October 25, 2024
Famed Basque chef pairs with a top sake brewer
MARRIAGE
Rice balls made from Saga Prefecture’s Sagabiyori rice and an appetizer of Saga beef prepared by the Mugaritz team were among the dishes served at a gastronomic event.
The 1,046-meter Mount Amayama rises near the center of Saga Prefecture. At the foot of the mountain in the city of Ogi is the Tenzan Sake Brewery, which uses pure spring water from the Tenzan mountain range and sake rice grown on the local fertile plains. On March 22, 2024, a ceremony was held at the brewery to mark the appointment of Andoni Luis Aduriz, chef of the two-star Michelin restaurant Mugaritz in Spain’s Basque region, as the Saga gastronomy ambassador, and he was presented with an Arita porcelain plate by Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi.
Mugaritz is located in the countryside with nothing much around it, but it is one of those places that connoisseurs flock to from around the world. Sake and ceramics from Saga are used there.
“In my restaurant, we develop revolutionary dishes that no one has ever seen or tasted before. Despite this, for many years, our drink menu was just left to the sommelier to decide, in the old-fashioned style,” Aduriz said. “Of course, the sommelier would change every two to three years, so at one time we had a lot of traditional wines, while at another we had 60 different kinds of sake on the list. However, on the occasion of the restaurant’s 20th anniversary, we decided we could do better. We wanted to create drinks that were truly unique, in keeping with the spirit of the restaurant. We did this for wine and also for sake.”
To achieve this, he sought out wineries supportive of his “experiment” and asked them to create special blends. The same went for sake. Tenzan was chosen and as a result it now produces two special Shichida-brand sakes for Mugaritz: a red label with a junmai blend (with no added alcohol) and a green label with a choice junmai ginjō blend.
Kensuke Shichida, Tenzan’s sixth-generation president, said, “When I visited Mugaritz, I was completely blown away. I thought long and hard about the kind of sake that would match that amazing cuisine, and after many adjustments to the blend and tastings, I finally came up with these two bottles.”
Unfortunately, they are not sold in Japan, but you can get a sense of them under the Shichida brand, which the president launched in 2001 as a sake line that would suit a 21st-century palate.
Aduriz’s connection with Saga dates back to an encounter with Arita porcelain at an exhibition in Lyon, France, in 2013. In 2022, the prefecture and the Spanish Embassy in Japan signed a memorandum of understanding for collaboration and cooperation. As gastronomy ambassador, Aduriz will serve as a bridge between Saga and Spain and also play a role in promoting the attractiveness of the prefecture’s products.
https://tenzan.co.jp/
After the commissioning ceremony, Tenzan hosted a lively gastronomic event featuring local ingredients. A number of tasting booths were set up in the brewery, offering a variety of dishes and processed foods made with the best of the prefecture’s ingredients, including fruit tomatoes, lotus roots, sea urchins, strawberries, yams and sōmen noodles, all of which were prepared with great care by local producers and manufacturers. In addition, two chefs from Mugaritz who accompanied Aduriz prepared dishes using ingredients from the prefecture, such as adobar consisting of the prefecture’s signature konoshiro (gizzard shad) fish marinated in the Basque style and pincho using Saga beef, seaweed and other ingredients. The exchange of flavors between Saga and Spain played out in every dish, with guests pairing the foods with sake and Ureshino tea. Aduriz also partook of the offerings as he toured the brewery with the governor.
The event concluded with a speech by Aduriz. In Saga, he explained, “many producers have been in business for generations. They possess wisdom accumulated over centuries that goes into making every single product. Saga Prefecture is truly a living museum. I want to share what I have seen here with the world. The world needs you. That is why I became an ambassador. I am look forward to fulfilling that role from now on.”
With that message and with thoughts on the future, the successful event came to an end.
ANDONI LUIS ADURIZ
Aduriz was born in 1971 in San Sebastian, the gastronomic center of the Basque region in Spain. After training in several prestigious Basque restaurants, he opened Mugaritz in 1998 and was awarded two Michelin stars in 2006. He has been on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants every year since then. He has received numerous culinary awards, including Spain’s National Gastronomy Prize. He has lectured at Harvard University, MIT and other universities, and authored more than 20 books. Aduriz is constantly pushing the boundaries of cuisine and sharing them with the world.
バスクの名シェフと日本酒との関係。
佐賀県にそびえる1,046メートルの天山。その麓の小城市で、清らかな湧水と肥沃な平野で育った酒米を使い酒造りをするのが〈天山酒造〉だ。この酒蔵で2024年3月、スペインのミシュラン2つ星レストラン〈ムガリッツ〉のシェフ、アンドニ・ルイス・アドゥリスへの「SAGAガストロノミー交流大使」委嘱式が行われた。
〈ムガリッツ〉は世界の食通がわざわざ訪れる特別な1軒だ。そこで佐賀の日本酒や器が使われている。「私のレストランでは、誰も見たことも味わったこともない、革命的な料理を展開しています。しかし飲み物はソムリエまかせで、ソムリエは2〜3年ごとに変わるため、レストランの有り様に合わせた、誰も飲んだことのないドリンクを作ろうと決めました。日本酒もです」。
現在〈天山酒造〉は、〈ムガリッツ〉のため2種類の特別な「七田」を収めている。日本では同じものを販売していないが「純米酒 七田」でその片鱗を楽しむことが可能だ。交流大使となったアドゥリスは、美食の分野における佐賀県とスペインの架け橋になっている。
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