chef at Rhubarb
• Enrico Carloni – Head Pastry Chef at The Peninsula
• Biju Joshwa – Executive Pastry Chef at Sheraton Grand Park Lane
• Cherish Finden – Executive Pastry Chef at Pan Pacific/Bake Off: The Professionals Judge
• Nelson Sa – Head Pastry Chef at South Place
• Thibault Hauchard – Executive Pastry Chef at Claridge’s
• Benoit Blin – Executive Pastry Chef at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons/Bake Off: The Professionals Judge

Win big with our superb prizes.

Winner:

• £400 voucher from Mitchell & Cooper
• A selection of products from Henley Bridge
• A Bragard hat, trousers, jacket & apron
• Matfer Bourgeat product bundle
• A copy of The Chefs’ Knowledge – The Modern Culinary Repertoire
• £300 voucher from Wedgwood

Runner-up:

• £250 voucher from Mitchell & Cooper
• A selection of products from Henley Bridge
• Matfer Bourgeat product bundle
• A Bragard jacket up to £100 RRP
• A copy of The Chefs’ Knowledge – The Modern Culinary Repertoire

Third Place:

• A selection of products from Henley Bridge
• Matfer Bourgeat product bundle
• A Bragard apron of choice
• A copy of The Chefs’ Knowledge – The Modern Culinary Repertoire

Please send your completed entries to alexandra@redcherry.uk.com by Friday 3rd March 2023 at 17:00.

The Chefs’ Forum Roadshow Visits West London College

Over 200 secondary school students attended The Chefs’ Forum Roadshow at West London College (8 February 2023). This annual event, now in its second year, included hip hop dance routines, a singer and rapper, chef masterclasses, a mocktail making competition and plenty of audience participation. Many exceptional hospitality professionals gave interactive demonstrations to inspire and motivate the next generation of chefs coming through.

The event opened with Chef Jolly’s masterclass in using spices as he prepared and cooked okra chips coated in paprika, garlic, coriander, cumin and chat masala.

West London College Hospitality and Catering students served delicacies to the school visitors throughout the three-hour event, ranging from miniature macaroons, sushi and pasta to tiny stuffed pooris.

Professional Cookery Level 1 student Nessi Languindaz (17) said: “I was really pleased that the school students were so excited by the food we were serving them.”

Her classmate Hazelle Stringfellow (30) said: “It felt great to be part of such a large and buzzing event.”

Georgie Flaherty (16), Leo Schoenholtz (16) and Hoi Yiu Butt (16) cooked the pasta and sushi for the showcase roadshow.

Salvatore Maggio, bar manager at the Rubens at the Palace, demonstrated mocktail making. He rolled the mocktail maker in an elaborate figure of eight and then poured its ingredients from the maker to the glass and back again with a gap of about three feet between both. Everyone gasped as the brightly coloured liquid  appeared to defy gravity

“This is how we get lots of oxygen into the mocktail and enhance the flavours,” he told the captivated audience. Schools competed to come up with the best mocktail. Barnhill won with their creation ‘The Barnhill Shake’, runners up were Magna Carta with ‘Raspberry Night’  and third place went to Forest Hill for their ‘Caribbean Paradise’.

The event closed as Keiko Urakawa gave a masterclass on making sushi from scratch.

Catherine Farinha from the Chefs’ Forum said: “We run this event to provide enrichment events for schools and young people where they can meet employers and find out about career opportunities in hospitality and catering.”

Denise Charles, Head of Service Industries at West London College said: “We are delighted to be members of the Chefs’ Forum as it enables our students to gain real life work experience mentored and encouraged by the UK’s leading chefs.”

The food and drink was kindly sponsored by First Choice Produce and Premier Foods, with barware from Mitchell & Cooper.

Watch the video below to get a flavour of the The Chefs’ Forum fantastic taster day at West London College!

The secondary schools who attended the event were:

Cumberland Community School, Nower Hill High School, Cambridge School, Belvue High School, Villiers High School, Barnhill School, All Saints Catholic School, The Magna Carta School, Greenford High School.

