For soba master Shuichi Kotani, soba, or buckwheat noodles in English, is just a food that serves.
“Soba saved my life. “
Kotani grew up in Japan’s Hyogo prefecture and was once a junior Olympic sprinter and trained through former coach Carl Lewis. However, things began to go awry when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. He began to suffer physically, but also mentally, from the severe side effects of the medications. The family also faced financial hardship due to their mother’s emerging medical expenses.
His sporting dream was gone. After graduating from high school, Kotani began applying to a local restaurant where he consulted an architecture magazine and became a designer. On the recommendation of an acquaintance, he moves to Tokyo to pursue his new dream and goes to a well-known architecture workplace. No strings attached, no appointments, asking for work.
“Of course he said no, but I kept coming back for the next few days,” Kotani said. In the end, the designer said yes to an unpaid internship; He also says that Kotani paints at his friend’s soba restaurant to make money.
The owner of the soba kaiseki restaurant, Kyorinbo, is an architectural designer but also an accomplished soba maker. “He asked me if there was anything I could be proud of and I might not answer him,” Kotani says. The owner showed up to teach him how to make soba to help him gain confidence.
“I accepted his offer without knowing the training would start at 4 a.m. every day,” Kotani laughs.
It was 25 years ago.
Since that day, soba has captivated Kotani. The undeniable buckwheat flour and water give the beautiful texture and flavor to the soba noodles. Its quality depends entirely on your attention to those two ingredients.
The religious aspects of making soba distracted him from his mother’s health problems. Kotani honed his skills at well-known soba restaurants in Tokyo, including Edosoba Hosokawa and Gonpachi, where he handmade more than 1,000 servings of noodles a day.
Sadly, his mother passed away while he worked in Tokyo but her illness made Kotani painfully aware of the importance of a healthy diet. “I wish I had known healthy food could have prevented her disease. Now I am committed to offering the most nourishing food to the world,” says Kotani.
And that’s soba.
“Soba is rich in protein, soluble fiber, B1, B2 and choline nutrients, which can prevent cancer and liver disease. In addition, soba is the richest source of rutin, which has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects,” he says. “By eating buckwheat, you can avoid fitness problems, such as high blood pressure, hypertension, and fatty liver. »
Kotani was recruited and transferred to New York City in 2007 as executive chef of Soba Totto. There he acquired a wonderful reputation before starting his consulting business in 1999.
In addition to supporting the operations of other soba restaurants, Kotani has actively raised awareness about buckwheat’s tough health and its sustainability in agriculture.
“Soba can grow literally on any soil in 72 days, including in Africa where no other plants can be cultivated. Not only that, soba can nurture unproductive soil itself. For example, in traditional Amish farming, soba is grown on sterile soil to make it fertile,” Kotani argues passionately.
Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of two-Michelin-starred Blue Hill Stone Barns in New York City, works with Kotani. His team grows buckwheat on the restaurant’s lawn to nourish healthy soil and serves buckwheat on their plates.
But Kotani’s vision literally goes beyond that.
“Now we are talking about plants that can be grown on Mars and buckwheat is the best candidate. ” He has lectured on the prospects of buckwheat at Harvard University and other institutions.
In September 2023, Kotani opened its first Uzuki restaurant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
At Uzuki, he only serves Towari-style soba, which is made one hundred percent buckwheat. “Standard soba noodles contain 20% wheat to add a little gluten, which makes it easier to take care of the dough. Without wheat, it is much more difficult to shape the noodles to produce slightly silky and completely flavorful noodles.
Towari is a proof of master soba chef and making it requires spiritual focus, which became the essence of Kotani’s life at this point.
“I watched my life go from being an Olympic star to being a troubled child at a delicate young age. I found that it was very difficult to deal with my mother’s suffering and my family’s financial situation. If they hadn’t taken me to make soba, I probably would have died a long time ago,” he says.
For Kotani, Uzuki is a role for spiritual health.
At Uzuki, he includes moments of meditation in his diary: a tea rite with buckwheat tea; making the pottery he uses in the restaurant. ” Making pottery is very similar to making soba noodles, with all my attention directed to my fingers. Both purify my mind.
Uzuki offers a concise and original menu, all gluten-free, thanks to the one hundred percent buckwheat noodles.
A signature dish is Duck Shio Soba, which is based on classic Japanese kamonanban soba. Instead of simply using Japanese-style roast duck, Kotani adds French-style duck confit and Peking duck to showcase the great chemistry between the earthiness and subtle sweetness of buckwheat and the richness of duck meat.
Soba is known as noodles in America, but he introduces the traditional buckwheat dishes in non-noodle formats too.
Honkuzu Soba Neri Tofu is a rich custard of delicate kuzu starch, sesame cream and soy milk, flavored with originally blended dashi and wasabi. Grilled Soba Miso is a sake lovers’ snack made with homemade miso, roasted buckwheat seeds and flavored with wasabi and scallions.
Kotani leads Uzuki’s kitchen but minimally steps into actual cooking. He also organizes special dinner events periodically to develop his team’s skills further.
“I want soba to be part of a healthy American diet. To do this, I want my chefs to one day be wonderful ambassadors of the soba.
Shio Soba duck in Uzuki in Kotani’s handmade ceramic bowl.