Shojin-style Cuisine

Shojin Ryori is a vegetarian cuisine of Buddhist temples. Following the precept that forbids killing living beings, this traditional cuisine does not use animal, fish and dairy products. It has been established and developed as a food culture over a long history. Shojin-Style Cuisine is the term we use to describe the cooking adapted for our modern lifestyle based on traditional Shojin Ryori.

 

Atelier-Dinner SHOJIN style cuisine "Special Seasonal Menu"

by Mari Fujii, specialist and author of many cook books, who has taught Shojin Ryori for more than 40 years.

She will prepare the special menu with the seasonal vegetables and explain the recipes and ingredients while she demonstrates and tells stories related to her experience with Shojin cuisine.

It will be a time to learn, discover, have an exchange with Mari sensei and other participants.

*Meat, fish and dairy are not used in cooking. All vegan.

 

PROGRAM

16h30: Reception, Introduction, Basics of Shojin Ryori. Video projection.

17h: Demonstration and Explanation of the menu, ingredients, anecdotes, tips...

18h: Dinner [9 dishes of seasonal vegetables, tofu, rice, soup]

19h-19h30: Dessert & drink. Q&A time. Conversation and exchange of information.

 

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Mari Fujii is a specialist and author of many cook books about Shojin Ryori including the one in English, “Enlightened Kitchen : Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan”. She teaches in Japan and more than 15 countries.

She married Sotetsu Fujii, who was a Buddhist monk and worked as Tenzo in charge of cuisine at the temple for 10 years. He has written several books including a dictionary about the Shojin Ryori of various schools of Buddhism. They have both taught cooking for a long time.

Mari follows the ideas of her husband who often says, "Cooking should be from the heart". In other words, think carefully about the person who will eat the food you prepare.

 

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Participation fee is 4000 yen.

Please reserve your place by e-mail ateliercafekamakura@gmail.com

 

Saturday Sept 21, 16h30 - 19h30 "Special Autumn Menu"

Saturday Nov 16, 16h30 - 19h30 "Special Autumn Menu"

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For 4 types of workshops and Atelier-Dinner & Cultural experience by Miyo sensei : TOFU variety, Veggie SUSHI, OMOCHI and OYAKI traditional dumpling, please visit the page

 

 

PHOTOS ALBUM> Thank you for your participation!
Shojin-Style Cooking

Shojin cuisine class by Mari Fujii is presented in
[BEYOND SUSHI: JAPAN EXPANDS VEGGIE OPTIONS TO TEMPT TOURISTS],
documentary of RFI Press.
"... Data on vegetarians and vegans in Japan is sparse, with small-scale surveys finding just a small percentage of the population following such diets. But the concept is not new in the country, where Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, known as "shojin ryori", has been eaten for hundreds of years.
These days it is served mainly at temples and specialist restaurants -- and at a cooking class in Kamakura, a popular seaside day-trip destination near Tokyo.
At the workshop, expert Mari Fujii showed five people from Sweden, Venezuela, India and the United States how to make "kenchinjiru" vegetable soup and several side dishes. <Vegetarians come and participate, but also people who are interested in and want to know more about the philosophy and background of the food> said Fujii, whose late husband was a Buddhist monk. 
Being a vegetarian in Japan remains challenging, despite the efforts made in recent years. Ashley van Gool, PR manager for Izakaya Masaka, thinks Tokyo can "definitely" become as culinarily diverse as New York, London and other global cities."