If you are interested in a course in Catering and Hospitality at West London College, apply at: wlc.ac.uk/catering

Get a Taste of Our New Chefs’ Forum ‘Road Crew’ Van!

We are mobile! The Chefs’ Forum is on the road again with a new Mercedes Sprinter long wheelbase van that’s been badged-up with our new colours and branding.

We will be touring the country this year supporting colleges to drive student registration for this September.

We’ll also be making an appearance and showcasing top chefs at major industry events like the HRC this March and The Game Fair and Welsh Game Fairs this summer.

Our new van set-up enables us to transport our purpose-built demo-stage and all catering and AV equipment we need to stage taster days for local feeder schools and other chefs theatre events.

“Putting on hospitality industry taster days is something we’ve got down to a tee” explained Chefs’ Forum Director Catherine Farinha. “However, in the past we had to work that bit harder. Now, with our new Chefs’ Forum ‘Road Crew’ van.  With sustainability at the forefront, this is a clean diesel, using AdBlue technology. This will make our taster day calendar for the 2023 even more efficient and our operation more green.  We are really excited to be on the road again and our chefs and suppliers are eager to get back into colleges to inspire the next generation of school leavers to choose hospitality.”

The Chefs’ Forum is going the extra mile to travel around the UK, inspiring the next generation of hospitality and catering professionals.

Ready, Set, Focus

In the current business climate in hospitality how do you understand the trends and limitations being considered and acted upon by busy chefs? This was a very real question asked by Mitchell & Cooper before they launch on a new website, catalogue and product offer.

At The Chefs’ Forum we think out of the box and one thing we know all about after years of experience is how chefs think and behave, what they like and dislike and what they are looking for. So, the answer to the question was straightforward.

We get a bunch of top chefs, sit them down, ask them straight, feed them a delicious lunch and then ask a whole load more questions in the afternoon. And that’s what we did. However, we were clever about it.

Mitchell & Cooper wanted to ask some very particular questions about purchasing, decision-making, provenance and corporate accountability as well as more regular questions about trends and usage. For us to get representative answers we had to choose our chefs wisely. We didn’t want them all to be the same. We needed to have chefs from different skill bands, diverse world food genres and different businesses.

The result was a unique focus group held at West London College where industry-leading chefs from hotels, restaurants, private clubs, consultancy and international businesses sat down and answered questions on how they look at purchasing and what the future of business in hospitality is going to look like. For Mitchell & Cooper this was a very real account of affairs insight into the end user culinary challenges and opportunities. For us, it was business as usual as we pride ourselves on being at the chalk face of culinary current affairs.

What was surprising was how interested the chefs were in being involved. Far from being “too busy” they were delighted to be asked their opinion and be involved in the framework of building a new catalogue with genuine industry insight interwoven into its structure.

One example sums up the day; The chefs were asked about the Bonzer® range of can openers which is made by Mitchell & Cooper. The question was about space. Was it felt that the Bonzer® got in the way?

One answer was from a chef who worked in a building with six different kitchens. However, there was only one Bonzer® can opener. All the chefs took their cans to one kitchen to open them. The reason: space.

“We rarely get to ask these questions to the end user – Chefs and hospitality industry professionals,” Kat Cooper of Mitchell & Cooper told The Chefs’ Forum. “As light catering equipment and barware manufacturers, it is imperative for us to learn how the chefs and hospitality professionals are not only perceiving our products, but actually using them for real was incredibly valuable. We had a great day learning all sorts of new things and learning how we can adapt our business and product design to suit the widely-varying needs of different types of chefs.”

Catherine Farinha, Director of The Chefs’ Forum, said: “We are very pleased with the way the day worked. It’s not easy getting a representative group of chefs together for a day and keep them interested. However, the questions were interesting and the products that Mitchell & Cooper have in the their range are household names. Plus, we threw in a delicious Brazilian BBQ lunch cooked by Level 1 students at West London College using finest quality Aussie Wagyu and lamb rump, kindly sponsored by Meat & Livestock Australia – Bonzer in every sense of the word!  It was a great opportunity for us to give the students a butchery demonstration using Mitchell & Cooper’s sensational Deglon® knife range”

Michael Dutnall, Executive Chef of The RAF Club, who took part, said: “It was a very interesting day. I learnt a lot about Mitchell & Cooper and their business plans and was very happy to pass on my knowledge of how we work. The result will make our collaboration much easier.  I use KitchenAid all the time, I also have Bonzer® can openers in all of my kitchens, I even have a Nemox ice cream machine, which is another great piece of kit, also available from Mitchell & Cooper – It was great to meet the people behind the brands we use every day.

