Jun Tanaka – Food for Thought
Jun Tanaka is one of the most reputable chefs in Europe. The Japanese-British television chef is best known for his masterful command of French cuisine, presenting Channel 4’s Cooking It and BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, and for being the chef-patron of The Ninth restaurant in London. Born in New York to Japanese parents, Tanaka and his family relocated to the UK in the late ’70s. After flirting with the idea of being either a film critic or a cellist Tanaka decided to throw his weight behind becoming a chef. A wise call, for Tanaka would go onto work at enough Michelin-star restaurants that he may as well have cooked up his very own galaxy.
“Since I can remember, I have always loved eating,” says Tanaka, “my mother was a fantastic cook, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t eat. The only thing that disappointed me was oven chips as I didn’t like the fact they required zero effort!” The chef explains how his curiosity was further spurred on from watching his mother spend three days preparing for lavish dinner parties for his father’s business clients. Tankana would watch the fridge bulge and was overcome with a greedy desire to taste everything and anything he could get his hands on.
At the age of 19, he approached his father and asked him which restaurants were the best in London. From Le Gavroche to Chez Nico to Marco Pierre White’s restaurant Harvey’s, Tanaka started sending letters to the most esteemed restaurants of the 1980s asking for a job. Eventually, he was offered an apprenticeship at Le Gavroche under the Roux brothers.
“I can still remember the first day,” recalls Tanaka. “I was so scared as it had three-Michelin-stars at the time. I had clothes from catering college and so walked in in my pair of white trousers, white clogs, and a white neckerchief. When I got there, I realised I looked like a cricket umpire! The chefs were wearing a butchers apron, black trousers, black shoes and a skull cap. Honestly, it makes me cringe to think what everyone must have thought of me.”
The curtains to this comedy of errors did not close there. After Tanaka’s wardrobe malfunction, he was put on canapes and tasked with making his first Julienne (matchsticks) with celeriac. He had no decent knives, and so borrowed his mother’s best kitchen knife. “I must have cut myself a dozen times,” he laughs. And then, at around 5 pm, a weary blood-stained Tankana enquired when the late shift cohort was coming in. His colleague turned to him and said, “we’re it”.
The next decade would see Tanaka working painfully long shifts in a range of physically and mentally challenging kitchens. Following his apprenticeship, he worked at Chez Nico, where he vastly improved his knowledge of classical French cuisine. Subsequently, he worked at The Capital and then onto Le Saveurs on Curzon Street in the early 1990s. “That was the first place where I saw a different way to run a kitchen,” says Tanaka. “It felt far more like a family, it was a lot calmer, and there wasn’t a lot of shouting. It was a real eye-opener for me in terms of how I wanted my restaurant to run one day.”
Les Saveurs was then bought by Marco Pierre White, and Tanaka seized the opportunity to work alongside the celebrity chef at The Restaurant Marco Pierre White in Hyde Park. “He was cooking the best food in Britain at the time; he was the chef to work for,” claims Tanaka. “The Restaurant had three Michelin-stars at the time, and the food was incredible, so I felt proud to be able to work there, but at the same time, it was so challenging. It’s an intense environment, and you work crazy hours, sometimes 18-hour shifts. I wouldn’t change the experience for anything,” states Tanaka, “but I wouldn’t say I loved it.”
At the end of 2012, Tanaka left his job as executive chef at Pearl restaurant (where he was for seven years) and set up his own restaurant, The Ninth on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, London. Starting from scratch meant that Tanaka finally put into practice exactly how he believed a business should operate and importantly, how a kitchen should be run. “From day one, our focus at The Ninth has been the people who work there. If you have a team who are happy and motivated, they will work more efficiently, they will be more loyal, the guests will be pleased, and the food will be all the better for it.”
“The personality of a business is the personality of an owner, and you have to set an example. It’s little things that make a world of difference, like the way you communicate. Whether it’s a kitchen porter, chef de partie or commis waiter, you have to be respectful,” he says. “When people feel valued and respected, they will be willing to go the extra mile. It’s important that people feel heard.”
The Ninth is a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant that serves French and Mediterranean-style plates designed to be shared. “It’s the food I would cook for my friends and family as if they were coming round for dinner,” says Tanaka. “It’s warm, intimate and friendly.”
