food

One woman's road to changing Japan’s image of British cuisine, one cake at a time.

7 Comments
By Kathryn Wortley

Cook, teacher and author, Tamao Sako began her journey into entrepreneurship quite by chance. Enamored with the UK’s sweets — and later savory dishes, too — thanks to 10 years spent in England, she returned to Japan with a passion to share the delights of cream teas, sticky puddings and fruit pies.

Since setting up her cookery school The British Pudding in Osaka in 2013, she has written five books, held cooking classes at Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi and Isetan Shinjuku, and led demonstrations and tastings across the country. As an adviser of Hankyu’s British Fair, which is held in the department store every fall, Sako travels regularly to the UK, where she searches far and wide to find the best local, traditionally-made products and the stories behind the people who make them.

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© Savvy Tokyo

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


7 Comments
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Ooh. Puddings.

Bread and butter pudding. Black pudding. Rice pudding. Yorkshire pudding.

Trifle. Spotted Dick. Flapjacks. Victoria Sponge. Treacle Sponge. Treacle tart. Bakewell Tart. Eccles Cake. Teacake. Apple Crumble. Rhubarb Crumble.... all with custard.

Sigh.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I'm right there with you Maria. You forgot Syrup Sponge and custard. Christmas Pudding. Jam Roly Poly. Lemon tart............. Foreigners can't do proper afters. Sad but true.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Notagain: Yes, Christmas Pudding and mince pies, and syrup...

I judge desserts by weight (not size, mind you, but weight), and Japan, sadly, rarely weighs up.

When the Viennetta arrived in Japan, I fell upon it as a starving dog would a steak.

The after effects were bubbly, mind you, but worth it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

My son came back from a trip to the UK raving about Banoffee Pie, a newcomer to the UK pudding scene (I'd never heard of it). I found out on the Internet how to make it. Absolutely decadent.

'Tisn't just sweets, of course. British breads (cottage loaf, crumpets, muffins....) are the best. So are British cheeses - cheddar, double Gloucester, red Leicester, sage derby, stilton, Wensleydale, Lancashire, Caerphilly, in no particular order.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I think a lot of the issues with people looking down on British cuisine comes from the fact right across the English Channel is a country with one of the world's finest cuisines, that of France (we can thank Auguste Escoffier for that!).

If you look carefully, there are some important aspects of British cuisine that have become well-known--the breakfast of eggs, toast, some meats and potatoes comes from England, hence the name English breakfast. Indeed, crumpets and scones are a distinct English product that have become well-known worldwide (the so-called English muffin is kind of a crumpet derivative).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Oh G_d - please don't remind me of the British "cuisine". I've once spent 5 days on British cuisine, my stomach reminds me even now of it... Beans and bread fried in Diesel anyone?

British breads (cottage loaf, crumpets, muffins....) are the best.

No, they aren't. Try some German breads in Germany. te British ones are nowhere near them, quality and diversity wise.

British cheese, yes, Stilton cheese is really good, albeit the stench will make children cry. Beer also...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Archie back at uni used to swear by the "full Scottish" on Sunday mornings: black coffee, a cigarette and the Daily Record.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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