ABOUT

Why Persimmons and Chestnuts?

One of my favorite early food memories is foraging for chestnuts and persimmons in the Japanese countryside. I spent ten years there as a child, mainly on the mountainous west coast along the Sea of Japan. This is a part of Japan famous for rice, sake, fruit, seafood, and all things delicious. In the autumn we would run through the forest looking for fallen chestnuts and, stepping very carefully on either side of the prickly ball, we’d carefully extract the shiny nuts protected inside. We’d lay bright orange persimmons out on bamboo mats and watch them turn dusty white and sweeten in the gentle autumn sun.

Now many years later, and after living and visiting 20+ countries, my budding romance with food has developed into a passionate love affair. So much so that I left my job as a foreign policy and financial TV news producer to spend 9 months working as an apprentice in a fine dining restaurant.

If you love Asian food, have an interest in traveling to that part of the world, or just have a morbid curiosity in what it’s like to be at the bottom of the kitchen ladder, then welcome to Persimmons and Chestnuts.