For Ozasa “Masa” Masayoshi, a perfect day is to wake up and cook until bedtime -and then dream about it. Masa is the head chef and fourth generation heir of Matsusho restaurant in Kyoto, which specializes in Kyoryori (Kyoto cuisine) focusing on fresh local vegetables. With a history of more than 1200 years, Kyoryori is at the pinnacle of Washoku (Japanese cuisine). Washoku was designated as an UNESCO world heritage intangible cultural asset in 2013.
I first met Masa in San Diego in the fall of 2023 when he came to prepare for an event to introduce Kyoryori at the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum in Balboa Park.
“I think about cooking all the time,” Masa smiled enthusiastically. “My grandfather used to say, a chef’s worth is only determined by how much he cooks.” Masa’s pure enthusiasm for cooking and feeding people seems to make everyone he meets feel happy and nourished.
After the successful event at the Friendship Garden in January 2024, Masa wanted to return to San Diego this summer, so I agreed to host him to conduct workshops featuring vessels made by artists for Entoten in August.
This time, he arrived with a heavy rectangular pan for making dashimaki, a Kyoto-style rolled omelet that is a signature dish of Matsusho’s. The large pan took up half a suitcase, but he was eager to make dashimaki for the people of California. “Many customers in Kyoto have their favorite dashimaki, and restaurants with their roots in catering take pride in their own recipes,” Masa said. “The dashimaki I make is imbued with the spirit of our restaurant’s 90-year history, and our customers come to taste it with that in mind.”
Masa’s restaurant, Matsusho, started in 1936 as a catering service in central Kyoto, and in 1980 opened a restaurant in Kameoka, in the agriculturally rich Kyo-Tamba region. The restaurant also offers shidashi (catering) services that includes delivering food packed in boxes (bento), food on tableware that is later collected, or by going in-person to a client’s home or venue to cook, serve, and clean up.
Shidashi business flourished during the Edo period (1603-1868) to feed the busy merchants of Kyoto’s traditional industries, their customers, and employees. Even today, if you’ve been lucky enough to have been invited to eat in someone’s home in Kyoto, it is likely that your host ordered shidashi-catered food. Kyoto people consider this arrangement more comfortable and relaxing for the host and their guests because both parties feel less pressure and obligations.
Cultivated in this age-old tradition of Kyoto’s unique hospitality, what sets Masa apart from other chefs is a deep sense of humility and ample patience to listen to and respond to the needs of the people that he serves. He is skilled at answering questions and sharing his expert knowledge -with a sense of humor- that is helped by his experience as a teacher at the Culinary Academy in Kyoto.
Some of the questions that he was asked most often during his time in San Diego were:-
How long have you been cooking?
23 years.
How do you make dashi?
By simmering kombu kelp for an hour in the morning that has been soaked overnight, and adding katsuobushi bonito shavings at the end. We use ma-kombu kelp from Southern Hokkaido’s Osappe and Kakkumi area, and katsuobushi bonito shavings, that includes the bloodline of the fish, from Kagoshima’s Makurazaki.
Which roll is the most difficult in making the dashimaki?
The last roll is the most difficult, but the first roll is the most important.
How sharp is your knife?
So sharp that the fish doesn’t realize that it’s been sliced.
If you didn’t become a chef, what other career would you have chosen?
To be a teacher or an MLB baseball player (he took one day off during his stay in California to watch a Dodgers game).
Aside from the kelp and katsuobushi that are used for the all-important and delicious Matsusho dashi stock, locally grown California ingredients were at the center of Masa’s cooking. I enjoyed taking him to meet Tom Chino of legendary Chino Farm, made famous by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse who started the New American Cuisine movement back in 1971.
Another great destination was Tuna Harbor Dockside Market where locals can directly purchase the fresh catch off the local fishing boats every weekend. Masa observed that, “San Diego has delicious uni (sea urchin) and this uni eats good kelp. There must be good kelp here that can be used for dashi too, but no one is harvesting or processing this kelp.”
With our events that spanned 12 days, more than 140 people got to taste Masa’s cooking. He also connected with local chefs, carried out chanoyu kaiseki workshops, organized a tea pairing event with PARU, volunteered for a food education class for American children with Table for Two at the Friendship Garden, and also traveled to Los Angeles to teach a cooking class at TOIRO, in Hollywood.
Sustainability is frequently talked about these days, and there is something that we can learn from the culinary attitudes and techniques found in an ancient capital that has survived for over a millennium. Kyoryori is a technique to cook with elegance and restraint, keeping the sources and preparation of ingredients honest, simple, and seasonal. “Kyoryori should never be a parade of luxury ingredients,” Masa explained, and the cuisine does not participate in the competition of decadence and indulgence.
In retrospect, what impressed me the most about Masa was a sense of joy that he radiated to the people around him through his cooking. He spent mornings harvesting fig leaves from a friend’s tree to use in the menu that evening. He woke up at the crack of dawn to arrive early at the fish market to get the first choice picks. He snuck into the kitchen in the middle of the night to make desserts for the tea students. He carefully sliced carrots to make beautiful curls for garnish.
Perhaps if we really open up our senses and cook thoughtfully like Masa, we can better connect to the world around us and what it has to offer. If you are ever in Kyoto, I urge you to make the side trip to Kameoka, meet Masa, and enjoy his food and hospitality
More photos taken mostly by our friend Tomoko Matsubayashi. Enjoy!
(I tried and it became a scrambled egg).
