NY Chefs Learn about Japanese Cuisine, and CM by the Japanese Government Promoting Food in East Japan

This gotta be the scheme hatched by the Japanese government, to have a sympathetic French chef conduct a workshop in New York.

The Japanese people, like many Asians and for that matter Europeans (and New Yorkers themselves), seem to think everything revolves around New York when it comes to anything American.

Of all things, the workshop was about how to prepare raw fish for sushi...

Anyway, here's NHK World (1/27/2012):

NY chefs learn about Japanese cuisine

Chefs at high-end restaurants in New York have taken part in a workshop to learn about traditional Japanese cuisine.

New York-based French chef Daniel Boulud organized the workshop. He led a group of chefs last July to cook meals for survivors in the tsunami-ravaged city of Kamaishi.

About 40 chefs took part in Thursday's workshop.
A sushi chef explained traditional ways to prepare raw fish.

Boulud said Japan is striving to restore trust in food safety, and he believes that Japanese ingredients are safe.

New York City has more than 1,400 Japanese restaurants. Some of these businesses were affected by the safety concerns about Japanese food after the disaster.

Friday, January 27, 2012 15:41 +0900 (JST)

NHK World has a video of the news at the link. Watching the video, it was indeed the scheme hatched by the Japanese government.

Here's another video promoting produce from disaster-affected East Japan (Kanto, Tohoku), targeting the Japanese using a popular group TOKIO. Translated and captioned by Tokyo Brown Tabby who did it probably in rage (as Tabby tries to pick safe food):

(From TBT's Youtube description; emphasis is mine)

This TV commercial clip (15 seconds) and its longer full version are sponsored by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and have been on-air intermittently since early June, 2011. (A month after that, the problem of contaminated beef started to emerge).

The full 30-second version can be viewed here: http://syokuryo.jp/news-commercial/2011/06/tvcm-1.html

According to the official webpage for this CM campaign, the food that appear in the full 30-second version is as follows: rice ball using rice from Miyagi, asparagus from Fukushima, cucumber from Fukushima with "miso" from Miyagi, tomato from Ibaraki, apple from Aomori, watermelon from Gunma, milk from Iwate, peach from Yamanashi, BBQ using beef from Yamagata and onion from Chiba, and raw skipjack "sashimi" from Chiba.

These 5 men are a popular idol group called TOKIO.

The list of food items used reads like a horror story for those who closely follow the radioactivity measurement results by the prefectural governments.

Tweet

Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to Seek Recognition of Japanese Cuisine as World Intangible Cultural Heritage

No, it's not a joke.

From Mainichi Shinbun English, citing Kyodo News (7/6/2011):

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A government-appointed panel held its first meeting Tuesday to consider a proposal to seek UNESCO registration for Japanese food culture as an intangible cultural heritage with a view to promoting food exports and Japan's tourism industry.

Many of those present at the meeting were positive about the idea, saying Japanese food is valued around the world because it is healthy and also because of the esthetics of the way a dish is presented, the farm ministry said.

The panel, assembled by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, will submit its report by October with an eye toward winning registration from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by November 2013.

The ministry hopes the initiative will help restore trust in the safety of Japanese food now that some 40 countries have toughened regulations on food imports from Japan following the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

So far, French, Mexican and Mediterranean foods have been designated by UNESCO, and Korean imperial cuisine is expected to be added to the lists in November.

Mainichi Japanese (7/5/2011) has a bit more detail. The government panel consists of food industry big shots including the honorary chairman of Kikkoman and the head of a famous cooking school.

If the Japanese government wants to "restore trust in the safety of Japanese food", the best thing it could do is to stop the radioactive material leak from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and embark on decontaminating the entire Tohoku and Kanto at whatever cost.

The Japanese government always wanted to create "inflation". Here's their chance. Just print money and spend to carry out the necessary work of restoring trust.

Instead, they operate on the cheap, calling radioactivity as "rumor" and pushing, of all things, Japanese food as a World Heritage, as if being recognized as such would somehow decontaminate the food in Japan.

Or they may be promoting a unique blend of 2,000-year Japanese cultural tradition and radioactive cesium and strontium, with a dash of plutonium and cobalt-60. Just like that nutty Fukushima doctor says, "Food with a bit of radiation will fetch premium!"

Tweet