SEPTEMBER 4, 2000 VOL. 156 NO. 9

Food Stuff
By DONALD MACINTYRE

TRAVEL WATCH Tokyo's Chefs Get a Grip on Europe The Japanese capital doesn't usually get top billing with New York and Paris as an international culinary center. Until now Hot Spots A welcome addition to Tokyo's already lively entertainment scene is the winebar Short Cuts Veterans of Tokyo's vending machines will be disappointed to hear that many of them are going alcohol free Web Crawling Log on to the online version of Tokyo Journal, a city magazine that goes beyond band listings and wimpy movie reviews Food Stuff Like good chefs everywhere, the folks who run Tokyo's best French and Italian restaurants are always on the lookout for the tastiest vegetables Travel Watch Archive: Browse hundreds of Asian travel tips

Like good chefs everywhere, the folks who run Tokyo's best French and Italian restaurants are always on the lookout for the tastiest vegetables. That can be a challenge in the city, says Moriaki Sakamoto, who specializes in French cuisine at his restaurant Labyrinthe. Tokyo's markets, he says, sacrifice taste for appearance—perfectly straight cucumbers and unblemished apples. His solution? A network of farmers in the countryside outside Tokyo who just wrap up whatever's in season and ship it to him—he decides the week's recipes only after seeing what's inside. Sakamoto likes to work a few local ingredients into his cooking—Japanese horseradish leaves to sharpen up a salad, for example.

Elio Orsara, who runs the Italian eatery Elio, has a grower cultivating vegetables for him on a farm southwest of Tokyo, using seeds imported from Italy. Vegetable lover Toru Wachi, chef at the Grape Gumbo, says Yamanashi prefecture west of Tokyo is the best place to get leaf vegetables and herbs, while his wild mushrooms come straight from northern Honshu. Like other top chefs in Tokyo, he looks for farmers who aren't using lots of chemicals. Their produce is both tastier and less toxic—and his customers appreciate the difference. "Organic is big in Japan," says Wachi. "People are looking for vegetables that are delicious and safe."

Of course, most of Tokyo's chefs do some of their buying closer to home. To catch them in action, get up at the crack of dawn and head to the bustling Tsukiji wholesale market, where acres of vegetables, meat and fish from Japan and around the world are spread out for sale. An early-morning breakfast at Tsukiji after a night out in Roppongi is almost a Tokyo ritual.

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