It’s December

There’s only one month left in this year. For those in the food and beverage industry, it’s the busy season with year-end parties, so things are about to get hectic. Take care of yourselves to avoid getting sick!

Recently, I visited Uedaya. Usually, I go there for dinner and a chat, but this time, I went mainly to talk about knives. During our conversation, a phrase from Ueda-san stuck with me: ‘I’ve been raised by my knives.’ He said, ‘I’ve used many different knives, but some that matched my style chipped easily, rusted, or got deformed from sharpening. Through various trials and experiences, like changing cutting techniques to improve edge retention or experimenting with different sharpening methods, I’ve become who I am today.

I thought these experiences formed the foundation of the current master’s skills. Knowing that he’s had various experiences makes it easy to understand when he says, ‘I think this way because of this reason!’ Talking about these things doesn’t mean I’m asking chefs to be attached to their knives… It’s more that as makers, we try to cater to the chefs, which helps create good products. In a way, knife makers are nurtured by the chefs because they are the ones using the knives!

To go back to the point, this applies not just to knives but also to cooking. When someone says before cooking, ‘Today’s dish will be delicious!’ it usually is. That’s also experience and the ability to judge ingredients. When I buy fish at the supermarket, I often think, ‘Which one would the master choose?’ With knives, I sometimes notice differences in the color of the steel, and it might be similar to that. It would be great if I could confidently say, ‘This color means it will cut well!’ (＾＾) I still have a lot of trial and error ahead of me.

• 2009-12-01