Washoku is a feeling as much as it is a style of cooking or a way of seasoning. Mastering basic techniques — no matter what the season or the ingredients used — and developing the confidence to adapt recipes will help you to incorporate the style into your own cooking repertoire.

Over the next four months, we will look at each course in the traditional Japanese meal and learn several basic (and some advanced) cooking techniques. They can be used independently or combined to create many meal variations.

We will make our way through aemono (dressed salad dishes), sunomono (vinegared foods) and chinmi (delicacies). We will tackle buying and presenting sashimi (raw foods) and learn the basics of nimono-wan (hearty soups) and suimono (lighter, often clear, soups). Yakimono (grilled foods) and agemono (fried foods) will be treated as integral parts of the meal, and attention will also be paid to nimono (simmered foods) and mushimono (steamed foods). As the last savory course in any meal, gohan-mono (rice dishes) will be covered, with one-dish rice meals, donburi-mono, presented. Of course, tsukemono pickles will be covered. Finally, Japanese-style desserts will round out the year.