The cuisine at Hanakoji Sawada is tailored for each guest and party through a careful conversation at the time of reservation. Your occasion, your hometown and your experience at the restaurant all play into the chef’s choices for you. Especially for Japanese visitors from outside Hokkaido and overseas guests, the focus of the first visit is on showcasing the charms of Hokkaido through its many superb ingredients. As for regulars, the approach is entirely different: the chef builds a personalized course, anticipating their desires and allowing them to be the star, never one to push his ideas on others.

Each course entails seven or eight dishes and a refreshing Japanese-style dessert, and each season offers the chance to delight in specialty ingredients like kegani hair crab or fugu puffer fish. In every case, seasonality is key and the chef’s minute yet audacious performance elements wow even the seasoned diner. Yet there is nothing crazy about his techniques – he simply chooses the best methods for accentuating each ingredient’s innate flavor for straight, pure enjoyment.

Slow extraction of umami from premium kombu kelp variety ma-kombu, under the brand name Shirokuchihama, found in the Minami-Kayabe area of Hakodate, takes four hours. To this, Chef Kago adds bonito flakes that have been treated with mold to further draw out moisture for umami-rich densely flavoured flakes. The resulting balance of flavors in his dashi is outstanding. The best example of the chef’s style is his signature deep-fried corn. Locally grown and bursting with sweetness and umami, the only seasoning is salt. One cold appetizer contains edible chrysanthemum greens with lily bulb, topped with a generous spoonful of Italian caviar and finished with the chef’s elegant dashi. A warming bowl to follow may contain the delicious roasted aromas of kinki rockfish in dashi whose clarity belies the richness of flavor within.

An ingredient that speaks perfectly of the season, hair crab from Funka Bay in southern Hokkaido is delicious in its simplicity of preparation. And another Hokkaido delicacy – uni sea urchin – wows with its luscious velvety texture atop grilled eggplant with white miso sauce. The savory portion of the course culminates in handmade soba made from buckwheat grown by a farmer called Ochiai-san in Kuromatsunai, in the Shiribeshi region of Hokkaido. The town is famous as the northern limit for Japanese beech trees known as buna, but its fame keeps spreading with the delectable soba served up by Chef Kago, made possible by the annual buckwheat crop.

INGREDIENTS
Procurement of produce is carefully managed and long-term relationships with suppliers ensure the best of the best comes through the doors of Hanakoji Sawada every day. Many relationships date back more than 30 years, and while the focus is on specialty Hokkaido ingredients, including Shirokuchihama ma-kombu from Minami-Kayabe on the southern tip of the north island, ingredients from Kanto and Kyushu also make their way here.

The sake line-up includes precious prominent brands like Juyondai – the bold and expressive sake from Yamagata Brewery Takagi Shuzo. No matter your preferred style, your hosts are certain to tailor your libations to your individual preferences.