As a gastronome and a lover of good food, I have always enjoyed the Japanese cuisine. As the son of an Island myself, a fisherman and a culinary expert, I learned all there is to learn about fishing and fish preparation as a young man. I thought! But in Tenpaku´s smoking hut in the village of Shima-shi in Japan, I learned a valuable lesson.

No nation can create such incredible products out of fish as the Japanese! Not even the Norwegians, Italians, France or the Portugeese. Nothing that comes from these culinary giants is as original and magnificent – fish vice – as the things the Japanese create. And after consuming thousands of sushi bites, countless dishes of fresh fish and baccalao, I have come to the conclusion that a unique Japanese traditional product is the giants of the oceanic culinary world.

The food connection between gods and people becomes evident in the smoking hut of Tenpaku in the little village on Nakri Daiosaki Headland, overlooking the pacific ocean. There a little fish is dried and smoked and turned into a product called Bonito. From that many dishes can be made, one of them is Katsuboshi.

A truly unique product in its simplicity and quality, either as an offering to the gods at Ise Shrine or as a food for us mere humans, consumed in the centuries old smoking hut or at the finest of Tokyo ́s Michelin restaurants. The smoking wood comes from the plentiful woods surrounding Ise Shrine and humble smoking hut draws top chefs from around the world to see and experience this unique product at the very source. To make a pilgrimage to the little smoking hut we had read and heard whispers about throughout our culinary careers.