Tableware that expands
the joy of cooking.
Tableware reveals many expressions depending on the colors and textures of the food and the way it is arranged. By combining pieces of different shapes and heights, everyday meals take on a richer character. Here, using three pieces from Sゝゝ — the Floral Plate, the Square Platter and the Footed Bowl — we introduce how to choose tableware to suit a dish, along with ideas for arranging food.
Our guide is Jinnosuke Umehara, executive chef of the Japanese restaurant Yakumo Saryo in Meguro, Tokyo. From a chef's perspective, he unravels how to arrange food so as to bring out each piece's character, and the pleasures of the table born from combining several pieces.
What do you value when choosing tableware?
First, I imagine the scene at the table and choose pieces to match the colors and textures of the dishes I will make. When using them at a restaurant, I also consider how the tableware will come alive within the space. In a spacious room with high ceilings, for example, I may gather pieces with a strong presence.
Which Sゝゝ pieces are easy to use at home?
The signature piece is the Floral Plate. Most homes already have flat dishes such as long plates or round plates, but adding the Floral Plate broadens the range of how you can arrange food. Its well is slightly deep and narrow, so even a small portion takes shape, and it generously holds a slightly larger serving as well — a truly accommodating piece.
Its modest height also creates a pleasant sense of dimension and rhythm on the table. It not only brings out the flavor of the food, but has a softness that brings a sense of ease to the heart.
How would you combine pieces of different shapes and heights, such as the Square Platter and the Footed Bowl, at home?
When hosting a home party, I recommend bringing in pieces that create a pleasant variation on the table. The Footed Bowl alone is effective, but if you add a square piece like the Square Platter and arrange dishes that are easy to share, height and rhythm emerge, adding a rich expression to the table.
On a long table, you can also use square and round pieces to divide areas and create different scenes. Alternatively, you can line up similar pieces and express continuity through the arrangement.
A combination of round and square, like the Square Platter and the Footed Bowl, makes it easy to add variety to all kinds of party scenes — I think they are very versatile pieces.
What is important in enjoying tableware?
There are basic ways of arranging food for each piece, but I think it is wonderful to try many things while valuing your feeling in the moment and the textures of the ingredients. The expression of a piece changes greatly depending on the food you place on it, so I hope you will learn from beautiful dishes and use your tableware freely and joyfully.
What is the appeal of Sゝゝ?
Sゝゝ tableware is truly well thought out, easy to use, and beautifully enhances food. It creates a pleasant rhythm on the table and has a presence that shapes the space itself.
And while it spans a wide variety of materials — tin, copper, wood, glass and more — its design has a clear sense of unity. That is why, however freely you combine the pieces, they harmonize into a single beautiful world. That, I believe, is the appeal of Sゝゝ.
Serving ideas with the Floral Plate
Sautéed Chicken with Burdock Sauce
An autumn–winter dish pairing chicken sautéed until the skin is crisp and fragrant with a richly flavored burdock cream sauce. Turnip is added as a seasonal ingredient, and finely shredded leek is placed on top, arranged to give height at the center of the plate.
The whiteness and matte texture of the Floral Plate harmonize beautifully with the smooth, milky cream sauce, lightly reduced. Layering whites of different tones and textures on one plate naturally draws the eye to the center and brings out the flavor of the dish.
Kinmedai Simmered in Ushio Broth
Golden-eye snapper, clams and tomatoes simmered in dashi and finished with aosa seaweed — a dish styled like an acqua pazza. A generous whole snapper is arranged together with the ingredients and broth so that it can be shared at the table.
While the Floral Plate's well is deep and compact, its wide rim makes it easy to use for dishes with broth, and even servings for several people come together beautifully. Vivid reds and greens stand out against the plate, adding brilliance to moments of hospitality.
Chilled Udon with Grilled Vegetables
Chilled udon topped with fragrant grilled vegetables and generously dressed with a rich sesame sauce. Following the beautiful curve of the Floral Plate, the udon is arranged to trace an arc.
The Floral Plate is also ideal for serving a lunch for one. Even without a special-occasion dish, a little care in arrangement gives the familiar plates of the everyday table a fresh expression.
Executive Chef, Yakumo SaryoJinnosuke Umehara
Born in 1969 in Hita, Oita Prefecture. He began his training at Tankuma Kitamise in Kyoto, served as head chef of a Japanese dining restaurant in Fukuoka, and spent eight years as executive chef of Zarai Oita (Ginza), Oita Prefecture's antenna restaurant in Tokyo. He is now executive chef of the Japanese restaurant Yakumo Saryo (Meguro). His many honors include the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' "Ryori Masters" award.
Together with artisans who possess Japan's proud traditional techniques, we are engaged in the "creation of everyday tools" for the present day. Bridging Japanese traditional culture from past to present and from present to future, we propose a refined and abundant way of living for the world.
