Published on February 21, 2017, this review of Even After I Die, My Recipes Will Remain explores the remarkable life of Katsuyo Kobayashi, the pioneering home-cooking expert who transformed everyday dishes into a cultural legacy. From defeating a professional chef on “Iron Chef” to redefining the role of domestic cuisine, her innovative spirit and enduring recipes continue to influence generations.

February 21, 2017
On Sunday, I was on a train heading for Kyoto.
An elderly gentleman sitting in the neighboring compartment was reading the Sankei Shimbun.
Sharing in his good taste, I too opened the Sankei Shimbun.
Today’s Sankei Shimbun has begun to awaken to the fact that the Asahi Shimbun and other editorial writers—whose distorted ideologies allowed themselves to be steered at will by China and South Korea, who fabricated history and disgraced the honor and credibility of Japan and the Japanese people in the international community, and who spread pseudo-morality and pseudo-communism throughout universities led by the University of Tokyo—have weakened Japan’s national strength and fostered a group of so-called “intellectuals” whose thinking is more childish than kindergarteners and who neither know nor respect the spirit and traditions of Japan.
Becoming aware of that abnormality, the Sankei Shimbun has clearly drawn a line between itself and such forces, and through its continued efforts to examine their lies, the blessing of God now seems to dwell in the Sankei Shimbun.
At any rate, they must persist in reporting facts and in pursuing unrelenting truth.
I hope they strive to become the world’s greatest newspaper—one that communicates only the facts and pursues only the truth, and leads the world.
What follows is from Sunday’s book-review section of the Sankei Shimbun.
In this review, the phrase appearing in the final chapter struck a deep chord within me.
My friends and the readers of discerning eye will understand without my having to explain.
(All emphasis except the title is mine.)
Even After I Die, the Recipes Will Remain — The Life of Katsuyo Kobayashi
By Ippo Nakahara (Bungeishunju, 1,500 yen + tax)
Reviewed by Erika Higashi (Book reviewer, HONZ deputy representative)
Do you remember the once-popular TV program Iron Chef?
In this show, where top chefs from renowned restaurants competed against each other, Katsuyo Kobayashi, as a professional of home cooking, defeated Chen Kenichi, the Iron Chef of Chinese cuisine.
This was at a time when home cooking, the sort that mothers made, was still considered a completely different genre from professional cuisine.
This book traces in detail the life of Katsuyo Kobayashi, a woman who, from being an ordinary housewife, became the first professional home-cooking researcher.
She was born as the youngest daughter of a wholesaler of confectionery ingredients in Osaka and grew up under a mother who excelled in cooking.
Yet she had never stood in the kitchen before getting married, and in her newlywed days, she once made miso soup without drawing broth and stuffed the pot full of wakame.
However, memories of her mother procuring ingredients in the bustling kitchen districts of Osaka’s Minami began to resurface.
As her skills improved—miso soup, mackerel simmered in miso—she became absorbed in cooking, and Katsuyo’s lifelong guiding principle took shape.
It was: “Take an interest.
Gain knowledge.
Put it into action.
Your world expands.”
Her curiosity was extraordinary.
She once wrote to a wide-show program she always watched, requesting that they create a fun cooking segment with a sense of everyday life, and ended up appearing on the show herself.
Indeed, life can change in unexpected places.
Her appearance on that program gave birth to Katsuyo Kobayashi, the cooking researcher.
Even a reckless企画—such as walking through Osaka’s famous restaurants to taste and then recreate their dishes—was realized by Katsuyo.
It was groundbreaking that she adapted the subtle seasoning techniques of professional chefs into recipes that could be made at home.
This book even openly reveals her shortcomings: her quick temper and her neglect of her own health—traits hidden beneath her bright and spirited personality.
These are aspects seen by the author, who had been a close friend of hers.
The nine years after she collapsed from a subarachnoid hemorrhage were apparently a harsh battle with illness.
Yet even two years after her passing, in an age where recipes can be instantly searched online, “Katsuyo’s Nikujaga” remains a beloved dish.
—Even after I die, my recipes will remain—delicious food will be handed down to the next generation.