せせらぎ料理教室と美味しい夜会

みなさんこんにちは。諒です。
先々週は東京-千葉-山形を1週間ほどでまわっていました。東京から滝ヶ原へ帰ると、春風が出迎えてくれました。
暖かい日が差し込み、山はうっすら緑々しく、家にはカメムシが再び増えてきました。
これまでこんなに凍えたこともないせいか、春の暖かさを感じた時の喜びは、未だかつてない程です。
まさに冬眠から覚めた熊の気持ちを追体験しているかのようです。
(Hello everybody, this is Ryo
About two weeks ago I was traveling around Tokyo, Chiba and Yamagata for a week. Upon my return to Takihagara Farm from Tokyo I was greeted by the breeze of spring. Finally soaked by the warm sunlight, the mountains have started to look green…and stink bugs have started appearing inside the house.
It might perhaps be because I had never been in such a cold place before, but I was overwhelmed by the joy of feeling the warmth of spring. I felt just like a bear waking up from my long winter slumber.)

さて、先日、ikibaシェフの亮介氏と奈緒*ちゃん、
そしてメキシコから料理人のMarcoが滝ヶ原に来てくれました。
（A few days ago, we had three cooks visit us at Takihagara Farm: Ryosuke, from Ikiba in Tokyo, along french trained Nao, and Marco, coming to visit us from Mexico.）

小松駅について早々、３人とみうるを乗せた車はせせらぎの郷へ。
(After I went to greet them with Miuru-chan at the Komatsu Station , we headed to Seseragi no Sato.)

せせらぎの郷は、4月のリニューアルオープンにともないビュッフェレストランが新たにスタートします。
そこでのメニュー開発・地元のおばちゃんたちへの調理指導を行うために、ikibaの亮介氏が定期的に訪れています。
今回は亮介氏に加え2人のBIG助っ人と共に、鮎のコンフィ、パスタソース、ドレッシング、ピザを一緒に作りました。
3人のリーダーシップ、手際の良さはピカイチでした。
初めての経験に2人とも楽しみながら、とてもいい雰囲気で料理教室を行うことが出来ました。
(Seseragi is an onsen that is currently being renewed to be opened on April this year. They are planning on starting buffet service operated by local grandmothers, and Ryosuke has been visiting Komatsu periodically to give them basic cooking lessons.
This time together with the help from Nao and Marco, Ryosuke taught the grannies how to cook several dishes, including ayu confit, tomato sauce pasta, salad dressing, and pizza. Although it was their first time to come here, both Nao and Marco managed to turn this experience into a fun cooking class, the old ladies seemed very much to enjoy.)

せせらぎを終え、一行はTakigahara Farmへ。
せっかくこんなに素敵な料理人が来てくれているのだから、ディナーパーティーを開催しようと決まり、
北陸圏内から15名程の友人が集まってくれました。
(After Seseragi, we headed to Takihagara Farm.
Taking advantage of having such skilled guests we decided to have a dinner party and I called around 15 people from the Hokuriku area.)

その日、魚が特に新鮮なスーパーで仕入れた、ブリ・白子・ヤリイカ・ズワイガニ。そして町の人から分けてもらったイノシシ肉。旬の食材ばかりを取り揃えました。
(That day, we found super fresh fish at the super market: Buri (amberjack), Shirako, Yari-ika (spear squid), Zuwai Crab, among others. We also got our hands onto some wild boar meat from one of the villagers, and fresh seasonal produce from the nearby farms.)
まずは、メニューを紹介します。（Named by Nao)
(Let me now introduce the menu (named by Nao)

イカのポシェと菜の花のちょっとピリ辛(-Poached Squid with Spicy Na-no-hana)

ブリと酸っぱい梅ソース

甘辛豚の香ばし焼きと焼きネギサラダ(-Fragrant Sweet and Spicy Braised Pork with Grilled Long Onion Salad)

鮎のコンフィとふきのとうソースのほろ苦い前菜(-Appetizer made with Ayu Confit and Butterbrown sprouts)

