Mr. Kunihiko Inoue

This month, we interviewed The Ambassador's chef, Mr Kunihiko Inoue. Mr Inoue specialises in washoku - Japanese cuisine.

1. Tell us about your background. How much training did you have to do to become a chef?
In fact, I'm still training now! I started when I was 18 and 18 years later, I am still learning.

2. What does being the Ambassador's chef involve?
I look after all the Japanese food served at luncheons and banquets at the Ambassador's residence. If we receive 20 guests for a dinner, I start preparing 3 days beforehand. I acquire fish from a London-based Japanese fishmonger and I go and buy any vegetables that I can get here myself. With vegetables that are not available here, which include kabura - a variety of turnip, matsutake mushrooms and edible chrysanthemums, they have to be imported directly from Japan.

3. What do you think about most when planning a menu?
Serving 'authentic' Japanese food. Firstly, you should create a sense of the season, spring, summer, autumn, winter. I think about how best to express the season through food. Right now it is autumn so I use vegetables such as aubergine, kabura turnips, gingko nuts, sweet chestnuts, and mushrooms and fruits such as persimmon. Japanese cooking is based around using the natural flavours of ingredients so I try not to do too much to the ingredients. My basic rule is to respect the ingredients' own delicious flavours.

In Japanese cooking, presentation is paramount. When food is served, the first contact you have is through your eyes, so colour is important. I try to present the colours red, green and yellow on one plate.

Here in London, you can find food like sushi and tempura anywhere so I think they're a bit boring! I try to serve food that is not served anywhere else in London.

4. How do you think Japanese food differs from British?
We eat Japanese food with chopsticks, while British food is eaten with a knife and fork. That's a big difference. Japanese chefs work on the premise that people eat with chopsticks. When plating up, I bear in mind that chopsticks are held in the right hand and consider where the food will be taken from. In addition, in Japanese cooking, it is important to season before cooking. That's where you start. That is true to vegetables as well. You season first, then cook.

Another popular technique in Japanese cooking is 'Mitate', or using one ingredient to resemble another. For example, using an egg in the shape of a persimmon. It looks just like a mini persimmon but it is really made from the yolk of a boiled egg. I make the leaves of the persimmon using kombu (seaweed). The technique of 'Mitate' may only be found in Japanese cooking.

5. What's the hardest thing about your job?
It has to be finding ingredients. Many dishes are impossible without the right ingredients. I have to do with what I can get.

Also, in Japan, cooking would be done using soft water. The tap water in the UK is hard which is quite different. With soft water, vegetables become soft but with hard water, they can become hard and stringy. That can make cooking difficult. To get around this problem, we buy bottled water and use it.

6. What's the best thing about your job?
When, at the end of a party, the Ambassador introduces me to his guests and I can see how pleased they are.

7. How will your experience here be of use in your future career?

I think that this job has helped widen my vision. In Japan, I took ingredients for granted. It has been hard here, I've had to learn to create a sense of season with what I can get - this will certainly help in the future.