Today we are going to talk about French Food and their impact in Japanese culture.
French food has been a huge part of Japanese cuisine from the Meiji Era to the modern day. Japan is probably the biggest fan of French food, having several three-class Michelin starred restaurant and actually beating PARIS in terms of how popular French Food is today. French Food found its way in influencing several Japanese foodstuffs, and modern Japanese food in today’s world. As such, it’s going to be very big. I know some people don’t like it when I do really big write-ups, but when it’s big, it’s big for a good reason.
Some notes: for those that don’t know what Burdock tastes like, it has a texture that’s somewhat crunchy and it tastes like something between the meaty flavor of bacon with the slight saltiness and bitterness of anchovies. It’s really really good! So for those unfortunate souls that can’t eat bacon due to religious reasons, this can help explain what bacon taste like.
Also, wine is incredibly important business to the French. This is coming from the same country that declared a national emergency when California won their first international wine competition after all, and it’s still infamous today as the Judgement of Paris. Last time I checked, they still have a grudge on us Californians for that.
…By the Way, the scene where the chefs pray, that’s real. Real Life French Chefs pray to God to get through the shift, especially on hell days (Days which the most profit is made) like Weekends, Holidays, giant reservation meetings. As a famous French Chef once put it, “The religious should pray to God during these harsh times, and if you’re an atheist, pray to God anyways because you’re gonna believe in God soon enough after this shift is over”
Anyways, where to begin…
French Food first started to appear in the Japanese diet during the late 1800s in the Meiji Era. Remember Emperor Meiji and that giant super-student transfer program that sent a lot of men towards Britain? Well today we’re gonna focus on the French side. I’m very excited to talk about this part in history, because when Japan talks about outside influence Meiji Era, they always focus on Britain. Granted, it’s understandable, considering the British Empire was at its height at this point, several of Japan’s famous ships like the Mikasa and Kongou were British-built ships, and A lot of Japan’s policies were very British-based, to the point where Emperor Showa tried to advertise Japan as “the Eastern Grat Britain”.
So to recap, the super-student transfer program Emperor Meiji made had these goals in mind: Make allies with as many European countries as possible, get them to send as much military Equipment as possible to Japan, and to get Japan to learn as much information on whatever they have in Europe, whether it’s European philosophy, industry, science, and culture. France at this time gladly accepted Japan as an ally, and told them to send as much people as they want over. In addition, France built some battleships to send to Japan, but not as much as Britain (France didn’t have as much resources and territory as Britain, and Japan was more buddies with Britain, but they still liked France), and Japanese people set foot in France.
Now imagine you are a Japanese person in France at this time. You never exited your country before, and this is the first time outside Japan. In your paper, Emperor Meiji gave you the task to learn anything involving European culture. This was like a huge thing for you, as the Emperor was kind enough to pay for your ticket and all you needed to do was learn something to bring back to Japan.
This was a huge moment for any Japanese person to step outside their country, a whole new world. While many focused on industry, military matters and science, while some focused on government laws and philosophy, some Japanese decided to go look into the cultural side, and learn how to cook French food, and these became the first Japanese French chefs. When they came back to Japan, Emperor Meiji hired these first Japanese-french chefs to his royal Kitchen, so Emperor Meiji can improve the cultural parts of Japan he felt were outdated before by the samurai. Others opened French Restaurants in Japan, and they made a LOT of money. More on this later. In addition, Emperor Meiji promoted the consumption of French food in many other ways, such as the time Japan had its first world meeting with multiple representatives. Emperor Meiji invited diplomats all over the world, and he asked France to send in several chefs to show that Japan can be a royal country as the Europeans. This was a massive shocker to the Washoku (Traditional Japanese) community at the time, because before the emperor would borrow chefs from their kitchens, but here Emperor Meiji decired to hire foreign chefs for their feasting.
Now I would like you all to note that throughout the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa Eras pre-WWII that French Food, while popular amongst the rich, was not growing in popularity despite Emperor Meiji advertising French Food as the best thing ever, because Emperor Meiji promoting French food as great ironically made European food really Expensive.
