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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Blue skies and idyllic country views are abundant in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture.

About a 15-minute drive from the city center stands Al ché-cciano, an Italian restaurant known to have spearheaded the concept of local production for local consumption.

Owner-chef Masayuki Okuda, 53, has been spreading the joys of the bounty of the sea and mountains as a goodwill ambassador for the Shonai area, which calls itself “The Food Capital of Japan.”

Okuda decided to pursue a career in cooking because of his father, who used to cook dishes at the local roadside restaurant he ran. He looked cool running the entire kitchen by himself and a young Okuda looked up to him.

“I felt happy taking the leftovers home and eating them with my mother,” he says.

After graduating from high school, he trained in Tokyo and opened his own restaurant in 2000.

At that time, his father incurred a debt of 130 million yen (about $938,000) due to a business failure.

Okuda was forced to repay the debt along with his father. He bought plates at the 100-yen shop for his restaurant and instead of stocking wine, he would run to the liquor store when customers came.

Since he could not afford to buy herbs and edible wild plants, he went to the mountains to gather them.

One such plant was gassan-dake, a bamboo shoot gathered from a local mountain called Gassan. It is a slender “nemagaritake” (young shoot of a broad-leaf bamboo that grows at an angle) measuring about 20 centimeters in length without bitterness and with a unique crunchy texture. A popular way to enjoy it is to cook it as tempura and season with salt.

An idea hit him.

“What if I cooked this as Italian cuisine?” he thought. “Why not replace the salt with dry cured ham?”

When he served the bamboo shoot as a fritter, it caused such a stir that magazines and TV stations flocked to cover the dish. As a result, gassan-dake became scarce in the area.

In 2006, he was featured in “Jonetsu Tairiku,” a documentary focusing on those who stand at the forefront of their fields, which aired on TV stations affiliated with the TBS Network.

Okuda’s father is said to have watched the program and quietly shed tears. They completed the payments for the debt after more than 20 years.

His father taught Okuda the idea of simplifying the process of making the fritter by dipping the ingredient alternately in flour and egg instead of making a batter.

Although he passed away about eight years ago, “I still look up to him,” says Okuda.

Born in Yamagata Prefecture in 1969, Masayuki Okuda is the owner-chef of an Italian restaurant. In 2000, he opened Al ché-cciano, which uses native farm produce and local in-season ingredients, in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture. He has received awards that include one granted by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 2022, his book “Pasutano atarashii yudekata: Yuderon” (A new way to cook pasta: Theory on boiling), published by RAKUA Books, won awards in two categories of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.

BASIC COOKING METHOD

Main Ingredients (Serves 4)

8 gassan-dake, 8 slices dry cured ham (nama-hamu), some flour and egg, bit of salt, some thyme and rosemary (to taste), some fennel or dill (to taste), some olive oil

1. Peel gassan-dake, wrap a slice of ham around root part.

2. Beat egg. Mix salt in flour. If preferred, finely chopped fennel or dill leaves may be added to flour.

3. Dust (1) with flour, dip in egg, then dust with flour again.

4. If preferred, deep-fry thyme and rosemary in oil heated to 200 degrees to transfer the aroma to the oil. Briefly fry skin of gassan-dake and serve on plate as garnish.

5. Deep-fry (3) for about 5 minutes until cooked. Drain oil thoroughly and serve on plate.

About 110 kcal and 0.6 gram salt per portion

(Nutrient calculation by the Nutrition Clinic of Kagawa Nutrition University)

Gassan-dake is in season from spring through summer. If fresh ones are not available, boiled ones (sold as “mizuni”) in packs may be used. Rice flour may be used instead of wheat flour.

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