Kaiseki Workshop at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California
…the JCCCNC asked me to pass this great news on, so here you go!
Kaiseki Workshop
with Kimika Soko Takechi & Larry Sokyo Tiscornia
Saturday, August 27, 2011 ~ 12:00-2:30 p.m.
At the JCCCNC – Issei Memorial Hall
1840 Sutter Street, San Francisco (between Buchanan and Webster) (map)
For more information or to register, please call the JCCCNC at (415) 567-5505
or e-mail programsevents@jcccnc.org.
Cost: $30 members / $35 non-members
Workshop limited to the first 20 paid and registered participants.
Kaiseki ryori, seasonal Japanese cuisine served during the traditional Chanoyu (tea ceremony) gathering, has its roots in the simple seasonal vegetarian cuisine served in the Zen temple.
Kaiseki cuisine uses fresh seasonal ingredients, simple seasonings and cooking techniques to create dishes that are beautiful to look at, tasty and in harmony with the season. Strictly vegetarian in earlier times, kaiseki cooking has changed with modern tastes and customs and now often includes seafood, poultry and meat in its many dishes.
This late summer kaiseki workshop will feature 4 courses including: edamame gohan (green soybean rice), chilled poached chicken with a bainiku (pickled plum) sauce, sakana no kuzutataki (fresh fish lightly dusted with kuzu [kudzu starch] and then poached) and fresh cooked octopus with crisp celery and cucumber in a sunomono dressing. Dashi soup stock will also be made using konbu (kelp) and katsuobushi (shaved dried bonito). The class will be mostly demonstration, with some hands-on arranging, and participants will be able to sample the dishes that are prepared. Easy to follow recipes will be provided. Participants should bring an apron.
Kimika Soko Takechi and Larry Sokyo Tiscornia are instructors of the traditional Japanese art of Chanoyu, the tea ceremony. They teach Chanoyu and its many related arts in San Francisco and travel to many places sharing their knowledge with others through lectures and demonstrations. They received their professional tea names in 1985 from Sen Soshitsu XV, then the head tea master of the Urasenke School of Tea, in Kyoto, Japan and both received the Junkyoju, associate professor, degree in 1994. The name Soko translates to “fragrance” and Sokyo to “bridge.”
Kimika is from Iyo City, in Shikoku, Japan, and came to the U.S. in 1976 to study English at Holy Names College and the University of San Francisco. She worked as an artist in traditional kimono design in Kyoto and has been studying and teaching tea for 40 years. She is also an accomplished artist specializing in watercolors.
Larry, a San Francisco native, attended both City College of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Larry began his tea study in 1976 and trained for 6 years at the Urasenke School headquarters in Kyoto from 1979 to 1985. He graduated from both the international and professional Japanese divisions of the school and returned to S.F. in 1985 as an instructor at the Urasenke Foundation of S.F. Since 1988 he and Kimika have been teaching Chanoyu privately in San Francisco and share the joy of tea with many.