You see, when the first Japanese French chefs set up shops, they were often visited by noblemen and the Emperor himself whenever he got the chance. The First Japanese French Chefs realized that this was an incredible way to exploit this and they made money. A lot of money. Indeed, they made so much money that even pretty wealthy families that ate kaiseki and big places couldn’t afford to eat French Food. This gave French Food a whole meaning of wealthy all on its own to the point where there was a phrase that said, “The Rich may eat Kaiseki (Rich Japanese food) but the Emperor eats French food”. This also unfortunately gave the impression that anybody eating French food that wasn’t connected to government as either insanely rich, criminally corrupt, or both. Just to give you an impression on how hard it was to get French food, the easiest way for a man to get the one chance to eat it was to join the navy (Which was much more harsh compared to many other navies), slowly go up the ranks, and pray that you live long enough to be stationed aboard a battleship like the Yamato. That’s the EASY way. The HARD version is to somehow get into Japanese politics and gain influence, but do not get assassinated. But anyways, just to give you an estimate on how much money the Japanese French chef made, one particular French chef made enough money to:
- Buy a Japanese mansion, complete with garden and tea house (REALLY EXPENSIVE)
- A private hunting ground, complete with smokehouse for ducks and deer
- Enough money to travel around the world several times over.
- Money to send his son, and later grandson to go to the top colleges and kitchens all around the world.
- Money to spend on really expensive wines.
Keep in mind, this is just one person, and yet he managed to make so much money that even in today’s economy, that’s still a lot of money.
So this gave the Japanese the impression that French Chefs are like literal money makers, but the thing was that despite the amount of money French chefs made, the Japanese government was looking for more industrial tech to modernize Japan and military men to modernize the military, so the Japanese French community was pretty monopolized.
So moving on to the Early Showa Era.
The Early Showa Era had a bit of a decline in the popularity on French Food. There are two reasons for this: The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1929 and the rise of Nationalism. The Great Kanto Earthquake caused a giant famine in the region, causing a massive loss in interest in “rich people food” as famines tend to do. Another thing was the rise of Nationalism. During this time, conservative party members like Hideki Tojo rose into politics, and they promoted Washoku Japanese foods, creating a massive decrease in French food. However, in a sense of what can be described as irony and hypocrisy, the conservatives and the Emperor themselves loved French Food, and they spent a lot of money going to those monopolized French Restaurants. Indeed, one of the people who loved French Food was Emperor Showa himself. Emperor Showa LOVED French Food, and a large budget was entirely devoted to spending money on French duck dishes, which were Emperor Showa’s favorite foods. The Military generals in the Imperial Japanese Navy (Note the Navy part) also loved French Food, and indeed, the IJN actually promoted propaganda that encouraged young men to Join the navy on the one chance common people may be able to enjoy eating the foods of the rich. Indeed, Japan’s capital ships, like the Yamato and Musashi had French chefs stationed aboard them, and sailors that got the rare privilege on serving aboard the ship got to experience the wonders of the rich. Indeed, Admiral Yamamoto (The guy who bombed Pearl Harbor) enjoyed the Yamato’s consume (A French soup) so much that he gained weight from eating the food. Anyways, this gave the IJN a sort of love hate for the Yamato, as while sailors were enjoying the high life on the Yamato, they didn’t sortie, so this gave the impression that Yamato was a “hotel” of sorts.
World War II began, and French food wasn’t bought as much. It was kind of seen as politically incorrect to eat French food unless you were the Emperor, and French Food was eaten exclusively by the rich. Again. Also, Yamato’s chef got killed during the Battle of Bounomisaki (Ten-go) and went down with the Yamato. Moving on, since not much really happened in World War II in this subject. But Post War gets really important.
Post-War
Okay, so the year is 1945 now. Let’s talk about the state of the world at this time.
The atomic bomb has dropped, changing warfare forever. Britain’s giant empire is rapidly falling apart. France, Germany, and Italy are destroyed and need to repair badly. Russia was preparing for the Cold War. The Japanese spent so much money on the war, that the economy is rekt. The only person that made it through alright was America.
Since America was the only one that made it out WWII intact and actually gained in the war, they had to fix the world. Naturally, America saw Japan’s economy and shoved a bunch of money to create the POST WAR ECONOMIC MIRACLE, which got the economy running somewhat. But there was the problem with creating jobs. You see, when America took apart the military, there was a surplus of young men who wanted to join the military, but without the military, they were out of a job. So America interviewed many youths, and noted that many had ambitions to be a French Chef. So America calls France.
