Celebrity Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi Returns From Japan With Lessons On Discipline, Cuisine And Conservation

Celebrity chef Harpal Singh Sokhi is back from a recent trip to Japan, and the experience, he says, left a lasting impression on him - not just as a chef, but as an Indian eager to bring back lessons for his own country.

Speaking about his time in the country, Sokhi didn't hold back his admiration. "My experience of Japan was overwhelming. I think it is one country from where we should learn ethics, discipline, manners, cleanliness," he said. What struck him most, he added, was how seriously the Japanese take environmental preservation. "The way they are preserving nature, it's amazing. Green Japan is something to watch out for. I did not see any place that was not green. It was completely filled with plants."

He was equally struck by the country's resilience in the face of natural disasters. "The country goes through multiple disasters every year, yet they sprint back and get up so fast that you don't come to know of the destruction that they have gone through," he observed, adding that India has much to learn from Japan's approach to conservation - particularly when it comes to protecting trees and expanding green cover rather than cutting them down.

A Cuisine That Doesn't Try To Please Everyone

As a chef, Sokhi was naturally drawn to Japan's relationship with its own food culture - one that stands in sharp contrast to India's. "They have evolved with that cuisine and they're very particular about it. In India, we try to please everybody," he said. He noted that even hotel breakfasts stayed firmly Japanese, with little appetite for offering alternatives. "There, I found that the hotel breakfast was Japanese-centric and they were not interested in doing any other cuisine for that matter."

While younger generations are slowly warming up to global trends like pizza and burgers, Sokhi observed that the vast majority of the population still leans heavily on traditional Japanese food for daily sustenance.

Knife Culture And The Art Of Precision

One of the most fascinating aspects of his trip, Sokhi said, was witnessing the sheer skill Japanese chefs bring to something as fundamental as knife work. "The knife skills of Japanese chefs is outstanding," he said, describing entire markets dedicated solely to selling knives - markets that have become tourist attractions in their own right, drawing visitors from across the world who pick up a blade as both a souvenir and a kitchen essential.

He was particularly fascinated by the rigorous training Japanese chefs undergo to understand meat and seafood - including the handling of fugu, the notoriously poisonous fish. "You need to be trained as a chef who handles fugu fish for nearly three years before you can actually attempt" to prepare it, he explained.

The Ajinomoto Connection

Sokhi's trip to Japan was part of a curated visit organised by Ajinomoto, aimed at giving a select group of Indian chefs and influencers a closer, more informed look at the ingredient - one the company hopes to reposition as a healthy addition to cooking rather than the "unhealthy" tag it often carries in popular perception.

Simplicity, Umami, And The India Comparison

On the food itself, Sokhi described Japanese cuisine as built on restraint rather than abundance. "Japanese cuisine is known for simplicity, for its raw flavour, rooted. They keep a balance of ingredients in such a way that the natural taste of the ingredient is never lost," he said, pointing to minimal use of spices, salt and seasoning as a defining trait.

Comparing it to India's culinary landscape, he was quick to note the scale of difference. "Our country is a large country and, as we all say, with every state the cuisine changes. With every 100 km, the produce changes, the cuisine changes," he said. Japan, by contrast, centres much of its flavour profile around umami - a singular taste the country has spent generations refining and perfecting.