The very first article about our online courses is published in Japan Digest!
Japan digest is a magazine in Germany featuring food, trip, cultures of Japan. I am a big fan of both paper & online versions of their articles because there are always new things I learn about Japan.
You can read the article from here, but it is only in German.
So, for non-German speaking readers, we translated the article below!
The online culinary school that elevates Japanese cuisine in Europe to the next level
Sushi can be cheap fast food or a sophisticated cuisine, depending on the chef’s skill. To make the necessary expertise available to international chefs, the ‘Master of Japanese Cuisine Academy’ offers online culinary classes, in which participants receive individual feedback by master chefs.
Japanese cuisine is a challenge: Careful preparation and presentation of the dishes are not easy to master, especially when you are not in Japan. Master Chef Hideyuki Takahashi and Kazumi Wickenkamp, a founder of the Master of Japanese Cuisine Academy, want to overcome this challenge and provide the solution in the digital world. The Master of Japanese Cuisine Academy is the only one of its kind to offer online culinary courses in which students learn the art of Japanese cuisine under the guidance of master chefs. These classes are meant for both professional chefs and ambitious home cooks worldwide.
Mr. Takahashi, what is special about Japanese cuisine?
Japanese cuisine is so varied, from kaiseki to ramen. I started working as a chef when I was 18. Since then I have worked for many top restaurants, including the renowned Kaiseki restaurant TOKYO KITCHO and the Singaporean Shinji by Kanesaka (both excellent Michelin-star restaurant groups). I also taught students from all over the world at Tokyo Shushi Academy for a few years. But there is still so much to learn and discover every day. I think that diversity and depth are definitely the most fascinating aspects of Japanese cuisine.
How did you get the idea for the Master of Japanese Cuisine Academy?
When I started working abroad, many cooks and local people asked me to teach them Japanese cuisine. Although the interest in Japanese cuisine is increasing, there are not many ways for them to learn. There is almost no culinary school outside of Japan that teaches the art of Japanese cuisine at an appropriate level. Many culinary schools in Japan teach Japanese only. Culinary schools for non-Japanese students offer mostly only short-term courses, where it is impossible to cover detailed techniques.
On the other hand, there are now various videos on platforms like YouTube. However, these are also not perfect. Often you cannot learn all the skills necessary to prepare delicious Japanese dishes through a free video. The founder Kazumi and I have designed the Master of Japanese Cuisine Academy to solve the problem. To offer the learning opportunity to as many people around the world as possible, we have chosen to start the ‘online’ academy.
What is so special about the academy?
Knowing a recipe is not enough to be able to cook good food. To become a good cook (whether a hobby or professional), you need a lot of practice and appropriate feedback.
That is why our academy puts great importance on the “feedback” system. Our students get detailed personalized feedback directly from the master chefs. This is the biggest difference to other online cooking contents. It is like always having a master chef by your side.
How does the academy work?
There are two components: The first component is the offering of online content (texts and videos) for the self-study. And the second part is interactive feedback from our master chefs. For example, a student who sent a video or photo of his cooking will receive tips, tricks and techniques from the master chef teacher to make their cooking even better. The feedback is provided in the form of text or video sessions. Through these interactive sessions, teachers can take a close look at their students’ cooking skills and give them detailed instructions. In this way, you can find out what is still missing, tailored to your individual skills and desires. That would not be possible with books or videos.
What are the results of the students who have already participated?
One great example is Alex, a young, passionate sushi chef working at a Japanese restaurant in Switzerland. He has a sushi-chef friend who recommended the online sushi course to him. Even before the course, Alex already had good sushi basic knowledge, but he was still unhappy with the quality of his sushi and the speed of preparation. During this five-week course, Alex shared photos and videos of his sushi and the preparation process with a master sushi chef. And the master chef gave Alex detailed feedback during a weekly online-mentoring-session as well as via E-mail.
At the end of these five weeks, he successfully completed the course and thus received a certificate of completion. Alex says: “I am more than happy with the improvement of my sushi preparation technique and with the unique experience of learning the art of sushi directly from a master chef! My teacher was a true master of Japanese cuisine. He also understood my challenges using only the photos and videos of my sushi and gave me exactly the advice I needed. Therefore, I am recommending this program to my sushi-chef friends! ”
A look at the blog where students share their progress shows: The system works!
Link to the academy’s homepage
