Home Cooks of York County, Maine
Ken Takayama of Kennebunk Maine
Ken Takayama of Kennebunk Maine
This Article was posted in the York County Coast Star 3/12/2009
Many of us have friends who are excellent cooks. We go to their homes, have fabulous and tasty meals the likes of which we may never brave in our own kitchens. We converse, feel uplifted by them, and overjoyed to receive and invitation to dine again. We get nervous however, with the prospect of inviting such a person to eat with us in our own home. We ask our selves, “What will they think of my food? Will they enjoy something like my Granny’s potpie or my husband’s favorite meatloaf?” It can cause stress to know a good cook as much as it can bring great flavor and good meals.
Ken Takayama is the exception to this good-cook-as-friend rule. When he arrives in your home for a meal, you feel his genuine interest and excitement into what YOU are creating. This man loves food and all of its manifestations: hunting for good ingredients, prepping, cooking, eating, talking about eating, and reading about food. I had the fortunate opportunity to meet Ken at a fundraising progressive dinner several years ago and have been sharing meals with his family ever since. I am struck by his attention to detail, his love of each ingredient, his respect for each cook, and what only can be described as mellow and appreciative energy for the food he makes, and for the food that is made for him.
This is to be expected as Ken’s roots in good cooking began while he was a child in Hawai’i. Ken’s mother, Yukie Takayama, and his grandmother Kato, taught Ken the basics of a Pan-Asian kitchen. He was making maki, a rolled sushi, and musubi, a formed and molded rice, before the age of 10. For the Takayamas, food was a continual social occasion and form of communication among their island friends. Fresh ingredients were “par for the course” and Ken described the ready availability of fish, fruit, and seaweed. He and his family were “locavores” before it even became fashionable.
Ken does not remember going out to eat as a child. Instead, he and his family prepared bountiful meals, consisting of traditional dishes like Pork Tofu and Chicken Hekka. The family’s Japanese heritage heavily influenced their cooking with ingredients like nori, a pounded seaweed, furikake, a sesame and fish spice blend, and tofu, a soy bean curd.
Ken’s mother gifted him with a copy of the “Maui Adult Extension Program Cookbook” when he came stateside to study physical therapy and to attend college. It was on the East Coast that he met his wife, Nina a native of Canada. He explains that he was deeply inspired in the 60’s and 70’s by the up-and-coming Julia Child. Ken loved the new ingredients available to him and began to experiment in Italian cuisine. He states that he was able to “woo Nina with his kitchen skills and his take on Veal Saltimboca.” Nina states she “was smitten”, the pair married, moving to their much beloved home in Maine to retire 2 years ago.
Ken described his culinary process as one in which he will “think deeply about the food, from the meat to the seasonings to the method of cooking. Then he says, “I’ll just do it!” He is relaxed and open in the kitchen, and always invites his friends to join in. He is famous among his peers for his Hawai’an pork ribs, his Lobster served with a butter lemon sauce, and his Cioppino, a seafood and fresh tomato stew. His culinary skill has overflowed into his seaside garden. He cooks with these ingredients, in the same way he was taught as a child: to use what you have at hand to make the best food possible.
Kristin Fuhrmann Simmons
kafcooks@gmail.com
www.kafcooks.blogspot.com
Many of us have friends who are excellent cooks. We go to their homes, have fabulous and tasty meals the likes of which we may never brave in our own kitchens. We converse, feel uplifted by them, and overjoyed to receive and invitation to dine again. We get nervous however, with the prospect of inviting such a person to eat with us in our own home. We ask our selves, “What will they think of my food? Will they enjoy something like my Granny’s potpie or my husband’s favorite meatloaf?” It can cause stress to know a good cook as much as it can bring great flavor and good meals.
Ken Takayama is the exception to this good-cook-as-friend rule. When he arrives in your home for a meal, you feel his genuine interest and excitement into what YOU are creating. This man loves food and all of its manifestations: hunting for good ingredients, prepping, cooking, eating, talking about eating, and reading about food. I had the fortunate opportunity to meet Ken at a fundraising progressive dinner several years ago and have been sharing meals with his family ever since. I am struck by his attention to detail, his love of each ingredient, his respect for each cook, and what only can be described as mellow and appreciative energy for the food he makes, and for the food that is made for him.
This is to be expected as Ken’s roots in good cooking began while he was a child in Hawai’i. Ken’s mother, Yukie Takayama, and his grandmother Kato, taught Ken the basics of a Pan-Asian kitchen. He was making maki, a rolled sushi, and musubi, a formed and molded rice, before the age of 10. For the Takayamas, food was a continual social occasion and form of communication among their island friends. Fresh ingredients were “par for the course” and Ken described the ready availability of fish, fruit, and seaweed. He and his family were “locavores” before it even became fashionable.
Ken does not remember going out to eat as a child. Instead, he and his family prepared bountiful meals, consisting of traditional dishes like Pork Tofu and Chicken Hekka. The family’s Japanese heritage heavily influenced their cooking with ingredients like nori, a pounded seaweed, furikake, a sesame and fish spice blend, and tofu, a soy bean curd.
Ken’s mother gifted him with a copy of the “Maui Adult Extension Program Cookbook” when he came stateside to study physical therapy and to attend college. It was on the East Coast that he met his wife, Nina a native of Canada. He explains that he was deeply inspired in the 60’s and 70’s by the up-and-coming Julia Child. Ken loved the new ingredients available to him and began to experiment in Italian cuisine. He states that he was able to “woo Nina with his kitchen skills and his take on Veal Saltimboca.” Nina states she “was smitten”, the pair married, moving to their much beloved home in Maine to retire 2 years ago.
Ken described his culinary process as one in which he will “think deeply about the food, from the meat to the seasonings to the method of cooking. Then he says, “I’ll just do it!” He is relaxed and open in the kitchen, and always invites his friends to join in. He is famous among his peers for his Hawai’an pork ribs, his Lobster served with a butter lemon sauce, and his Cioppino, a seafood and fresh tomato stew. His culinary skill has overflowed into his seaside garden. He cooks with these ingredients, in the same way he was taught as a child: to use what you have at hand to make the best food possible.
Kristin Fuhrmann Simmons
kafcooks@gmail.com
www.kafcooks.blogspot.com
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