For Tanaka, inspiration for The Ninth’s menu comes from various influences but, most importantly, the seasons. “Right now, it’s Autumn,” he tells me. “In that case, we would start with the product like roe deer, and I then think of the best way to showcase its flavour. I know that deer goes well with seasonal vegetables like cavolo nero and beetroot, and so then I try and work out how to enhance both of their flavours, so they work in harmony. I’d probably create a simple purée out of the beetroot with red port and vinegar, and then with the hazelnuts are great with cavolo nero, so I would make a hazelnut pesto. Hazelnut and deer go well together, so then the dish goes full circle.”
Two permanent fixtures on The Ninth menu include the langoustine ravioli with scallop mousse and a sauce made up with langoustine shells and Datterini tomatoes, as well as the sought-after pain perdu & vanilla ice cream. “The pain perdu has never been taken off the menu; it’s by far the most popular, and sometimes people come in and just order that!”
Other items on the menu currently include flamed mackerel with kohlrabi and pickled lemon, salted beef cheek and a la grecque vegetables, delica pumpkin with pickled grapes, cashew nuts and whey butter and tiramisu, orange and espresso ice cream.
For Tanaka’s last supper, he decides to pay homage to restaurants where he has had some stupefying meals. For his starter, he picks the carabineros (red prawns) from Cervejaria Ramiro in Lisbon. “I love prawns, but this particular one is the best in the world. Ramiro is an institution, and there are always queues coming out the door. It’s one of those things you eat, and you can’t help but make a noise.” For his main he picks Pierre Koffman’s stuffed pig trotter made up of potato purée and veal sweetbreads: “It is unbelievably delicious, and it is super-rich, but it’s another dish where you take a mouthful, and you can’t help but make another noise.”
For his dessert, he decides on the lemon tart at the three-Michelin-star Osteria Francescana in Moderna, Italy. “It’s their signature dessert which is a lemon tart that is broken up. He says the inspiration was from when he was serving it, and it smashed everywhere on the floor, and he scooped it all up. It’s truly the best dessert.”
You can book a reservation at The Ninth here.
Try Jun Tanaka’s recipe for pain perdu & vanilla ice cream here:
Ingredients (serves 6)
Brioche
500g plain flour
3 whole eggs
100g sugar
10g salt
100ml milk
15g dried yeast
185g unsalted butter (room temp)
Anglaise to soak pain perdu
Few drops of Vanilla essence
500ml milk
500ml double cream
100g sugar
180g whole eggs
Vanilla ice cream
1 vanilla pod
500g milk
165g UHT whipping cream
120g sugar
50g atomised glucose
50g milk powder
4g stab 2000
To finish
100g unsalted butter
Caster sugar to caramelize
Method
To make the brioche, place the flour and sugar in the kitchen aid. Dissolve the yeast in the milk.
Start to mix the flour at a slow speed then add the milk. Slowly add the eggs. Add the softened butter in batches until it is completely mixed in. Finally, add the salt and mix for 3 minutes.
Place the dough in a bowl, wrap it in cling film and prove overnight in the fridge to develop the flavour.
Knock back the dough, shape and place in a loaf tin and prove.
Brush the top with milk and bake in the oven for 20mins at 200C.
Take the brioche out of the oven and allow to cool.
To make the ice cream, boil the milk and cream and add the vanilla pods. Add the sugar, glucose, milk powder and Stab 2000 to the liquid. Heat up slowly, bringing the temperature up to 85C. Pass through a sieve. Allow to sit for 2 hours then pour into an ice cream machine and churn.
To make the anglaise, mix everything together in a bowl.
Cut the brioche into logs 4cm wide, 4cm height and 14cm in length. Then, place them in a dish just large enough to fit the brioche.
Pour the anglaise over the top, carefully place a tray on top to make sure that they are completely submerged in the anglaise. Cling film the dish, place in the fridge and leave for 12 hours.
Carefully take the brioche out of the anglaise and sit on a wire rack to drain for 30mins.
Heat some butter in non-stick frying pan, add the brioche and brown all over.
Take out of the pan and place on a baking tray. Cook for 10 minutes at 180C. Take them out of the oven, sprinkle some caster sugar over the brioche and caramelize with a blowtorch. Repeat this process until it is caramelized on all sides.
Place on a plate and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.