Japanese cuisine for lovers

Daisy Jeremani
A CELEBRITY Japanese chef is in town and will have lovers sample his country’s cuisine when he takes to a local hotel’s cookers on Valentine’s Day.
The chef, Takayuki Minagawa was invited to come and tickle lovers’ taste buds in a once off event, by the Holiday Inn Bulawayo.
Takayuki lectures at Mutare Polytechnic’s Department of Hotel and Catering.

Speaking at a Press conference to unveil the chef yesterday, the general manager of the hotel, Chiku Mulinde, said this was the first time that they had brought a foreign chef to come and cook as part of Valentine celebration.

The food and beverages manager at the hotel, Catherine Sanyanga, said they were also holding the event as a cultural exchange and also to strengthen ties between people and countries.

She said the chef would showcase traditional and famous Japanese cuisine that would certainly appeal to food connoisseurs.
Takayuki said he would give his guests traditional dishes as food lovers were getting more demanding these days.

The six-course meal that he would prepare would include Chicken Karange, Tempura and the famous Japanese Sushi Nigiri, made from salmon and prawns. Even vegetarians would be catered for with foods like sushi roll.

There will also be a Japanese cultural ceremony on the preparation and presentation of tea, called the Japanese Tea Ceremony.
This powdered green tea presentation will be done by a team of Japanese girls.

Lovers will be wining and dining while being serenaded by the music of Ecstasy and Family Voices.
The coordinator of the event Mie Muraoka said they were out to spread the Japanese culture in Zimbabwe as many a time their culture had been confused with that of the Chinese, Korean and Taiwanese.

“We are doing this to promote our culture, which is different from these countries. When locals meet me they assume I am Chinese and greet me by saying Ni hao,” he said.

Ni hao is Mandarin for saying how are you.