Meet Nancy Singleton Hachisu, acclaimed cookbook author, James Beard Award winning food journalist, and champion of Japanese artisanal ingredients and food traditions. A California native, she has been living on an organic Japanese farm since 1988. Hodo is proud to feature Nancy in our Visionary Chef Series and collaborate with her during the tour for her latest book, “Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook”.
Read on for Nancy’s thoughts on celebrating Japanese traditional foodways, the evolving role of vegetarian dishes in Japan, and one of her favorite dishes to make with Hodo yuba, which you can also find the recipe for here.
Congratulations on launching your new cookbook, Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook! From the introduction, you share about falling in love with food and cooking as a kid growing up in California to now living in Japan for more than half your life. Before we get into the book, can you share how you ended up in Japan and what you love about living in Japan?
While I had occasionally eaten country-style fat sushi rolls (and loved them), the first time I sat at a real Japanese sushi bar in San Francisco where I was served two pieces of nigiri sushi (the custom before sushi became increasingly expensive in the 90s and 00s) I was totally captivated. I loved the friendly camaraderie of the master forming the sushi, plus eating little by little matched my preferred way of enjoying a meal. Each time I returned to the sushi bar I felt an overwhelming sense of peace when I slipped into my chair.
In a roundabout way, sushi was what brought me to Japan. I decided to attend law school and as a lover of foreign languages, I decided to add an M.A. in East Asian Studies/Japanese to the J.D. Coming to Japan for a year to teach English made sense at the time as a way to give myself a base in Japanese before grad school. As it happens, teaching English is not the best way to immerse yourself in a foreign language, even if you are living in that foreign country. In the meantime, I met my husband to be and ended up deciding to marry a Japanese farmer.
One of the things I love most about my life here is being in the countryside and the other thing is the freedom. At first glance, Japan might seem like a restrictive country, and in some ways it is, but in other ways it allows great freedoms that maybe the U.S. does not. Here, I am neither woman, nor man. I am a foreigner. I am Nancy-san. But all of my efforts towards celebrating and promoting Japanese traditional foodways are deeply appreciated by my adopted country and for that reason I keep finding ways to contribute back.
This cookbook seems to be very timely for us in the United States since Americans are increasingly seeking out and eating plant-based foods. Can you share a little more about why you wrote this book and why now?
One of the first two cookbooks I bought in Japan in the summer of 1988 was The Heart of Zen Cuisine. I served food from that book at the first party I held in my new Japanese apartment. It was a novelty for my Japanese friends so that part went well. The second party I served food from a home cooking book - that time I received a lot of advice from my Japanese friends. I realized that it made no sense for me to be cooking Japanese food for my Japanese friends so I went back to Tokyo and bought a few books on cooking of the American South (there were not many options in those days!).
Mostly I left the Japanese cooking to my husband because he was a good cook and had been the main cook at his parents’ house after he had graduated from university and returned home (his mother had become tired of cooking). I cooked all of the other foods from around the world (as we Californians tend to do). But after we renovated my husband’s family farmhouse in the year 2000, I began taking over more of the Japanese cooking: especially country vegetable soups, tempura, and vegetable dishes.
And eventually, twenty-four years into my life in the Japanese countryside, I began publishing Japanese cookbooks. Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook, with its roots in Japanese temple food, was always one I had hoped to publish when the time was right. I started talking about the vegetarian book in the summer of 2019 but life and Covid-19 took its course.
I felt very deeply that Japanese vegetarian food needed to be recorded in English and shared with the world since I see so much heavy convenience-style Japanese foods out there. The publishing process is not always straight forward, but once I made my way back to Phaidon, it was an incredibly smooth and joyful collaboration despite all of the strife that was happening in the world. I see this book as an extremely healing book on so many levels: all who were involved in the editing, design, and positive supportive energy and the food itself is clean and delicious, so this is truly a special book…if I am allowed to say so!
How is traditional Japanese vegetarian food different from modern or Westernized versions of Japanese dishes?
Hmmm…as I mentioned above, I see a lot of heavy, meat-centric or fatty Japanese dishes abroad. This food is lighter, more bright perhaps? More mindful certainly, and of course completely centered around vegetables and soybeans.
As you launch this new cookbook, who is it written for? What are you most excited about in terms of what readers learn or experience from reading your book?
Although I write in English, I am always thinking about recording Japanese foodways for Japan itself - obviously through my lens but these are authentic dishes that I suppose I’ve made a bit more accessible.
Until relatively recently, vegetables were not particularly celebrated in eateries around Japan. Fish and meat were the main event. Perhaps that is why so many Japanese restaurants outside of Japan lean towards meat- or fish-heavy. With the increased awareness that farm vegetables are often better tasting, Japanese restaurants are putting more and more attention into sourcing seasonal, organic vegetables. And there are a slowly growing number of Japanese restaurants like that outside of Japan, such as Izakaya Rintaro in San Francisco.
What is your favorite dish made with Hodo’s Extra Firm Tofu?
Since I have lived in Japan for almost 35 years, I actually have never eaten firm tofu. (We have various soft versions of tofu in Japan, and I’ve never heard of firm tofu here.) That said, Hodo’s Extra Firm Tofu would be good in Tofu and Tomato Gratin since in this recipe the soft tofu is pressed overnight to become firm then sliced and layered in a gratin dish with cooked sliced potato, bamboo shoot, shimeji, and tomato mushroom sauce. Topped with mozzarella (or vegan-style) cheese, the gratin is baked in the oven. It’s great served with a green salad.
(Hodo note: Whether tofu is soft or firm is determined by the amount of water pressed out while you’re making the tofu. So by pressing soft tofu, you can make a firmer tofu. Hodo’s extra firm tofu is pre-pressed so you don’t have to press our tofu unlike softer tofu. Firm tofu is better for some recipes like stir fries and as Nancy mentions above, in her Tofu and Tomato Gratin recipe. Just skip the pressing and go straight to slicing and layering!)
What is your favorite dish to make with Hodo’s fresh Yuba?
Maybe because I’m a Californian and cannot get them in Japan, I crave great organic California avocados. One of my favorite dishes in Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook is Avocado and Yuba Tartare. The lime brings up the freshness in this dish and helps with discoloration, but this is best prepared at the last minute and served immediately. It’s sublime!
(Hodo tip: If you can’t get our tsumami, which is only available to restaurants, our plain Yuba Sheets would be a great substitute for this recipe!)
You can learn more about Nancy and her new cookbook, Japan: The Vegetarian Cookbook, on her website.