The Chefs’ Forum’s Fukushima Food Tour

It’s not everyday we get invited to ‘Go East’ and discover the wonder that is Japan, so when we got the call, we jumped at the chance, here’s what Chefs’ Forum Founder, Catherine Farinha had to say:

“I was nervous, I don’t mind admitting it. Going to Fukushima in Japan to visit the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster site was frightening but the closer we got the more I realised it was completely safe and the clean-up operation had been a huge success.

I was invited by The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Japan who were keen for us to witness and then report on how the Japanese nation has recovered from the nuclear meltdown. I saw this first hand not just in Fukushima but also in Tokyo. I extended the trip so I could further understand the Japanese lifestyle which is highly food-focused.

Over the last few years, we have been doing more and more work with Japanese ingredients by introducing them to British chefs who are very receptive to their heritage and skill. Japanese cuisine is popular in the UK but I wasn’t prepared for how little I knew about how Japanese culture and food fuse together. Indeed, it became clear as I travelled just how much Fukushima had devastated the Japanese food industry.

From the moment we got off the plane the whole world of what I knew about Japan was changed.

This fantastic trip was facilitated by Japanese food ambassadors Keiko Urakawa and Masaki Aosawa and we met at Haneda airport for my adventure culminating in witnessing the extraordinary clean-up work being done in Fukushima.

The reason for going there was not immediately obvious until I learnt that Fukushima Prefecture, basically a region or county, is similar to Kent in the UK. Fukushima is known in Japan as the ‘Kingdom of Fruit’. So, naturally, when the power station went into meltdown the whole area was devastated and evacuated and Japan lost much-prized food ingredients. It was this regeneration that both Kaiko and Masaki were keen for me to see.

However, after a 14-hour flight I was jet-lagged, hungry and need of something to eat. We went to a shopping centre on the way into Tokyo and had sushi and ramen. I need to put this into some form of context because the way it sounds does not do the beautiful, flavourful food we ate justice in any way. The equivalent restaurant does not exist in the UK. We ate the freshest sushi I have ever eaten with the most delicious tuna I could imagine along with bowls of ramen that completely transformed my opinion of this staple Japanese noodle broth. The food was all in front of us on mini conveyer belts, made popular in the UK by Yo Sushi! and others, but it still managed to be impressive. And this was just the first of many meals we ate that were transformative. If I say that you really have to visit Japan to appreciate just how good it is, you get the picture. I can try and describe what we encountered but I feel sure, I will fall short.

After a good rest at our base-camp hotel in Asakusa, a famous Tokyo downtown, and some rather fine street-side yakitori, we were ready for everything that followed.

Our first visit was to a Daikon farm in Aizuwakamatsu, an inland district of Fukushima, some 70 miles from the nuclear site. This really brought home to me the sheer scale of what happened in 2011. The disaster didn’t just affect the land around the actual nuclear site but a much more widespread area. We met Junichi Hasegawa at Hasegawa Farm to see his growing facility and learn how this much-revered winter icicle-shaped Japanese radish is grown and preserved.

Junichi is a  9th generation rice (Koshi-hikari), cabbage and Daikon (Mooli) grower and has a passionate and impressive field to fork story.

He was six when he started helping his father on the farm with bagging 30kg of rice at a time and driving the sleigh to carry the freshly harvested daikon. His three sisters also helped too.

His beloved father, Michi-no-eki died when he was 21 leaving him to take the reigns of the family business.

Through shadowing his father for a decade and a half he was well-equipped and experienced in cultivating, harvesting and storing his produce. In the winter months the snow-covered terrain acts as a natural cold store or larder to hold the daikon radish at a chilled temperature, under soil, until the spring.

