Cool Tools: Cooking Utensils from the Japanese Kitchen

A visually stunning book for the professional chef, the curious amateur-and anyone who appreciates the uniqueness of Japanese design and culture.

What do chefs use to grate wasabi, the eyewatering Japanese "horse radish?" To pick up the delicate cubes of tofu from boiling water? To slice sashimi? Or scoop freshly steamed rice from the pot?

Cool Tools reveals the answers to these questions and much more, as it explores the Japanese kitchen, finding a treasure trove of fascinating and practical items that are used by Japanese chefs in their daily culinary endeavors.

Japanese cuisine is flourishing among the food-conscious all over the world-as are the cookbooks featuring recipes from a wide variety of styles. Now, Cool Tools goes deep inside the kitchen, into the cupboards and the drawers, to the stove tops and wall hangers where all sorts of utensils are stored. Here are the items being manipulated by the hands of the famous in their awe-inspiring kitchens-and the not-so-famous in their homes.

As with so many Japanese creations, the utensils are both functional and artistic. And the pieces that are the focus of this book are treated as both works of art and items of practical interest. The photography, by one of Japan's leading lensmen, celebrates the care in materials and design. The text, by a long-time columnist on Tokyo dining and entertaining, celebrates the history, the usage, the people behind these tools, in brief, informative and entertaining entries.

Kate Klippensteen is a freelance writer based in Tokyo since 1986. She contributes features, essays and reviews on gastronomy, photography, film and travel as well as comparative culture to Japanese, U.S. and European publications. She is the author of several books published in Japan; Ganguro Girls, a book on Shibuya youth culture, published in Germany in 2001; and Vanishing Africa-The Samburu of Kenya (working title), a 12-year collaboration between the author and photographer Yasuo Konishi, to be published in the U.S. in the near future.

Currently based in Tokyo, Yasuo Konishi has worked in New York as a fashion photographer and has contributed to a number of books published in Japan.

Ori Koyama is an interior décor stylist who has worked for magazines, department stores, art galleries and on ad campaigns. She is the author of Inspired Shapes: Contemporary Designs for Japan's Ancient Crafts, published by Kodansha in fall 2005.