Gelinaz, the chef’s collective,  are back in town on the 3rd December. But this time, they are not travelling, they are staying “at home”. What travels this time, are their recipes. Each chef had to submit eight recipes that are typical for him/her, but she/he never served them at the restaurant yet. Those recipes were then shuffled and sent to another chef who will remix them in his/her own way and serve on the 3rd of December, for one night only, dishes inspired by those recipes to her/his guests. The guests and the chef will get to know whose recipes was interpreting the chef only at the end of the dinner through the Gelinaz ambassador who will attend the dinner (I will be that night the ambassador at the Aimsir restaurant in Ireland). Ambassadors will also take care of communication from the restaurants on that night, so if you are curious what is happening on the other side of the world, do follow us on Instagram (mine is here).

Zaiyu Hasegawa has received his recipes. What now?

 

What was your first thought when you read the recipes you received?

I found the recipes very interesting and my first thought was whether the ingredients are available in Japan or how could I source them.

What do you think of them now?

Now I think I can do it!! I am confident that I can rework the recipes to get around anything I can’t find in Japan.

If you had to choose an animal to describe them, what would it be?

An elephant.

How will you approach it?

Without spoiling too much, the recipes are from a country where I have been before, and I also have chef friends from this country, so I have an idea how the dishes would taste like. I am going to incorporate the essence of the recipes with Japanese ingredients and techniques.

What will be the greatest challenge for you in this Gelinaz project?

My greatest challenge is to cook with recipes – it will be my first time! I never follow recipes…  

And what are you looking forward to?

I am looking forward to meeting our guests and and I am pretty curious about what will they think of my new cooking style.

After this event is behind you, what’s the next thing?

The theme of Gelinaz is “stay at home”, but unfortunately I won’t be staying long. I will be going to the Philippines 2 days after Gelinaz. Sorry Puchi Jr.! 

 

Zaiyu Hasegawa will be cooking at Den in Tokyo. Tickets are sold out but here is the waiting list.

PS Do check also Virgilio Martinez, Alberto Landgraf, Alex Atala and Santiago Lastra.