America: Hey France, how you doing?
France: we got pretty blown badly during the war, many of our males are dead, our population is trying to rebuild but we need more people to fill in some vacant jobs to succeed in places.
America: Are chefs some of them?
France: Yes! We need more trainees in the kitchens, and some chefs that graduated were going to open restaurants, but our cityside has been destroyed, so they can’t set up shops.
Then America has a genius idea.
America: Well, we got plenty of Japanese people who want to be French Chefs, why don’t we send them to you to train with your older chefs, who need apprentices, while you send their top apprentices to Japan and they can train the next generation and open restaurants there? As a bonus, I’ll pay for everything.
France: We French chefs are the best in the world! Send them over! We’ll train them to be the best chefs! Also, we’ll send our guys to them to train and profit.
(Replace France with Italy and you get the Italy boom in Japan, but that’s another story for another time)
So many young males (Note the Males, high-class cooking was traditionally seen as a male thing, Females entering the area of high class cooking is a kinda recent thing), ranging from dropouts, people who had bad records in schools, people who realize they could turn a new leaf, military men out on a job realized the potential on the high amount of money they can make, realized that they can make a lot of money. So many males signed up for the exchange program, and many Japanese people went to France, while some French chefs travelled to Japan to teach the newer generation on how to cook French chefs. One of these people was a young Joel Robuchon, the legendary God of Cooking, also famous for popularizing Soy Sauce to the west.
So many Japanese travelled to Paris, excited to learn French Food. Instead, they experienced a battlefield.
So you’d expect many of them to simply learn French food, right? Well, no, because France is the birthplace of the infamous Paris system. To describe the Paris system, imagine if Tootsuki was filled with racists and the culinary equivalent of videogamers who play hard modo all the time. Something like that. One famous Japanese chef described the scene as “hell”.
Now here’s the thing you need to know about Paris in the cooking world. Paris has an infamous reputation for being the “Battlefield of Job Applicants” in the cooking world, as not only is impressing the chef not only hard, but Paris has an 85-90%* chance of people getting fired, and whoever gets fired can get replaced just as easily because there will be always another person who will fill the spot for minimum wage, so unless you are extremely bold and want to keep working, you have to be at your top game 100% of the time, because in the Paris system, you literally are expendable. This is also why chefs who do really well in their resumes practically can get hired in any restaurant they choose and have a much easier time opening restaurants. Paris has an infamous habit of “purging” many good chefs for producing excellent chefs. Kinda like Tootsuki, only more racist.
Indeed, many Japanese during that time got their applicants rejected on account of being Japanese, or having a Japanese tone in their accent. (In the cooking world, communications are important, so having an accent can be a disadvantage in high-class places). Those people that do got in had to deal with racist French chefs trying to kick them out and other Japanese chefs trying to compete to be as successful. The Japanese had such a hard time finding jobs, that some decided to kowtow and bow down in front of the restaurant doors, literally staying there for several days until hunger gets to them, just hoping to get an interview for a job application with the French chefs. Many French chefs came home either just as empty handed or learned small skills, some used them to create new trends, but for the few Japanese people who trained, endured, and worked hard, they experienced heaven. They got to work with the finest ingredients nobody ever gets to touch, sample the finest wines in the country, and they got to work with the French Chefs they admired so much. They literally climbed the culinary Everest, and were on the top of the world. Indeed, when they got back home, their hometown celebrates their return like they won a massive war. The entire hometown would throw celebrations, invite classmates and teachers, and party. These people became famous for being the 1st Generation Japanese-French chefs.
Now before we continue, I’d like to talk about the 4 great generations of French Chefs.
The generation we talked about was the first Generation of Chefs. Out of the 4, these ones tend to stick most to the classique French techniques, and are most famous for their sauces. I would like you to all also note that out of the 4 generations, this was the generation where the majority got through from the deals made by America, as the 2nd-4th generation got to France via Japanese-French agreements once Japan started making money again by America’s POST WAR ECONOMIC MIRACLE/spent the money to travel to France. Members in this category are Iron Chefs Ishinabe and Sakai, although Sakai is an unusual case because he also combines a lot of Nouvelle techniques.
