Dinner at Monk, Kyoto

places

12 May

Restaurant Monk in Kyoto belongs to a young Japanese cook called Yoshihiro Imai, who has his very own philosophy when it comes to food, which by now even found its way into a book published by Phaidon.

We visited Monk on a trip to Kyoto back in 2016. Upon arriving, we were seated right at the counter of the small restaurant. Sitting there we were in for more than a treat. He prepared all seven courses for a tasting menu of wonderful, seasonal, fresh, and local cuisine right before our eyes. While cooking he, explained a lot about the individual dishes he served us:

He served the first catch of Bonito of the season, decorated the dishes with herbs and flowers foraged on the outskirts of Kyoto and prepared vegetables picked up at farms and markets around Kyoto. The pizza was topped with mozzarella from a Japanese cheesemaker and made from the finest Japanese flour. For a few exceptions, all dishes were prepared in a stone oven, the center of the small kitchen space behind the counter.

Apart from the perfect dishes on our plates, there was another thing that delighted me: Upon arriving the space behind the counter was filled with produce. By the end of the night, almost all of it had found its way into the dishes. Anything that was leftover was meticulously packed up for the next day. There was no food waste whatsoever, and you could feel the respect and love for food that prevails in this place.