Japan

Japan is one of the deepest sections in the range, covering everything from the foundational text to everyday cooking.

Shizuo Tsuji's Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art, published in 1980, is the canonical introduction in English. Tsuji ran Japan's most influential culinary school and covers technique, aesthetics, tools and ingredients as thoroughly as the recipes themselves. Forty five years later, nobody has repeated the work.

Nancy Singleton Hachisu has lived on a Japanese farm for decades and therefore writes from the inside. Japan: The Cookbook contains more than 400 recipes arranged according to the progression of a meal, while its vegetarian companion contains more than 250, which makes sense given that Japanese cooking is fundamentally vegetable led.

Yoshihiro Murata, the third generation owner of Kikunoi in Kyoto, documents seasonal menus course by course in Kaiseki. It is the only serious English language source on kaiseki, with forewords by both Ferran Adrià and Nobu Matsuhisa.

For home cooking, there is Tim Anderson's Your Home Izakaya, Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares's Umai from a small kitchen in Tokyo, as well as the Swedish titles Saori Ichihara's Japansk comfort food and Jonas Cramby's Japansk grillning on yakitori and yakiniku.