In addition to daikon, Junichi also grows cabbage and edamame beans and supplies seven local restaurants with all the produce they could possibly wish for.  In addition, he personally-delivers rice and produce to local schools, directly benefitting and nourishing the 110,000 strong local community of Aizuwakamatsu.

His rice is also used by local sake brewery, Takahashi Shosaku, just ten minutes down the road. We popped-over to the brewery to see where the magic happens and were delighted to see crates of the new batch being wheeled into vans for distribution across the prefecture and beyond. Plump spheres of cedar twigs (known as sugi-dama) were hung from the eaves of the brewery to signify the launch of the latest batch of sake – Again, another time-honoured custom (probably a religious offering to the gods) seen in the winter at sake breweries throughout Japan. As the sake matures over the course of the year and becomes more mellow and rounded, the cedar dries out and turns from vibrant green to deep brown.

Today, sugidama are not only put up by breweries, but are also a popular decoration for izakaya restaurants and sake shops.  If you see one in the streets of Tokyo, you can be sure that the establishment cares about sake!

Takahashi Shosaku brewery lovingly creates the ‘local water’ loved by so many, sold in local sake shops and farm shops.  Once the sake is brewed, the by-product, sake lees (likened to coffee chaff) is then returned to Junichi as a natural fertiliser to nourish his crops – There really is no wastage and all businesses, producers and growers club together to support each other, working in perfect harmony, which was so lovely to see.

We were really impressed when he told us that, like The Chefs’ Forum, he goes into local schools and colleges to talk about traceability, provenance and is existentially proud to tell the students that he produces six tonnes of rice a year (both for eating and sake production) and in addition, that he also grows cucumber in the summer as well as aubergine and edible chrysanthemum.

Junichi wants children to learn about the produce that surrounds them, so that the varieties and species will remind them of where they are from, acquire a sense of place and make them want to return to Aizuwakamatsu to enjoy them in the future – a true taste of home.

Junichi warmly invited us into his home, where we were very honoured to join his family at their traditional low, heated, table (Kotatsu) to share a family-style feast of ‘sweet fish’ cooked over charcoal on natural wooden sticks in sand, accompanied by edamame beans dressed in sake, dashi broth and garnished with roe. This is a delicious dish, traditionally enjoyed on New Years Day and said to boost prosperity and fertility.

We were then given some beautiful chrysanthemum squash as a parting gift to take away with us which was grown naturally when seeds fell from a Portuguese cargo ship, or so the story goes.

Everything in Aizuwakamatsu has a back story and is steeped in family history and surrounded by captivating stories and tradition.

The Hasegawa family also host regular ‘Food camp tours’, welcoming young chefs and tourists to Hasegawa Farm to let them try their hand at harvesting daikon, rice and cabbage from his 12 hectares of farmland.  They also have the opportunity to sample delicious dishes, cooking-up a feast with his produce in his purpose-made ‘kitchen car’.

He has recently collaborated with French-trained Chef Manabu Sato, Chef Patron of local restaurant Teppanyaki Aizuya of who often wows guests with specially curated menus, championing Junichi’s fresh produce, married with delicious Fukushima Wagyu.

Junichi’s passion for top chefs showcasing his produce to guests participating in his food camps is clear to see, he said

“Chef Sato bakes the most delicious Fukushima vegetables of the day to create delicious dishes with the minimum amount of seasoning, largely carrot, Morning glory (a Chinese water spinach), my daikon turnip, turnip leaf, stick senor (mini stick broccoli), radish and sweet potato. He steams ginseng for two hours and his sweet potatoes are baked and the sweetness fully extracted, before he kisses them with special teppanyaki dressing.  I want to give my guests the whole field-to-fork experience, so they know exactly where the food comes from, how it is harvested, then prepared to make a delicious fresh produce banquet.”

Junichii deems it his personal mission and responsibility to get more chefs involved in championing Fukushima produce, connecting people with agriculture and shouting about the wonderful natural flavours and the love and care that goes into growing and producing the prefecture’s rich larder.

