As I researched the piece in the February issue of the magazine about the opening of two branches of Japan’s largest bookstore chain, Kinokuniya, in Carrollton and Plano, Kinokuniya’s regional manager Shigekazu Watanabe told me that the Plano location would include more of the cooking class/cultural event/book signing extras by which Kinokuniya—and the Mitsuwa Marketplace Japanese markets that usually shelter it—hope to build a thriving community around Japanese culture.
Sure enough, the Plano Mitsuwa location, with its barely completed food court, is hosting Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto this Thursday for a talk and book signing. In 2007, Morimoto published Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking, a sleek tome that focuses on his restaurant cooking. Now, 10 years later, he’s come out with Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking, a book that’s impeccably on trend with the movement to deepen the roster of known dishes from the Japanese repertoire as well as get behind the scenes to see what and how chefs cook at home.
The event is at an odd hour: 4:30 p.m. (See the flyer here.) But if you can make it to Plano, I suggest you do. It’s not every day we have an Iron Chef in our Texas midst.
