Mr.Tokuoka were interviewed by the magazine, “Wall Street
Journal” in October 2004.
(1)Mr. Tokuoka's views on how food production
is changing
I think that it’s very important that it is well adapted
to environmental change. But this is an idea that's been around
for hundreds of years. For that purpose it is necessary to
take into account various factors, the consumer side, the
supply side and the demand side, beyond only part of the truth.
However, especially Japan has been a warped view and focus
on economic profits and narrow sectional interest instead
of diversified values in recent years.
I sensed these change in society through the taste of foods
since I spend much time in our kitchen. But at the time, I
didn't know what's change, I couldn’t explain how it differs
from. In order to maintain customer satisfaction, we explore
all options for world's cuisines and consider establishing
an alternate supply source, things never work out as we expect.
And it end up in producers. I was appalled to find the reality
of the situation of producers. They are striving to make lives
for themselves in spite of troublesome circumstances. I come
to take into their position and respect each other's and then
I started to feel the distortion of modern society like one-way
evolution, conventional view. There are always many things
happening every day and the value of diversity in the world.
For reaffirm the current situation and principles, we have
to maintain effective communications with many people in a
flatted position. I think it possible to make such an opportunity
through a food as a chef. Moreover, a chef is located in the
middle of a producer and a consumer; therefore we can play
the role of providing a bridge between the two sides. This
is just a mission and my duty for a chef.
(2) What he does to promote the preservation
of high quality food and good environment practices.
Ultimately, solving the problem will demand changes in the
some rules and old mind-set of politicians. For that purpose,
I think that it is necessary to promotion of changes in the
consciousness of voters who consumes foods in incremental
steps. In the result, it's fortunate to change the rules.
Needless to say, the food one need to live is offered by people
engaged in production. Thanks to the efforts of all such people,
we can eat any kind of vegetable and add richness to the dining
table. It’
s very important position and should be to ensure a sound
environment for them. I think that they are unfairly-compensated
for their efforts and contribution to us. The labor shortage
in farming communities get more strained unless this situation
turns out well.
Hopefully I create a new organization of the superior producer
and judge the health of this organization by the certification
body; we restore and maintain consumer confidence. It's our
eventual goal and it's the right way of brand-building of
production area at the present day.
There is a brand of the vegetables called "Kyoto vegetable"
from old times in Kyoto, and it is sold at the high price
only by the brand image even if it is not organic.
Although there are some opinions, but agricultural chemicals
are the medicine which take an insect or weeds off. Even if
it thins or reduces, the threat is unavoidable. Some producer
tried not to use agricultural chemicals to grow vegetables
their eats and if used they didn’t eat those at all. I think
that the next generation takes the brunt of the effects of
pesticides though it does not seem to be bad for our health
right now.
Just because it's a vegetables grown without chemicals doesn't
mean it's not delicious. But some producers take it for granted
that the organic vegetables are
not delicious and don't step up their efforts to improvement.
The vegetable sells just because they are organic vegetables.
But the food is beautiful, delicious, pure and balanced thing.
I think that the school which teaches such a thing from the
technical and mental side is also required.
The article which appeared in the Wall Street Journal
(Europe).
FOOD & WINE
Go-Slow Approach: Raising the Profile Of Down-to-Earth
Foods
By STEPHANIE GRUNER
SPECIAL TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 22, 2004
No one knows better than a chef that you can't make great
food with less-than-great ingredients. So as unique and local
foods grow harder to find, many celebrity chefs are making
their case not just in their restaurants, but also in more
public forums.
For instance, this week in Turin, Italy, among the expected
140,000 people gathering for the fifth biennial Slow Food
festival, on through Monday, will be cooking stars such as
Alice Waters (Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California), Alain
Senderens (Lucas Carton in Paris) and Gualtiero Marchesi (restaurant
of the same name in Brescia, Italy). Some of the high-profile
chefs are there as paid guests, while others are coming at
their own expense. All are there to promote their cause of
good eating.
Just what is "slow food"? It's an international
movement to protect and promote the most flavorful foods,
those that take time to prepare and enjoy. Think of wines
that ferment for years or cheeses made from the pure raw milk
of goats, the kind that wander freely in the hills. Slow food
isn't generic or processed. It is fast food's opposite. These
products are made by so-called artisans, the winemakers or
dairy farmers who, though not necessarily organic, operate
in a way that preserves the environment for the next generation.
Slow-food proponents say that amid globalization and the rise
of fast food, the traditional products and the local cultures
that support them risk extinction.
Carlo Petrini, a journalist, started the organization with
some friends and fellow food lovers in 1986 in Piedmont. The
story goes, he was enraged by the construction of yet another
McDonald's in Italy -- further evidence, he believed, of the
homogenization of the food culture. Apparently he wasn't alone.
Today more than 80,000 people from around the world, including
farmers, wine producers, retailers, restaurateurs, chefs and
ordinary consumers belong to Slow Food. The way they look
at it, there's power in numbers and if links can be built
between the Tibetan shepherd and the seller of yak cheese
in London, the flock survives, as does a way of life and some
great cheese.
