At Nihonryori Hijikata, the chef extracts maximum flavor from premium ingredients. Be it seafood or vegetables, Hijikata secures the best ingredients from around Japan and showcases their innate qualities with simple dishes and minimum fuss. There are no eye-grabbing stunts here; the focus is purely on produce. As such, Hijikata describes the nature of his work as encountering premium producers and wholesalers who have an eye for the best items available. After that, it is simply about letting the ingredients speak for themselves.

Ten to twelve dishes comprise the chef’s tasting course structured in the traditional Japanese dining style. It begins with a sakizuke appetizer and proceeds to a duo of sashimi, a lidded bowl dish, grilled plate, fried morsel, and a boiled creation, perhaps a hot pot. This is followed by seasonal ingredients dressed in a sauce, as well as two varieties of clay pot–cooked rice, fruit, and sweets. With ingredients determined by the season and weather, similar dishes may appear over consecutive days, but it is never long before menu shifts occur.

A summer appetizer may feature lustrous jade Hisui eggplant that is flash-fried and then doused in blended bonito and kombu dashi before being topped with julienned myoga Japanese ginger. It is served in a magnificent Edokiriko cut crystal glass. The sashimi dish pairs Mie Prefecture Bigfin reef squid with sea urchin from Oma, Aomori Prefecture, the northernmost point on Japan’s main island of Honshu. Chef Hijikata gives guests multiple ways to enjoy the large, plump, and incredibly rare Murasaki uni when it finds its way to his kitchen. It is paired with just-picked junsai water shield plant in tomato extract in a refreshing palate cleanser sprinkled with local edamame for color and texture.

For the fried course, a shiroebi shrimp croquette is served with a whole chili pepper in aromatic dashi. The star in the lidded bowl dish is a velvety dumpling made from Chita Peninsula female blue crab laden with eggs. It sits in a seasoned ichibandashi broth garnished with leaves of the koshiabura native Japanese tree and kinome sansho Japanese pepper leaf buds. As you open the lid of the Wajima lacquerware bowl to reveal the heady aromas, be sure to admire the makie metallic decoration depicting an ox-drawn imperial carriage.

INGREDIENTS
Guiding Chef Hijikata in everything he does are the absolute best ingredients. His very purpose for cooking Japanese cuisine is for guests to savor the best Japan has to offer when it comes to fresh produce. He will accept nothing less than the most supreme versions of an item. They come from far places like the unctuous uni from the north and bluefin tuna caught off Choshi on Chiba Prefecture’s eastern tip. But local delicacies also abound: briny Chita Peninsula cockles, wild kurumaebi shrimp from Mikawa Bay, and Shinojima wild torafugu puffer fish. The chef’s superior selection of fruit includes plump Benishuho cherries from Yamagata, Kochi Prefecture watermelon and a variety of mango from Miyazaki nicknamed the “Sun Egg”, the likes of which make their way to the plates of Japan’s imperial family. The secret to securing such premium ingredients is to mingle with premium people. That wisdom is the result of a remarkable 45-year career.