Fabulous Fiction Firsts #837

Thu, 04/18/2024 - 6:30pm by muffy

The Kamogawa Food Detectives * by Hisaski Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, the 2020 Harvill Secker Young Translators' Prize winner, (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook).

The first in an eight-book series, originally published in Japan in 2013, it introduces readers to Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare. On a quiet backstreet in Kyoto, behind the nondescript facade of an anonymous-looking building, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. There is no menu, no advertisement except for a cryptic one in an obscure food magazine. But that does not stop customers from seeking them out. Nagare, a retired and widowed Kyoto detective and 30-something Koishi are “food detectives,” offering their investigative services to find recipes so clients could recreate dishes from their treasured memories.   

Among their satisfied clients is one of Nagare’s fellow detectives, who is looking for the"Nabeyaki-Udon” recipe that his late wife created. A successful businessman is looking to recreate the "Mackerel Sushi, offered by a kind neighbor while he was orphaned at an early age. A piano teacher is looking for the beef stew recipe at a restaurant served to her 55 years ago when she rejected a young man’s proposal. A restauranteur's ex-wife is looking for the recipe her husband used to prepare for her now that he is dying.

“Though each of the six stand-alone chapters follows the same formulaic recipe, Kashiwai's unique blend of seasonings is more than enough to transform each into a five-star-worthy dish. Koishi and Nagare strive to re-create not only the precise dishes their clients want, but also to envelop them in a warm memory blanket of nostalgia.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Off-beat and charming, [with] more complexity of flavor than you might expect.”  (NPR – Fresh Air with Terry Gross)

For fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and those who binged on Midnight Diner:Tokyo Stories. 

* = Starred review