'The Right to Taste'
Of course, Slow Food has its critics. The food isn't cheap,
particularly convenient or even necessarily good for you.
The group's manifesto, "A movement for the protection
of the right to taste," makes it sound more like a snobbish
dining society. There's something almost distasteful about
foodie culture. While goose mortadella may be delicious, it
seems frivolous to create a movement toward protecting it
at a time when millions of people every year starve to death.
Yet it is preserving products just like these, Slow Food proponents
claim, that will lead to greater biodiversity and feed more
people. Certainly, the group's projects are ambitious. A publishing
arm produces some 40 titles including a magazine in five languages.
Its "Ark of Taste" project identifies and catalogs
food products that are in danger of extinction. Through events
around the world, it aims to educate the public about its
approach to food. This year, it introduced an additional conference
in Turin, called Terra Madre, or Mother Earth, that started
Wednesday and runs until Saturday. Nearly 5,000 producers
of food, including farmers and fishermen from around the world,
are meeting with other experts to discuss alternative means
of food production that take into account the environment,
food quality, workplace conditions and consumer health. Projects
are funded through all of the above activities, as well as
annual membership fees.
At its heart, though, Slow Food is about pleasure. The event
this week, Salone del Gusto (Hall of Food) is held every other
year in the Piedmont region, which is also home to some of
Italy's most celebrated wines. If you're a foodie, it's paradise.
On display in some 1,000 stalls are the sorts of unique food
and beverages you aren't likely to find in your neighborhood
supermarket. If you've always wanted to try ham from Iberian
pigs fed on acorns or cacao (the seed used to make cocoa)
from the island of Sao Tome off Africa, this event is for
you. In addition to stalls of meats, cheeses, seafood, sweets
and beverages from some 100 countries, the fair has workshops
including one featuring Piedmont's own 1997 vintage Barolos,
a presentation of rice from India, Malaysia and Madagascar,
and a tasting of artisan beers from around the world. There
are also cooking demonstrations.
This is where the chefs step in. They are the public face
of fine food and some take this role seriously. Some publicly
promote farming methods that use high-quality feed, say, or
allow animals to roam free. Others endorse small producers
of top products, while still others lecture at schools and
give demonstrations on the road such as at events sponsored
by Slow Food. "I think we have to be part of what we're
doing," says Dag Tgersland, chef at Baltazar Ristorante
e Enoteca in Oslo and a member of Slow Food's board in Norway.
He often spends weekends seeking out unique, flavorful products
at country farms. Back at his restaurant, he hosts dinners
at which the producers and their products are showcased. He
also lectures at schools to students and parents about the
dangers of mass-processed foods and teaches them how to make
simple, healthy meals.
Ms. Waters, one of America's best-known chefs, joined the
movement nearly a decade ago after hearing the founder, Mr.
Petrini, speak at a conference in San Francisco. "When
he spoke, I felt like I had been involved with the slow-food
movement for 25 years, nearly all the life of Chez Panisse,"
she says. "It expressed all of the sort of eco-gastronomic
concerns I had, but beyond that it was really trying to show
the relationship of food to culture. We became friends instantly."
Ms. Waters signed Chez Panisse on to become a "convivia,"
or local Slow Food chapter. (Slow Food is made up of more
than 800 local chapters in 100 countries. Individuals can
also join, for fees that vary by country.) Ms. Waters is now
vice president of the international organization and has played
a key role in numerous events and also in recruiting the more
than 13,000 American members.
Regional Focus
For the Italian chef Mr. Marchesi, who has been acquainted
with Slow Food for roughly a decade, the movement's ideas
generally match his own. The key to good cuisine involves
using food and recipes traditional to particular regions,
he says, and then improving upon them. Food should match its
local environment. Refined French cuisine, for example, doesn't
make much sense in Brescia, the home to one of his three restaurants.
"Slow food can mean avant-garde cooking, not just classical,
old-fashioned foods," says Alain Senderens of France's
Lucas Carton. "It just means taking your time to prepare
and enjoy. It means defending great ingredients." He
says the event in Italy is a meeting point for his chef and
winemaker friends.
In the end, of course, a chef's main concern is about what
to serve for dinner, and nothing is more fundamental than
good ingredients. Carlo Cracco, chef at Cracco-Peck in Milan,
says the larger food industry has gotten it all wrong. Though
choices have expanded, quality has deteriorated. Mr. Cracco
says he doesn't want a dozen varieties of tomatoes that he
can buy all year long. He wants the tomato fresh off the vine
that has a distinct flavor, color and history, like a wine
from a vineyard.
"There is a trend now that you can find the same ingredients
in Milan, in Paris, in Berlin and Moscow," he says. "All
the ingredients are the same, but none are very good. If I
go to Russia, I want to find the products of Russia, not the
eggplant from Sicily. I'm interested in diversity."
---- William Echikson contributed to this article. |