Japanese Comfort Cooking

An Opinionated Guide to Modern, Homey, Classic Japanese Recipes.

Japanese Comfort Cooking cookbook cover

Details

Authors
Tadashi Ono & Harris Salat
Publisher
Ten Speed Press
Published
Jun 9, 2026
Pages
256
Recipes
100+
Language
English
ISBN-13
978-0593837016

Fast enough for Tuesday, special enough for Saturday

The duo behind Japanese Soul Cooking returns with a warm, opinionated take on modern comfort food. The premise is generous: these are authentic Japanese recipes quick enough to pull off on a busy weeknight, yet elegant enough to build a weekend dinner around — and, crucially, dishes anyone can actually knock out.

Expect soul-settling miso soup, toothsome soba, broiled fish done three ways, and vegetables steeped in fragrant umami seasonings. Then the book leans into the new and playful: Japanese-style sandwiches, bright salads, a miso flat-iron steak, wagyu burgers, and what the authors cheerfully insist is the best fried chicken on the planet.

Ono and Salat treat traditional miso, soy sauce and sake makers as your best friends in the kitchen — the producers doing the flavor heavy-lifting so dinner comes together fast. — From the authors' introduction

Inside the book

  • All-purpose miso soups like chilled heirloom tomato and silken tofu — plus a framework for improvising dozens more combinations.
  • Under-30-minute weeknight plates such as next-level karaage and tuna sashimi with avocado and karashi.
  • Classic and modern sandwiches — pork katsu, tori nanban, and a wagyu sando worth the splurge.
  • The "refrigerator test": how to conjure a tasty Japanese dish from whatever happens to be on hand.

From your kitchen to a table out

With its emphasis on izakaya-style small plates and modern comfort dishes, this book pairs beautifully with a night out. Order karaage and a katsu sando at Kinka Izakaya in Toronto or Montreal, sample the lively grilled plates at Guu Izakaya in Vancouver, and see how a wagyu-forward menu comes together at Miku — then bring the ideas home.

Modern classics Under 30 minutes Miso soups & sandos 100+ recipes

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