Dining with the Chef

Cook Around Japan: Kumamoto - Kumamoto Style Italian Cuisine

In this second episode in Kumamoto, our host Yu Hayami will be visiting chef Ai Hosokawa, a Kumamoto resident. Chef Hosokawa says that ingredients from Kumamoto have strong flavors, and she'll be using those flavors to make simple Italian-style dishes. She'll be using Kumamoto's famous horse meat and akaushi beef to make a tagliata sliced steak dish, served with a sauce that uses plenty of fresh local strawberries — strawberries that have attracted international attention of late. She'll also be making fragrant and delicious gnocchi, served with a sauce made with aonori seaweed, a sea plant that grows in brackish water.