All this joy, however, was a prequel to the main event: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Nothing could prepare me for this and the emotions it brought up. Fukushima is the 3rd biggest prefecture or state – There are 47 prefectures in Japan.

Twelve years have passed since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster and the prefecture of Fukushima is making steady progress in its reconstruction and revitalisation.

Fukushima has long been famous for its agriculture, known since old times as one of Japan’s premier rice-growing regions, also earning the prefecture the affectionate nickname of, ‘The Kingdom of Fruit’.

Fukushima’s agriculture suffered drastically after the earthquake and the nuclear power accident that followed, but as a result of safety measures implemented through national efforts, foods produced in Fukushima have been recognised as safe by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), as well as by many individual countries, and the prefecture’s exports are increasing. Japan hopes that more and more people will enjoy the safe and delicious produce grown in Fukushima for years to come.

Keiko and Masaki arranged for us to visit TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station site, where we were given a fascinating private guided tour to showcase the clean-up work of the Tokyo Electric Power Company. TEPCO has started to keep fish and at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to allay concerns about its plan to release treated radioactive water stored there in huge tanks into the ocean. Since we returned news has broken that this water will be released at Easter.

The clean-up team showed us around and explained that their main aim is to dispel public anxiety and instead to reassure the local community that they are working tirelessly in a huge operation to purify the contaminated water so that fish can thrive and negative environmental and health impacts are nullified.

Local residents and fisheries industry officials, who were worried about the scheme and damage to marine life caused by the release, suggested that the TEPCO team keep fish at the utility to demonstrate the safety of the water. This is what we went to see and it was impressive.

The water treatment process removes most radioactive substances, but not tritium, a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of about 12 years.  The water is then diluted with seawater to reduce the tritium concentration to less than 1,500 becquerels per litre, one fortieth of the legal standard.

On experts’ advice, TEPCO has decided to culture flatfish and abalone on a trial basis, as both species can be readily caught off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture and grown easily. Preliminary farming started last March in seawater at the plant. In September 600 flatfish and 600 abalone were introduced and grown in the water. In a control/contrast experiment, where some are being raised in ordinary seawater, others will be grown in treated, diluted water containing tritium at the same level of the water that will be discharged.

The concentration of tritium and other substances in the fish are analysed, as are their growth rates, in two sets of tanks. TEPCO hope to counter negative publicity by showing that fish can grow healthily in the treated water. We were shown the healthy-looking red gills of an anaesthetised flounder to prove that the water has now been purified to a safe standard. However, further external auditing and accreditation by marine authorities is needed to instill faith in the local fishing and farming communities.

Having visited the site and seen firsthand the regeneration and cleanup process I was impressed with the work that has been done. There was a lot of pride in the team effort and I am excited to begin work on brining UK chefs to Japan to witness and taste the wonderful ingredients of this ancient part of Japan.

Back in Aizuwakamatsu, Junichi demonstrated the purity of the water by showing us photos of swarms of fire flies over his rice fields at dusk. He said that they are only attracted to pure water, so it is clear that there is no contamination in Fukushima’s water and he’s confident his crops are safe. This is a great natural sign that the future is bright for Fukushima, the largest rice-producing prefecture in Japan.

The nuclear disaster in 2011 led Junichi to lose confidence in farming, but he kept planting new crops in the hope that one day the soil would renew itself and his faith paid off. Contaminated layers of soil were removed and blighted tree bark, shaved-off. All of the toxic waste is being stored at a specialist facility under strictly controlled conditions.

Now that Junichi has confidence that his livelihood can continue he plans to create a seedbank to preserve the genes he needs to increase yield and resist disease. Seedbanks are also used to increase tolerance against drought, improve nutritional quality and the taste of crops.

We really enjoyed our food tour of Fukushima and all of the fantastic people we met, who are striving to reinstate ‘The Kingdom of Fruit’ back to where it was before 2011 on the global produce stage.  We are so very grateful to Keiko and Masaki for giving us this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discover traditional Japanese food, regional specialities and meet such passionate producers.

We heartily recommend Fukushima produce and will be working on a chefs trip to visit the region in the coming months – Do let us know if you are interested in being involved.