【Reading】かいせきりょうり

【English Name】Kaiseki Ryori (Banquet Course Cuisine)

Kaiseki-ryori (会席) refers to a course-style Japanese cuisine prepared for banquets and dining gatherings. It is said to have originated when honzen-ryori was relaxed into a more casual form for gatherings of renga and haiku.

There exists a similarly named culinary form, "kaiseki-ryori" (懐石), but this derives from the tea ceremony and has a completely different origin; since the two are easily confused, caution is needed.

Tracing its history, by the Kansei era (circa 1789–1801) the style of setting aside the honzen format and serving sake and accompaniments first became established. Entering the Meiji period, a structure of adding rice and pickles at the end of the menu spread, and by the late Meiji period a form nearly identical to the present one is said to have been completed at ryotei in Tokyo and Kyoto.

The basis of the menu is ichiju-sansai (one soup, three dishes), with the three dishes being sashimi, a simmered dish, and a grilled dish. To these are added a starter (sakizuke), fried items (tempura, su-age), steamed dishes, and small bowls of vinegar-cured items, and at the close, rice, akadashi (red miso soup), and pickles are served together, with the meal ending on a fruit course (mizugashi). As beverages during the meal, sake and sencha are standard, and recently the number of establishments offering hojicha and coffee has been increasing.

Since the Meiji period, meat dishes and Western culinary techniques have also been actively incorporated, achieving a diverse development unconstrained by fixed conventions.