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August 4, 2009
By W. Blake Gray
California Culinary Academy is a teaching institution, not Kitchen Stadium, but the excitement simmered at high levels when five talented chefs showed off their creativity with miso.
Rather than simply presenting clashing dishes, though, the chefs – who had been together on a visit to Sendai earlier in the year – decided among themselves beforehand that the food would be presented like a 5-course meal.
The results received great approval and even applause from the audience of professional chefs, food industry product developers, sake sommeliers, cookbook authors and other culinary professionals. Each of the dishes was very different from the others, allowing a progression of flavors that prevented anyone's palate from tiring.
The chefs, in order of the dishes they presented, were:
• Ravi Kapur of Boulevard, a Michelin-starred California cuisine restaurant in downtown San Francisco
• Staffan Terje, known for his innovative yet comforting northern Italian cuisine at San Francisco's Perbacco
• Bruce Hill of Bix, a San Francisco restaurant known for modern versions of classic American dishes
• Paul Canales of Oliveto, an Italian-focused restaurant in Oakland well known for producing his own cured meats
• Shotaro Kamio of Yoshi's, a jazz club and sushi restaurant with branches in San Francisco and Oakland that's known for innovative takes on Japanese cuisine
It's ironic that Kamio ended up with the dessert course, because as a native of Sendai, he has the longest experience with miso as an ingredient in savory dishes. Perhaps that gave him the confidence to create a dessert that actually had the strongest, most noticeable flavor of the miso itself, sending the audience out into the evening with a sweet taste of miso on their palate.
The menu:
• Albacore Tuna with Red Miso and White Balsamic Vinegar (Kapur)
• Miso and Cornmeal Crusted Fried Green Tomato, Corn and Cherry Tomato Salad, Burrata Cheese and Miso-Basil Vinaigrette (Terje)
• Sauteed Black Cod with Clams and Chanterelles (Hill)
• Pork Belly Cacciatore (Canales)
• Vanilla Sendai Miso Ice Cream and Saikyo Miso Jasmine Tea Ice Cream (Kamio)
Kapur's dish led off with very delicate flavors and textures; miso's richness was noticeable in the sauce, but not as much on the fish itself.
 "Local albacore is very lean,” Kapur said. "It's very soft. It's almost too delicate to work with. I wanted to concentrate the muscle, so I made a marinade with miso and some microplaned garlic and extra virgin olive oil. The marinade shows up in the sauce on the plate and also in the eggplant. I think it would be really hard to identify the miso in the eggplant if I didn't tell you it was there. I think it doesn't have a really Japanese feel to it.”
If Kapur's dish wasn't particularly Japanese, Terje's was even less so, even though the flavor of miso was unmistakable.
 The dish was assigned as a "salad course,” but Terje interpreted that loosely with his fried green tomato topped with rich burrata cheese. The cornmeal breading on the tomato had enough crunchiness and miso flavoring to be reminiscent of a miso sembei (rice cracker), an irony because Terje said he hadn't ever tried one; he just hit on the combination in his search for the purity of the ingredients.
"The cornmeal holds in the miso flavor,” Terje said. "I marinated the tomatoes overnight to really press the flavor of the miso into the tomatoes. The burrata on top gives the richness and the salad on top gives the brightness. I used a red miso. In the end I was able to bring out a lot of miso flavor while still keeping its identity and let the other ingredients speak. The miso is the backbone and the inspiration is the Italian burrata and tomatoes. I always want to have counterbalance in food so that after a few bites it's refreshing.”
 Hill's black cod dish was soft, rich and earthy: a dish that cried out for either red or white Burgundy (in fact, the beverage served with all the dishes was chilled green tea courtesy of event sponsor Ito-En, and it was a fine palate cleanser for all.)
While his intent was purely to make the dish delicious, Hill also showed that miso has an interesting effect on a dish's richness. All the chefs agreed beforehand that miso can be used to make a broth richer, particularly a vegetarian broth, and can even be used as a substitute for butter. But in this dish, Hill showed that miso can prevent a rich, fatty fish like black cod from being overly rich.
"Miso cut the richness of the fish,” Hill said. "The black cod can be almost too rich in some preparations, but miso cuts through the richness of the fish.”
 Canales, who has used miso in cured meats, did not shy at all from richness in his dish, Pork Belly Cacciatore. Some audience members praised its firm yet yielding texture. Canales used Sendai red miso in the sauce, adding depth and layers of flavor.
When asked if he considered a different type of miso for the pork belly, Canales laughed and said, "I'm a neophyte. I'm just using the red miso right now. I haven't gotten into the other colors. I'm only playing with one.”
 Kamio's dessert course of two different miso-flavored ice creams was accented by a miso- and chocolate-covered strawberry and miso shortcake. He said he liked using miso in sweet dishes because "it adds a lot of depth and it's not what you expect from a sweet dish.” Still, he said that even though it has its own sweetness, miso is a challenge in sweet preparations.
"Miso is really salty and hard to control for dessert,” Kamio said.
While the food was being served, audience members and presenters related unconventional ways in which they had used miso.
"A friend said yesterday she put miso in her cheesecake and it made it more 'adult',” said Thy Tran, cookbook author and director of the Asian Culinary Forum.
"When I cook beef with onions, I add miso to the broth to give it more layers of flavor,” said a food product developer.
Yumi Satow, assistant professor of consumer and family studies at San Francisco State University, said, "One of my students put miso in a muffin. It had a really strong, good flavor.”
One cookbook author said, "I put miso and butter on popcorn.”
Kiyoshi Takahashi, manager of the Miyagi Miso & Soy Sauce Cooperative Association, said, "I went to an event where a chef chopped up French fries and put them in miso soup. It was amazing.”
Cookbook author Eric Gower rubs miso under the skin of chicken for roasting in lieu of salt and pepper, one of his friends said, adding that, "The chicken is so delicious that way.”
Of course, the featured chefs pitched in a few extra tips as well.
Kamio said he likes to use miso when barbecuing.
"On top of barbecued chicken or beef, you can put miso-tomato sauce,” Kamio said. "If you have any leftover sauce, don't throw it away. Put it in the refrigerator. The next day, you can add a little balsamic vinegar and you can make miso dressing.”
Canales said he used miso in a sauce for swordfish carpaccio. "It was in an emulsion with some saba and some verjus,” Canales said. "I drizzled it over the carpaccio and it was really delicate. It was beautiful.”
Sake sommelier Miwa Wang of True Sake said she had made a Miso Bloody Mary, drawing a laugh and some comments from people who wanted to try it.
The outpouring of creativity with miso is to be expected, said Rona Tison, Vice President of Corporate Relations for Ito-En North America. Miso is a relatively new ingredient for non-Japanese, who are just beginning to realize its possibilities. She made an analogy to another soy-based product that has been a very successful crossover: soy sauce.
"Twenty years ago, Kikkoman had to give out recipes to teach people how to use soy sauce,” Tison said. "Now everybody has a bottle of soy sauce and it finds its way into everything. You find it in spaghetti sauce, everything. So maybe miso is at that early stage now.”
When the event concluded, each member of the audience received a package of red Sendai miso to take home and experiment with themselves. Who knows what delicious ideas will result? |
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