Japanese Immigrant Cooking Class

$90.00

Join chef Alex Dakers for a hands-on class on Japanese immigrant cooking and other things he’s picked up from his grandmother, travels in Japan and Peru and a dozen years in the restaurant industry. Learn about Nikkei cuisine and how it blends traditional Japanese flavors and techniques with regional ingredients and food traditions.

Dishes we will prepare: 

  1. Maze Gohan (seasoned sushi rice mixed with a variety of vegetables and/or proteins, eaten by hand with toasted nori sheets, like cold tacos)
  2. Ceviche Nikkei (salmon, miso leche de tigre, seasonal vegetables, crispy fish skin)
  3. Dengaku (salmon, sweet miso sauce, sesame )

Concepts we will cover: 

  1. The role of Mise en place in the home kitchen, especially when it comes to entertaining / large meals (something I think most of us have been missing during the pandemic!).
  2. A brief history of Japanese migration and how it relates to food.
  3. How to cross utilize / substitute seasonal ingredients to minimize waste, keep meals interesting, and support local farmers.
  4. Fish preparation techniques: cutting, storage, pan roasting, acid curing.
  5. My grandma Mieko’s “quick pickle” technique.

Registration will close on May 17

CLASS IS $90/PERSON OR $150 FOR TWO PEOPLE. IF REGISTERING FOR TWO OR FOUR PEOPLE, PLEASE ENTER COUPON CODE “DOUBLE” DURING CHECKOUT.

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More Information

About the Instructor: Alex Dakers

I am a chef and restaurant manager with 13 years in the food and beverage industry. I am also the descendant of my Japanese immigrant grandmother, Mieko. 

In 2018, I had the opportunity to live and work in Japan, in the small city of Kumamoto. As I ate and drank and karaoke’d my way through the city for three months, I felt a deep nostalgia for certain smells, flavors, and cultural behaviors. I often couldn’t pinpoint an exact memory that each new experience was tied to; there just seemed to be a common thread that came from deep inside me that tied me to a place I had never been to before, and that my grandmother had left over 50 years prior. The permanence of this inherited cultural essence, despite being thousands of miles and three generations removed from the original source, is what has driven me to create Yabai Nikkei, a concept that celebrates the ways that the Japanese diaspora has maintained, manipulated, and, sometimes, rejected the social and culinary traditions of Japan and other countries.I have been eating Japanese food since before I could remember, and have tasted innumerable interpretations in Peru, France, Canada, and the USA.

At its worst, Japanese food outside Japan (or inside Japan, for that matter) is a bastardized version of a popular traditional preparation. Like a bad photocopy of Van Gogh’s starry night, all nuance and sense of place is gone; all your left with is syrupy teriyaki over dry chicken and mushy rice. Self-declared “fusion” or “pan-Asian” establishments can be just as bad, where they haphazardly smash together buzzword ingredients and dishes onto giant menus with no regard for seasonality or coherence.

 But, when done well, traditional Japanese flavors, techniques, and culinary philosophies can sing in harmony with those of other regions to create delicious flavors that speak to the movement of people and cultures over space and time.

Class Details

Class will be held in an open, outdoor kitchen. Please arrive to class with your mask on. Necessary precautions will be in place to ensure appropriate social distancing. Tables will be distanced from each other and all participants will wear their masks except for when dining.

Participants are encouraged to register in groups of two or more. Please indicate in the notes of your order if you will be taking this class with a friend or family member who you can share a table with.

Date: May 23, 2021

Start time: 11:00 a.m.

End time: 02:30 p.m.

Venue: Long Table Farm – 89242 Fir Butte Rd, Eugene, OR 97402

Phone: 503-333-9042

Email: eva@longtable.farm