The Second Generation are famous for combining a balance between Classique and Nouvelle, and were some of the people who sparked the dessert revolution in Japan, the time when Japanese chefs adopted French techniques to incorporated it into wagashi, thus giving boom to new trends. Famously introduced ice cream and crepes to Japan.
The Third Generation are top Nouvelles, are liberal in their interpretation of French Food, preferring to use more vegetables than the typical French and using a lot of Natural flavors, mixing a few Japanese touches in the food. It’s hinted that Shinomiya is a Third Generation, considering how he uses a lot of vegetables and his sauces don’t look heavy (a staple of Nouvelle cuisine).
I admit I do not know much about the 4th generation, but I do know that they recently set up shops in France, and French Chefs have been really angry that their customers are going to their stores, so there’s a culinary war developing in France there.
Anyways, the difference between Japanese French Food and Regular French food comes in 3 ways. First, Japanese chefs use more vegetables in their dishes, and incorporate it into the main dish, while Traditional French Chefs use vegetables more as a garnish. 2nd, Japanese French sauces tend to be more light to reflect part of the Japanese ideals of sauces, making it similar to Nouvelle French. The final part is that Japanese chefs are much more delicate and intricate in their decorating compared to the French, who are much more bold with the food.
The French-Japanese Culinary War
The amount of these successful Japanese French chefs coming back weren’t welcomed by everyone, however. Indeed, by setting up restaurants and businesses all over Japan, the French Chefs angered the Washoku (Traditional Japanese) chefs all over Japan. The Washoku chefs accused the Japanese French chefs of being culture traitors, while the French Chefs called the Japanese chef old-school conservatives who are too stubborn for change. It was, at first, a small conflict. Then it grew big. Really big. Then it turned out into an almost outright war of attrition, the culinary conflict we call today the French-Japanese Culinary War. This also makes Hinako’s… Crush on Shinomiya in Eitolle kind of hilarious, as the two culinary communities, while respectful of each other, hate each other in real life.
The French-Japanese culinary war split Japan in 2: Those that like French Food and those that like Japanese food. The French-Japanese Culinary War saw a massive boom in new restaurants appearing, then the weaker restaurants getting eliminated by jealous rival restaurants, a literal Free-for all deathmatch with some resemblance of teamwork, alliances, and backstabbings here and there, kind of like politics, only culinary. Tokyo turned into a battlefield, almost as intense as the streets of Paris, and entire shopping districts had to have their maps redrawn several times just because of the amount of competition and elimination the two factions had trying to outdo each other. By the way, I have to mention this: this conflict is STILL GOING ON TODAY. It’s a huge subject I absolutely have to talk about.
Now one thing you all have to note is that Washoku chefs do not HATE French Food itself. Indeed, there are several times where French and Japanese Chefs cooperated and create beautiful and tasty dishes that are above and beyond. What Washoku chefs hate are the fact that French chefs are entering their territory and taking customers, prestige, and the like away from the Restaurants with French Food.
So how did the conflict escalate to such an extent? Well, 4 things, really: Land Animal usage, customer spending, Nationalism, and reviews.
First important point I have to have to mention is the French usage of Land animal meat. Remember back in my beef stew writeup when I mentioned the whole Washoku-Yoshoku split on how the Washoku factions were really angry on the usage of land animal meat, especially beef?
Well, this is going to come back, full force.
Meat gained a MASSIVE popularity post-WW2 because of the French Chefs, and more people began eating more meat, especially beef. The Japanese Chefs, more bound to tradition, were furious that meat became more popular, as it drove the value, popularity, and worth of the seafood-based dishes the Washoku chefs made down. In addition, traditionally, Japanese dishes were made with seafood and many were reluctant or very outright refused to convert to meat, so they had a harder time with the changing trends compared to the newer chefs who did adapt to cooking with land animal meat.
The 2nd thing, customers, was another big issue. Before the 1950s, French Food was just a rich-people’s club, and many were scared of the thought of spending hundreds of dollars on food, so the French community in Japan were a very niche group. They disliked each other, but there wasn’t a conflict between the groups because both groups mostly kept to their customers.
