Japanese Okonomi-style Free Cooking Wabi-Sabi and Imperfection

Japan — wabi-sabi as the aesthetic philosophy underlying Japanese cuisine; okonomi (as you like it) principle

Wabi-sabi (侘寂) — the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness — has direct culinary expression in several Japanese food traditions. Wabi is the beauty of simplicity and modest restraint; sabi is the beauty of things touched by time and wear. In food culture, wabi-sabi appears in: the preference for asymmetrical and irregular ceramics for food presentation (a perfectly round bowl is less interesting than one with a slight warp or uneven glaze); the appreciation of foods that mark the passage of time (pickles, aged sake, miso that has darkened with age); the cooking philosophy that values what is at hand (the mottainai concept — using everything, wasting nothing); and the 'okonomi' style of improvised cooking using whatever is available. Okonomi-style cooking: the literal meaning of 'okonomi' is 'as you like it' — the fundamental approach of using seasonal, available ingredients and preparing them according to the cook's judgement rather than following a precise recipe. Okonomiyaki as a food embodies this — the basic recipe accommodates nearly any ingredient and the cook adjusts according to preference and availability. The wabi-sabi dimension of Japanese food evaluation: a slightly imperfect wagashi that nonetheless tastes extraordinary is more highly valued in tea ceremony philosophy than a visually perfect wagashi with mediocre flavour. The Japanese meal that uses every part of an ingredient — the fish head, the scales (dried for stock), the bones (for dashi), the flesh (for the main dish) — is the wabi-sabi, mottainai expression of complete respect.

Wabi-sabi has no single flavour but it has a taste — the taste of simplicity mastered; the flavour of an old cast iron pan's seasoning accumulated over decades; the taste of miso that has aged through three winters; the flavour of the humble, perfectly cooked bowl of rice eaten alone; these are the wabi-sabi flavours — not impressive, not complex, but deeply true