The undertaking of a joint project that encompasses as many diverse aspects of a topic as this book does is rarely possible without the assistance and support of a wide range of individuals and organizations. In the course of the many months that went into gathering the material, testing recipes in laboratories and kitchens, and exploring new options, we accumulated an enormous debt of gratitude to those who gave so freely of their time and knowledge to assist us along the way. Their scientific curiosity and passionate interest in the culinary arts have inspired and guided us in the process of composing and writing this book.
Of the many individuals who put technical and professional knowledge at our disposal, cheerfully participated in our experiments, and facilitated our expeditions around the world to seek out umami, particular thanks are due to: the fascinating people who gather together as The Funen Society of Serious Fisheaters and The Dozen Society, who helped to shape our sensitivity to umami from the pantry in the sea; our good friend and fish expert Poul Rasmussen, for enjoyable and inspiring conversations and gastronomical experiments with fish, shellfish, ikijime, clambakes, and fish sauce production; and the chefs Torsten Vildgaard, Lars Williams, and Søren Westh from Restaurant noma and Nordic Food Lab, and the chefs Pepijn Schmeik and Remco van Erp from Restaurant Eendracht for providing insight into their playful, yet serious, approach to culinary adventures.
Thanks also are due to: Yukari Sakamoto, for carefully scrutinizing the Japanese expressions; Dr. Carl Th. Pedersen, for advice with respect to the chemical and gastronomic expressions in the book; Dr. Niels O. G. Jørgensen and Lars Duelund, for measurements of glutamate in a large number of samples; wine experts Peter Winding and Pia Styrbæk, for tastings and enlightening discussions regarding wine pairings for dishes with umami; Dr. Ling Miao, for information on Chinese soups and help with Chinese quotes; Professor Ylva Ardö, for information on maturation of cheeses; Ayako Watanabe, for pointing out references to data for the amino acid content of sake and for conversations together with chef Yoshitaka Onozaki about shōjin ryōri; chef Hiroaki Yamamoto for information on kobujime; Dr. Christian Aalkjær, for information about salt and blood pressure; chef Søren Gordon from bar’sushi, for preparing gunkan-zushi for photography; Sakiko Nishihara, for information about Taste No. 5; Pierre Ibaïalade Co., for a guided tour of its facilities for salting and drying hams in Bayonne, France; Dr. Lee Miller, for supplying kusaya; Reidun Røed and Martin Bennetzen, for providing Norwegian rakfisk; Dr. Jorge Bernadino de la Serna, for samples of Spanish botargo; brewer Ole Olsen, for information about free amino acids in beer; Henrik Jespersen, for information about rakfisk; Dr. Søren Mørch, for participating in experiments on ikijime and the preparation of a clambake; and Dr. Michael Bom Frøst, for valuable background about sensory sciences.
We would also like to thank Dr. Kumiko Ninomiya, for useful information on dashi preparations, Japanese fish sauces, and umami compounds in soup broths, and for making available the original writings of Kikunae Ikeda, as well as unpublished data on glutamate content in ichiban dashi. For their hospitality, we would like to thank the following people: Dr. Koji Kinoshita, for help and guidance during a visit to the Osaka area, for valuable information about Japanese traditions and food culture, and for advice regarding the Japanese version of the quotes by Kikunae Ikeda; Drs. Kumiko Ninomiya, Ana San Gabriel, and Kazuya Onomichi, as well as other members of the Umami Information Center and the Ajinomoto Research Laboratories, for outstanding hospitality when Ole visited Tokyo in 2013 and for arranging a tour to inspect katsuobushi production in Yaizu; Tooru Tomimatsu, president of Katsuo Gijutsu Kenkyujo, for a guided tour of the harbor and katsuobushi production facilities at the company Yanagiya Honten in Yaizu; Saori Sawano, owner of the wonderful knife store Korin in New York, for kindly mediating a contact with the Sakai City Industrial Promotion Center in Osaka, Japan; Tsutomu Matsumoto, who showed Ole around at the seaweed production company Matsumoto in Sakai and provided valuable information on konbu quality and storage conditions for optimizing umami; and Hiroki Yamanaka, who guided Ole on a tour of seaweed production sites in Sakai. Finally, for help with recipes, we thank the following people: Kirsten Drotner, for the recipe for green pea soup; Inger Marie Mouritsen, for the recipe for traditional spiced pork sausage; Kristin Lomholt, for the recipe for a dressing with nutritional yeast; Larissa Zhou, for imaginative contributions to the Nordic dashi project; and chef Yoshitaka Onozaki, for the recipe for ‘fried eel’ made from lotus root (kabayaki).
We wish to express our sincere gratitude to chef Israel Karasik from Restaurant Kvægtorvet in Odense, Denmark, for being a unique source of analytical and technical inspiration during the development and testing of the new recipes presented in the book. Moreover, we wish to extend our thanks to the other chefs at Kvægtorvet, for their patience and invaluable help during tastings and experiments.
Ole wishes to acknowledge a special grant from VILLUM FONDEN, which enabled him to carry out pilot projects regarding seaweeds and taste. He also benefited greatly from the Palsgaard Estate’s generous loan of Stinnes Hus in As, which provided him with a tranquil escape for a period of intense writing.
Much of the factual information on which the book is based is found in the references listed in the bibliography. Moreover, the Umami Information Center and the book Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese Cuisine have been important sources of inspiration and data.
This book was originally written and published in Danish, the mother tongue of the authors. The present English edition is a fully updated and revised version of the Danish work, translated and adapted into English by Mariela Johansen. Mariela enthusiastically undertook the ambitious task of turning the interdisciplinary material into the coherent, scientifically sound, and very readable book you now hold in your hands. She did an admirable job not only of translating the book but also of checking facts, ensuring consistency, and suggesting new material and valuable revisions. The authors owe much to Mariela for caring so much for the project.
The format, layout, and graphics were all designed and executed by Jonas Drotner Mouritsen. Jonas has been a crucial participant in the project from the beginning. It is due to his creative skills that the text, photographs, and other illustrations were integrated so successfully. Figures and photographs made available by a number of individuals and organizations greatly enhance the book. A list of these contributors can be found at the back of the book.
Finally, we are indebted to our editor, Jennifer Crewe, for her enthusiastic support of the project, and Columbia University Press for professional and expeditious handling of the manuscript.
Ole G. Mouritsen and Klavs Styrbæk
Odense, Denmark