However, with the rise of French Chefs post 1950, this drove the prices of French food down to a still expensive, but much more affordable state, so while the newly set up French chefs may not have made quite as much money as that one guy I mentioned in part 1, it’s still a lot of money, but they also got a much bigger spending range for eager customers, with the not as rich finally being able to try French Food after so long. But how did the Japanese French chefs managed to get so many people to come to their stores? Well, aside from advertising, they did some deals. Great Deals. They made deals that made it much more attractive for people who want to try rich foods to try French better. One example is that Japanese French Chefs made deals like “if you reserve for a party here, we can make you a great deal that everyone can spend on”, thus making it much more attractive for huge business leaders to dine in French Restaurants. But the biggest territory the Japanese French chefs treaded on that really pissed the Japanese chefs are wedding deals.
Now for a little context: In Asian culture, marriages are serious businesses. When two Asians marry, they invite the ENTIRE FAMILY, from Parents, to uncles and aunts, cousins, siblings, their sibling’s children, EVERYONE, even Crazy Uncle Joe that lives halfway across the world, and they spend a lot of money to celebrate. In Asian Restaurants, marriage reservations are serious money makers, due to how many expensive ingredients they get to break out. A usual marriage can make a profit of several thousands to the hundreds, depending on how big the marriage is, so some successful restaurants made profits and names alone just catering to marriages. The thing is though, is that Japanese Marriages are extreme in the fact that the typical Shinto marriage can go from $100,000-500,000 depending on how many family members show up (Read: A lot) and there are several restaurants that go to the MILLIONS.
The French decided to play at the Japanese game, but offer a slightly CHEAPER (Read: Still expensive, Your wallet will cry but it won’t be so bad compared to the RIP Wallet Prices of a Shinto Marriages) price. This got more Japanese people to romanticize European Marriages, the Bridal dress, and cause European Romance boom, and those French Chefs that do cater to marriages made a lot of money, but at the same time really pissed off the Washoku factions, who before had the monopoly on marriages.
The Third Reason, Nationalism, is a complicated subject. Going with reasons 1 and 2, the Washoku factions are known to be, well, very politically conservative. As in, they are afraid that the Japanese people, with all these new businesses setting up in their homelands, may forget that they are Japanese. To be fair to the Washoku factions, they are not entirely unjustified. For example, in a recent magazine article, there was a sentence that said that Japan was the “haven of new and innovative French Foods”. However, the Washoku factions do not want to be known as that, because if tourists travel to Japan, they want to eat Japanese foods. It’s a serious issue that is very political, and they do have some justification.
And lastly, we get reviews. In High class dining, reviews are serious businesses. Having all good reviews can seriously cause a rise in sales, while having just one bad review can send customers away, and thus reviews can get serious at times. However, in some reviews, like Michelin, they tend to be biased on French Cuisine, and indeed, the term “French Bias” is actually a very big thing thrown around by a lot of different cuisine chefs, especially the Japanese. The Japanese French Restaurants, being French cuisine and having food similar to what the reviewers liked, catered more to the palettes of the foreign reviews of well known guidebooks, such as Michelin, Zagat, and other reputable reviewers. This again, pisses off the Japanese in the sense that a reviewer that critiques the food specializes and favors French food, thus they get higher scores. Again, the Washoku factions are not entirely unjustified, as seen in the Zagat Controversy.
What is the Zagat Controversey? Well, in 1998-1999, Zagat released a guidebook, and chefs everywhere bought the guides, as per custom. While many French Chefs got high praises, none of the restaurants listed were Washoku restaurants. Riots then promptly proceeded to break out everywhere, with accusations of French Bias being yelled out, and the guide even infuriated the wrath of (Former) Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba to the point where he and Toshiro Kandegawa (Keep in mind, these two chefs, while respectful of each other, really disliked each other in real life because Kandegawa was a conservative (As in, followed the traditional path of making food) while Michiba was a liberal (As in, went beyond the boundaries of tradition), so these two men actually agreeing with each other was a huge shock to everyone) agreed that the guide was biased, and Michiba, with a very tranquil fury, promptly used his connections with the Show Iron Chef just to fly the Zagats over and get the Washoku community better reviews, which they did do another, more fair analysis of the restaurants in their next guide. Keep in mind that the Washoku community still does get very angry whenever a French Restaurant shines through, and this is a very sore subject, considering how if I recalled, a very recent magazine that had a French Restaurant winning in Tokyo really got the Washoku community up in flames.
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