Can you tell us about The Japanese Pantry and its mission?
The Japanese Pantry is a company dedicated to bringing the best quality artisanal Japanese ingredients that we have found in our travels throughout Japan to professional and recreational cooks in the United States.
How did The Japanese Pantry come to be, and what inspired its creation?
Following years of running acclaimed restaurants and earning Michelin stars, Greg started a San Francisco restaurant called Nojo. As the chef and owner, Greg created his own unique take on a Japanese izakaya. While running Nojo, Japanese trade organization Jetro offered Greg a list of products to use at the restaurant to promote the import of Japanese ingredients. He used a black sesame paste made by Wadaman Goma to create a dipping sauce for Nojo’s gyoza, and when the president of the company came to dine at Nojo, he was so impressed with his meal that he invited Greg to come visit their Osaka factory. Greg’s trip to Osaka with Takehiro changed everything he knew about sesame and gave him an insight into the possibilities of building relationships with producers in Japan. Back at Nojo one of Greg’s regulars, Chris, said that he’d just returned from Tokyo with a suitcase full of Japanese artisanal provisions that he couldn’t find anywhere in the States. Greg mentioned that he was thinking about starting a company that would fix exactly that problem. Within a week, Chris and Greg were discussing going into business together, and The Japanese Pantry started in December of 2015.
Can you walk us through the process of sourcing and curating your exceptional products?
Chris and Greg visit each producer to make sure each product fits their mission, but it all started with Wadaman Goma. According to the business partners, Wadaman is the best sesame producer in the world. Building on their mutual trust, Wadaman’s president, Takehiro, introduced the pair to a friend who produces amazing konbu. The konbu producer introduced them to his friend who made incredible rice vinegar, and so continues The Japanese Pantry’s journey through Japan’s network of artisans. After their first shipment from Japan, Wadaman became their exporter, and they still rely on him to procure products they’re interested in. If Chris and Greg are impressed with the samples, they then set up a trip to visit the producers.
Tell us about any unique techniques or traditional methods used by your producers and why they’re important.
The producers The Japanese Pantry gravitate towards often have hundreds of years of history under their belts and are run by members of the same family that founded the companies, who use techniques that have been passed down through the generations. A great example is Ito Shoten, whose 200 year old tamari brewery has been run by the same family for nine generations. On Chris and Greg’s visit to the factory, the family’s grandfather and grandson showed the partners cedar vats that ranged from 100 to 200 years old. Everything is done completely by hand, using sustainable ingredients and traditional equipment, like river stones. During their visit, the family's grandmother kept the pair full of green tea and mochi, and as they left, the 85 year old grandfather waved to them as he drove by on a forklift.
What does a typical day look like for your team when collaborating with producers?
After getting introductions and product samples from their network of artisans, Chris and Greg head to Japan to visit factories. This will often mean getting factory tours and introductions to the techniques and history of each facility as they connect with talented artisans, but it varies with each product. While visiting Takehisa, a dried shiitake company based in Kyushu, the pair were shown through the entire process of growing shiitake and then given a bucket to fill with their own harvest. The Yamaguchi’s, who work at the farm, cooked the bounty on a small grill nearby, and Chris and Greg sat down to a meal of green tea and freshly grilled shiitake by the fire before continuing on their tour.
How does sustainability influence your approach to sourcing and distributing your products?
The Japanese Pantry’s focus on artisan products naturally sends Chris and Greg to sustainable companies. Many of the products they source are made with minimal, high quality ingredients, in factories that are over 100 years old. These traditional Japanese companies often create their products by hand, or otherwise by using slower, less mechanized techniques. Practices that have been passed down through generations are often painstaking in reducing waste and environmental impact. Traditional soy sauce brewers that Chris and Greg stock use cedar barrels to age and ferment the soy sauce. Because important flavor notes are carried by beneficial bacteria in the cedar, factories will often line the walls with the wood too. When it’s time to rebuild the brewing room, these companies carefully reuse the wood to line the new room. The benefit of sourcing from these sustainable companies is mutual, with customers appreciating the difference in quality and taste in the carefully made products, while the small scale of production keeps negative impacts minimal.
Where do you see The Japanese Pantry in 10 years, and how do you hope to grow?
A big part of our mission as a company is to help expand the reach of traditional Japanese products and to help keep the knowledge about Japanese culinary traditions alive, as fewer artisans are trained and small, traditional companies struggle to stay afloat. In the next ten years, we hope to keep building relationships with producers, cooking with high quality ingredients, and providing more traditional products to our customers. We also see many new directions open to us and are excited to keep growing. We recently introduced a cookware line, and have been learning a lot from our network of artisans in Japan.
We carry a collection of The Japanese Pantry products, which you can shop here.