“The Restaurant of Lost Recipes” by Hisashi Kashiwai
(2014 — translation copyright 2024, 210 pages, fiction)
This is another book by the author of The Kamogawa Food Detectives, featuring the same unique father-and-daughter duo who cook and solve mysteries. Their restaurant is hidden in a backstreet in Kyoto, and you might only discover it through a small advertisement in the Gourmet Monthly magazine. The building looks unassuming, with no sign outside.
If you’re fortunate enough to find the Kamogawa Diner, you’ll meet Chef Nagare, who serves incredible set lunches, and his daughter Koishi, who handles the “detective” aspect of the business. She helps visitors rediscover recipes from their past.
In one chapter, an Olympic swimmer yearns for the bento box his estranged father used to make. In another, a university friend of Koishi seeks the recipe for fried rice her mother used to prepare—a dish slightly tart and pink in color. She’s engaged and hopes this recipe will help her fiancé connect with her childhood memories.
Another story follows a grieving couple, owners of a Japanese bakery, who request a recipe for Christmas cake to honor their late son who loved the treat. They hope recreating the cake will provide them some solace.
The recipes may range from simple to exotic, but each carries profound emotional significance for the people requesting them. Every visitor to the Kamogawa Diner leaves with not just a recipe but a transformed perspective on their past and future.
This is a charming, heartwarming book, perfect for a cozy read with a cup of tea on a rainy day.
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Robbin Bailey