おいしい出汁のおいしい蟹鍋(- and a delicious crab hot pot made with delicious dashi)
どれもすばらしく美味しかったです。食材自体はどれも地元に親しまれたものですが、手を加える人により全く新しい感動を提供してくれます。料理はもちろんのこと、立ち振る舞い、空気感などみんなと一体になりその場を盛り上げてくれた３人。最高でした。
(All of the dishes were wonderful. Each one of them made with beloved ingredients from the region, but presented in a completely different way from what people here are used to. The atmosphere was so convivial, thanks to our three guest cooks we surely had a delightful evening.)
そしてこの日のメインディッシュは、マルコによる「椎茸ソースとイノシシのブルータコス」
Marcoは世界一美味しいタコスを日本でつくるためにメキシコからやってきました。
(The main dish of this day was Marco’s blue corn tacos, which he filled with the boar meat we got from the villager and topped with a very special sauce he made with shiitake mushrooms from Ishikawa Prefecture.
Let me give you a little bit of background about Marco. This guy has been doing tacos in Mexico for quite a few years and had his own very popular taqueria back there. Looking to broaden his horizons, Marco recently came to Japan, and using our unique ingredients he says he is trying to fulfill his dream of making the best tacos in the world. )

(photo by Marco)
ブルーコーンというメキシコ中南部の限られた土地で親しまれている青黒いとうもろこしがあります。
自然栽培でつくっている農家から直接仕入れ滝ヶ原に持ってきてくれました。
(Marco makes his tacos using blue corn. According to him, in order for a taco to be good, first of all the tortilla has to be good, and in order to achieve that yourself, of course, using good quality corn. For this evening, Marco brought with him very special kind of blue corn that grows only in central Mexico. He prepared the corn using and turned into masa (tortilla dough) using a portable mill. The process took quite a bit of time, from cooking the corn with an alkaline solution, grinding the corn, and shaping and cooking the tortillas on a griddle and finally stuffing the tacos. Talk to me about craft food.)

(photo by Marco)
コーンを煮て、つぶして、捏ねて、焼くトルティーヤ。これぞまさにCraft Food。

包む具材は、滝ヶ原で頂いたイノシシをソテーして。メキシコと石川、二つのローカルな食材が組み合わさり、
劇的に美味いものが誕生しました。
(Sautéed wild boar and a spicy sauce made with locally sourced shiitake and red chillies, what a dramatic collaboration between Ishikawa and Mexico!)

メキシコで失われかけている伝統の料理と現代のセンスを融合し、新たなメキシカンディッシュを研究するマルコにとっても、
とても喜ばしい出来映えだったのではないでしょうか。こんなにおいしいタコスたべたことない！という感嘆もたくさん聞こえてきましたね。
マルコは僕が一昨年メキシコに行った際、２週間程お世話になり、生活を共にした大切な友人でもあります。
滝ヶ原で彼と彼の料理に再会できたこと、とても嬉しかったです。
(Marco came to Japan looking for new and exciting sources of inspiration, to create his own style of cooking, and I think he certainly found them. Everybody was delighted, and I heard a lot of them saying “I’d never had tacos this good!”
Last year I went to Mexico and I got to meet Marco and stay at his home for two weeks, he is a very good friend of mine. Having him here and getting to enjoy his cooking here in Takihagara was a great pleasure for me.)
夜が更けども、一向に静まる気配なく、日が越すまで賑わう大成功のごはん会でした。
今回は久しぶり、且つ急遽決めた開催でしたが、来てくれたみなさん、料理人御三方、そして僕ら主催、
その場を共有するみんなが楽しんでいる様子を見て、何か原点なようなものを再認識することができました。
自身の生活の中で、こういう時間を過ごすことを忘れずに、そして、たのしくて美味しい一時を提供する場を
これからも作っていきたいと思いました。
(This time’s dinner party was so fun that nobody wanted to leave. Although it was a little bit improvised, thanks to everybody who came, the three cooks and the Takihagara staff everything turned out alright. Having events this fun made me think that this could be the begging of some sort of interesting collaboration. I realized how important it is to have moments like these in ones everyday life. Wouldn’t it be great for Takigahara Farm to become a place for such occurrences? I want this to be a place where people can come, eat something delicious and have some fun.)

次回の開催は未定ですが、また追って告知させて頂きますので、ご興味ある方、宜しくお願いします。
(The date for the next gathering is yet to be decided, but I will keep you updated. )