Zuma's sake sorceress
Meet Sayaka Watanabe. She's the country's first sake sommelier. You'll find her at Zuma, the achingly fashionable Japanese restaurant in London's Knightsbridge, owned by chef Rainer Becker. Confusingly, Becker is German, but he knows a thing or two about Japanese cooking, having lived in Japan for six years. And to prove it, Zuma has had rave reviews since it opened two years ago. And Becker is just about to open another restaurant, called Roca, in May - also Japanese. Look out for Caterer's exclusive interview with Becker in the next month.
Anyway, sake. It makes sense for a restaurant such as Zuma to offer a selection of sake. First it made a name for itself with its sake-based cocktails (my favourite is Ranbo - rhubarb-infused ozeki sake, Johnnie Walker Black Label and griottines, devised by head bartender Paul Birtwistle) which you sip clinging to one of the tall stools hugging the central bar.
Appreciating
Then there's the sake itself - presented at the front of the wine list. The thing is, we don't know that much about sake, and neither did Zuma's wine waiters. "I didn't think I could afford a sake sommelier at first, but it's paying off," grins Becker, who reckons he's appreciating sake a bit more each day as he gets to know more about it.
Sake sales are significantly up, thanks to Tokyo-born Watanabe. And Becker is even thinking about offering a permanent sake menu, pairing particular dishes with different sakes. I hope he does. Sake works fantastically well with the food at Zuma - well, of course it does, the Japanese have been drinking sake with their food forever. But most of us just don't get it. Then again, most of us don't get to taste the good stuff.
Watanabe showed me the good stuff. Best - and most expensive - was Hanahato Kijoshu from Hiroshima, listed at Zuma for £80 a bottle. The oloroso-coloured sake has been aged for eight years in used American oak barrels and has a distinctly Cognac nose. She paired it with Wagyu rib-eye, in a daikon ponzu sauce with garlic crisps - a sensational match, which brought out the flavour of the meat a treat.
With the citrus and soy marinated octopus, with garlic, sesame and shiso, the tuna tataki with chilli daikon, and the salmon fillet with teriyaki sauce and sliced pickled cucumber, Watanabe chose Hitori Musume Sayaka (no relation).
"It's a little bit cold at the moment, but when it warms up you'll notice the banana on the nose," says Watanabe. It's a honjozo sake - one to which a very small amount of distilled alcohol has been added. "It brings out the fragrance," she explains.
We move up a gear on the next course with ginjo sake - the premier cru of sakes, from Hyogo, called Kikumasamune Tarusake, paired with salt-grilled sea bass with a burnt tomato and ginger relish, before hitting the big time with the daiginjo (the grand cru of sakes) from Kijoshu.
Becker's favourite, incidently, is ginjo sake called Azure. "It's very complex. It has a sweetness, but it's not as sweet as many of the others, and I love drinking it with sashimi," he declares.
Shorts
Chinese whispers Celebrity chef Ken Hom has a house near Bordeaux with more than 6,000 bottles in his cellar, and likes to drink claret with Peking duck. So it comes as no surprise to learn that he's introduced his own range of wines. Called Spicy Varietals, they're made in the Languedoc, using grape varieties such as Chasan, Roussanne, MourvŠdre and Grenache. They were produced in response to "those people, who for years have been asking me which wines are best to drink with the assertive flavours of Oriental food," he says. At present they're available only in Yellow River and Jim Thompson's restaurants, but will be rolled out nationally later this year. For more information, contact importer Louis Vialard on 07788 428305.
Shetland vodka Blackwood Distillers, based in Shetland, Scotland, scooped a gold medal at the 2004 World Spirit Awards for its Premium Nordic Vodka, which claims to be Scotland's first home-grown vodka. Made from Heglibister spring water, then triple-distilled and filtered over Nordic birch charcoal, before being ice-filtered for "superchilling", it's now being rolled out nationally. Also in the range is Jago's Vanilla Vodka Cream liqueur, using cream from the local Shetland herd and said vodka, plus Madagascan vanilla pods. There's a gin, too, using 13 Shetland-grown botanicals, including wild water mint, picked near the shores of sea lochs (aaah). For more info, check out www.blackwooddistillers.com.
Champagne Charlies Not content with being the world's biggest consumer of Champagne, the UK saw a growth of 8.76% last year, compared with 2002 figures, which equates to a staggering 34 million bottles. This compares with our two nearest competitors, the USA and Germany, with 18.8 million and 12 million bottles shipped respectively.
