May 2013

Indonesia, the fourth largest country in the world in terms of population, is blessed with a landscape rich in natural beauty. Tourism plays a major role in the country's economy and Sekolah Tinggi Pariwisata Bandung (STPB), Bandung Institute of Tourism is a major national institute established in 1959 aiming to support the development of tourism.

The Umami Information Center co-organized a series of five umami lectures for about 100 students and faculties under the title "Explore the Wonders of Umami" from October 2012 through February 2013.

1st session- October 5th, 2012
Theme: What is Japanese cuisine?
Lecturer: Mr. Naoyuki Yanagihara, Chef / cooking teacher, Yanagihara school of traditional Japanese cuisine
Chef Naoyuki Yanagihara explained the characteristics of Japanese cuisine, such as seasoning, then discussed the basics of umami. He also demonstrated how to prepare Japanese clear soup and sashimi.

2nd session - November 24th, 2012
Theme: Dashi and Umami
Lecturer: Mr. Kazuki Kondo
Chef Kazuki Kondo, the former department manager of the Japanese cuisine section of Tsuji Cooking School, explained how to use the Japanese knife, Houchou, in the first section. How to make dashi and recipes using dashi were introduced later.

3rd session - December 8th, 2012
Theme: Scientific information on umami
Lecturer: Dr. Ana San Gabriel, Scientific affairs representative of the Umami Information Center
Dr. San Gabriel gave a lecture covering matters of taste and umami as the fifth taste. She also talked about the synergistic effect and salt reduction effect using umami. Various tasting of kombu dashi, katsuo dashi and vegetable bouillon with/without glutamate helped participants to understand umami.

4th session - January 12th, 2013
Theme:How to utilize umami seasoning
Lecturer: Chef Kimio Nonaga, third-generation owner of Nihonbashi YUKARI
Chef Kimio Nonaga shared his original umami recipe based on Indonesia umami ingredient- tempe. He also explained how to make the most of umami using umami seasoning.

5th session - February 23rd, 2013
Theme: Scientific information on umami
Lecturer: Dr. John Prescott, Food consultant, Australia
Dr. John Prescott explained the basics of umami from a scientific viewpoint. His lecture enabled the audience to understand the fact that umami is a key factor in the sense of taste and furthermore, umami is not only found in Japanese cuisine but also other cuisine. So umami is a universal taste to be enjoyed globally.

Every session, participants showed a great passion for Japanese cuisine, dashi and umami. The Umami Information Center believes this support helped to deepen understanding of umami in the next generation of Indonesian culinary field.