Editor’s note: In the Taste of Life series, cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.

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As the owner of a Sichuan cuisine restaurant, chef Yoshiki Igeta has visited different parts of China year after year in search of ingredients and dishes that are new to him.

While training at a Chinese restaurant in Chiba Prefecture around 20 years ago, he stopped by a restaurant in China’s Hunan Province. A dish called “rei-shao-jao-chiezu,” whose name featured the Chinese characters for “grind,” “broil,” “spicy” and “eggplant,” piqued his interest. He had never seen the character “grind” being used in the name of a dish.

A large bowl of steamed eggplants topped with grilled green chili pepper appeared at his table. Satisfied it was what he had ordered, the waitress retreated with the dish and started mashing the contents forcefully with a pestle. When served, the dish looked mushy and was a subdued gray color. Igeta recalls how “unappetizing” it looked.

But the moment he took a bite, he was amazed at how good the smooth and sticky mashed eggplants combined with the sour sauce tasted. He began thinking how he could make his own version if he was to offer it at his restaurant.

Sichuan also boasts a dish where century eggs topped with grilled and chopped chili peppers are dressed with spicy sauce. The idea to add steamed eggplants and enhance the rich flavor dawned on him, and Igeta later began serving his version at a restaurant he opened in Tokyo. Later on, Igeta learned that the first Chinese character of the dish’s name meant “to grind.”

He admits to being caught off-guard a few years later. A similar dish featuring eggplants and century eggs was featured in a cooking-themed magazine he had been ordering from China. He says he realized then that “the source of ideas is the same for everyone.”

Since opening his restaurant in 2005 at the age of 34, he has stood by the theme of offering traditional cuisine. For instance, instead of using oyster sauce, he uses dried oysters to create the flavors. He doesn’t use chemical seasonings at the restaurant, either. But because Sichuan’s climate, natural features and ingredients differ from Japan, he tries to recreate authentic flavors making use of ingredients that are available in Japan.

Dishes from 100 to 200 years ago do not necessarily please the palate of those living in the modern age. For this reason, he thinks his mission is “to change the dishes flexibly and revive them to suit the times while respecting the 4,000-year history of China.”

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Yoshiki Igeta: Born in Chiba Prefecture in 1971, Igeta is owner-chef of a Sichuan cuisine restaurant in Tokyo. After training in Shanghai and Chengdu, among other Chinese cities, he opened Chugokusai Roshisen Piao-xiang in the capital’s Yoyogiuehara district in 2005.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serve 2)

3 (250 grams) eggplants (naganasu type), 1/2 red bell pepper, 2 green chili pepper pods (to taste), a pinch of salt, Seasoning A (2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tsp black vinegar, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, bit of Sichuan pepper [“hoajao”], 1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic)

1. Cut off calyx from eggplant, cut in half lengthwise and sprinkle with salt. So that they retain color, place eggplants in steamer skin-side down and steam for about 12 minutes. Cool. Pat dry lightly with kitchen paper, cut in half lengthwise and then horizontally. Place in mortar.

2. Grill bell pepper and green chili pepper on direct flame until surface turns totally black. Immerse in water with ice and remove burned layer. Chop and place on eggplant.

3. Mix Seasoning A in bowl.

4. Mash eggplant with pestle, add (3) and mix.

About 65 kcal and 1.2 grams salt per portion
(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

SHORT MEMOS

The red bell pepper and green chili pepper may be cooked in the fish grill if cooking on direct flame is difficult to do. Alternatively, they can be cooked in a frying pan.

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From The Asahi Shimbun’s Jinsei Reshipi (Life Recipe) column