Gohan - Everyday Japanese Cooking, by Emiko Davies

thoughts on February's cookbook club pick

For our first cookbook club pick of the year I have gone for a real palate-refresher in Gohan. The brightness of its flavours are exactly what’s needed towards the end of a long, dreary winter but it’s not just that. It’s also in how the book is put together. So many cookbooks at the moment follow such similar formats and design that when Gohan first landed on my desk it truly felt different.

First off, it’s is a properly beautiful book - the paper! the imagery! the Japanese characters woven into the spine of each page! Even just the quickest flick through confirms that. But then it doesn't take much of a longer look to realise just how much content is in here as Emiko so engagingly shares her insights into Japanese food culture and the recipes that, as she says, are the ones “that you find in the homes of the mothers and grandmothers of Japan”.

I almost want to encourage a putting aside of any preconceptions you might have about whether or not you especially do or don’t like cooking / eating Japanese food; and perhaps think of Gohan more in terms of its embrace of seasonality and of simple home-cooking.

Read on for more background to this book, sample recipes and details on how to join in with our virtual meet-up to share thoughts and food from February’s cookbook club pick: Gohan - Everyday Japanese Cooking