MY REAL JAPAN: The Japanese home-cooking leads to the healthy life !

I believe that Mr.Yoshimitsu Tamego (78) is 1 of the greatest and famous cooking teachers in Japan just like Jamie Oliver in England. Most of the Japanese housewives  above  middle age know him well through the television.
He has taught the authentic Japanese cooking as the same way as how his teacher Mr Isao Tsuji who was the founder of the 1st Japanese cooking school for the chefs and also later for the young womenfolk all over Japan 60 years ago.
Nearly 40 years ago I just enrolled myself in the Tsuji Cooking School in Osaka .
At that time I was working at the General Traiding Company and I attended the classes after my work once a week for about 5 years.The school taught 3 kinds of cooking, Japanese, Chinese and Western respectively . There as he had classes as a supervisor , I was inspired by him.  He also appeared on television for more than 40 years teaching the cooking of home-cooked food. Amazingly,he did prepare Japanese food for the NHK soap opera like the Oshin which was shown in 1983 ...During the shooting for every episode of the dramas,  his food was appreciated by all of the actors and the staff for 30 years.

At school he taught us that the home cooking must be both simple and fast. 'You should bake the cookies for your children before buying them.'.I still remember his words of wisdom.After getting married ,I brought up 3 children, following  his guidance, I really enjoyed cooking at home and my family loved the variety of food. All of us  are very healthy and very seldom went to the clinic. Especially my husband, who has been very hardworking for the past 33years after our marriage has never visited the clinic or the hospital except for his cataract operation in Singapore.
I am so proud that my food has saved my family..

After I moved to Singapore in 2004 following to his transfer, my local friends of various races enjoyed my home cooked food.. Only then did I realize my cooking  which I've learnt in Japan could make them happy .

Last November, Yoshimitsu told me that , after his teacher Isao had won the Grand Prix in Switzerland in 1954 ,he invited foreign chefs from 10 countries like China, Taiwan, Italy, Germany ,France,Austria, Switzerland ... and took care of them for 10 years. He also employed an interpreter for each 1 of them. They had taught their own cooking skills at the school  and had also exchanged their cultures with the other Japanese chefs . Yoshimitsu  was indeed very much   affected by this precious  experience .

I'm pretty sure that they've contributed a lot to the Japanese cooking culture .
In Japan we believe that good housewives can cook 3 types of food at home..
In Singapore I 've met many women who are very good at cooking but normally ,
they can only cook their own food.Their exposure on other kinds of food is not much.
That was when I got awaken to our unique food culture ..We are interested in the foreign cooking and we could  also alter it according our Japanese Curry ,Stew,  Cutlet , Gratin,Pasta, Pizza , Hashed Beef Rice, Hamburger Steak, croquette ,many kinds of cakes and bread, fried dumpling (Gyoza), chinese buns .....and the famous Ramen!

We've been  opened towards the foreign food but why we can't open our minds to foreign people?
I am teaching the Japanese cooking in Singapore,multinational country, so
Yoshimitsu is now very happy and encouraged me too.

My 2nd great teacher,Mr.Michio Kushi ,who is the founder of Kushi Macrobiotics Academy in Boston, has been spreading all over the world about his diet and the Yin Yang theory,which was taught to him by his teacher . Mr George Osawa (his real name is Yukikazu Sakurazawa) had written the great book of  the 'Zen Macrobiotics.' and pointed out that,'you can be your own doctor.' Michio was sent by him to the USA in 1949 and there he taught Macrobiotics diet which is the Japanese style of vegetarian cooking. In 1993 the world's largest Smithsonian Museum started to show Michio's accomplishment for American people's health.

In 2009,after moving back to Japan,I started learning about the Macrobiotics ,in Tokyo ,Yamanashi prefecture and Yokohama for 4 years till just before I left Japan for Singapore in June 2013.
There , I managed to learn more ways of healthy cooking based on the theory and at the same time,brushed up my cooking skills even after I became an instructor of Macrobiotics.

I strongly believe that food can act as medicine without any side effects as it is producing our blood cells , above all it's delightful in our life.
I would very much like to contribute to the Singaporeans' health to lead a long life by the Japanese home-cooking and Macrobiotics diet which I've learnt in Japan..

Yoshimitsu Tamego 2013 Nov.10, Osaka

Basic Cooking

One of my Brazilian friends did love this menu↑ 'Meat stuffed Cabbage' .When she got married with the Japanese man 30 years ago , her mother- in -law who had already passed away cooked this meal for her.She still appreciated it and ordered it at one Japanese reataurant in Tokyo when we met just before they had left Japan for Brazil on April ,2011.