Eating one’s way through faraway places is one of life’s ultimate pleasures but I’ve never been a fan of cooking schools or food tours. That was, until a close encounter with a Japanese home cook changed things.
It happened in Kyoto’s Shimogamo district; the relaxed residential neighbourhood home to Taro Saeki, his wife Yoshiko and their two young daughters. There, in their two-storey home, Saeki runs Haru Cooking Class, a business devoted to teaching visitors about Japanese life and home cooking. The intimate classes cater for a maximum of eight people at a time and focus as much on culture as they do on ingredients.
There’s no flashy website, big marketing dollars or social media campaigns behind it. Like most great, grassroots food experiences and clandestine Japanese treasures, Haru Cooking Class
