Curry Flight

Flight 23 Is curry the pride of Japan's national cuisine?

It has been quite a while since my last column.
In 2023, I also produced many curry events.
In May, "Tokyo Curry Culture DX Nippon Curry Archipelago" was held at the Seibu Ikebukuro main store during Golden Week; in August, the third "Japanese Curry Festival" was held in Shibuya; and at the end and beginning of the year, "Tokyo Curry Culture DX Nippon Curry Archipelago The third "Japanese Curry Festival" will be held in Shibuya in August.

In fact, behind all of them are common "thoughts" and "sense of crisis.

This may seem like a very personal column, but I am writing this in the hope that some of you may resonate with it.

The wave of re-evaluation of curry rice that is pushing forward.

About a year ago, in "Curry Flight #22: Back to Curry Rice in 2023." I wrote about the possibility of a unique Japanese "neo curry rice" that would emerge from the heated "spice curry" movement. A developmental return to curry rice, in fact, is also evident in various topics for the year 2023.

The fact that February 22 was designated as "Katsu-Kare Day" is a significant sign that "katsu-kare" (pork cutlet and curry), which is attracting worldwide attention, has its origins in Japan. The establishment of Matsumoto Mae Yau in Taipei was a pioneering example of a restaurant from a regional area entering the overseas market without going through the Tokyo market. New restaurants offering curry with pork cutlets and European-style curry are appearing one after another in both Tokyo and Osaka. Major curry makers are also launching new curry roux with a spicy flavor, and it can be said that the reevaluation and updating of Nippon's unique curry rice is steadily advancing.

The second restaurant opened at the end of 2023 by WACCA, a popular creative curry restaurant, is "Curry Stand WACCA".

However, it is also true that this is only a "Curry Trend Watch". It is highly doubtful that this is a big swell that will move the economy. This is the problem. Wave is a wave, but it may still be a ripple.

Global Disparities Regarding Nippon Curry.

In the TasteAtlas 2022/23 "Ranking the World's Traditional Cuisines," Japan's curry (karē) took the top spot. While curry as a "Japanese food" is attracting attention around the world, in Japan, the comment, "Isn't curry from India? In Japan, however, the comment, "Isn't curry an Indian dish? This is the difference in temperature!
In fact, this disparity in perception is probably one of the reasons why curry restaurants have made fewer inroads into foreign markets compared to ramen, which is often compared as one of the "two most popular national foods. Curry's home is India, and it is not something that Japan should be sending out to the rest of the world. The traditional curry cuisine of India and the curry that evolved in Japan are two completely different cuisines, though.

As one of the programs of the "Japanese Curry Festival" held last summer, we held a conference titled "JAPANESE CURRY WORLD SUMMIT" to discuss how Japanese curry is accepted in real time between London and LA. The conference, titled "JAPANESE CURRY WORLD SUMMIT," was held as one of the programs of the "Japanese Curry Festival" last summer, connecting London and LA in real time.

According to some people in the U.K., a certain (non-Japanese-owned) Japanese food chain started the popularity of katsu-curries, which have become a popular menu item in the U.K. without being considered Japanese. Curry became popular in the U.K. from a certain Japanese chain (not Japanese-owned), and it is now a popular menu item without being considered Japanese, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national dish. Conversely, in LA, curry is accepted as Japanese food by those who like Japanese food. There is also interesting information about the popularity of Japanese-style "European-style curry" restaurants in Paris.
（A popular "European" curry restaurant in Paris.Pontochoux")

In general, I can say that only Japanese people believe that "India is the home of curry". What a lost opportunity! Do people really think that "Curry is the national dish of Japan"?

In December, the All Japan Curry Industry Cooperative was selected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as an organization to promote food exports. This means that we are finally ready to promote Japanese curry from Japan, the home of curry. Finally.

Curry 1,500 yen issue.

There is another major challenge facing Japanese curry. That is that many people cannot afford to pay more than 1,500 yen for a mere curry. Of course, there is no doubt that school lunch curry, home curry, and one-penny curry at popular cafeterias are the core of what has expanded the curry culture in Japan and is called the "national dish. On the other hand, it is also true that there is a strong preconception that "low unit price = low quality as a dish. This is one of the reasons why curry is hard to be proud of as "Japan's pride of food culture" along with sushi, etc. There are curries that cost 500 yen and others that cost 20,000 yen. Without a spirit of tolerance for such a spread, it will be difficult for curry to evolve.

For example, it is obvious that "a sauce made by a French chef" and "a curry combining a sauce made by a French chef and spices" require more skill and effort for the latter.

In addition, we hear today that the cost of purchasing food for restaurants has increased by 1.4 times. One of the main reasons why long-established restaurants have closed one after another since the opening of Corona is probably because "they can no longer come to terms with the price that customers are willing to accept in relation to the soaring cost of goods.

Once, when it was reported that the prime minister had eaten a 3,500 yen curry with pork cutlets, he said, "Spending 3,500 yen for a curry is out of touch with the common people's sense! It's outrageous! I thought to myself, "It's not the prime minister you're dissing, but the curry.

Does everyone really believe that curry is Japan's national dish?

Nippon Curry in 2024.

And so it goes. A sense of crisis that the preconceived notion held by the Japanese who say "curry is Japan's national food" is putting a big brake on the opportunity for Japanese curry to attract worldwide attention. I want to help loosen this obstacle, and at the same time, I want to spread the word more widely about the diversity of Japanese curry and the fact that it is a wonderful culture that we can be proud to share with the rest of the world. With this as our driving force, we continue to hold curry events like the one I mentioned at the beginning of this article, together with friends who resonate with our ideas.

Expecting new value to emerge from it.

Japanese Curry Festival 2023 "Spice Curry 43" by Mirai's Curry "KAWAII CURRY

Innovative "Chilled Curry" by Vaji Spice at Japanese Curry Festival 2023

New Year special menu "Kabako crab and lobster biryani" collaborated by "INDIA GATE" in Kyoto and "Johnny's biryani" in Ishikawa at Seibu Ikebukuro "Nippon Curry Islands: Winter Hot and Laughable Arc".

In order to proudly present curry as "Japan's national dish" to the world, it is not enough to just get the curry industry excited about it. For example, something may change by having top chefs of Japanese and French cuisine say, "Curry is amazing," or by collaborating more with local food producers, we may rediscover its value. I would like to form more composite teams with people from various industries.

From here, "Team Curry JAPAN".
How far can Japanese curry go in 2024?

It was also a declaration of our intention at the beginning of the year to help them as much as possible.

Stay tuned for the next Flight.