Journal

From India to Tokyo

A Flavorist from India Came to Study Koji in Tokyo

Can koji be grown on Indian grains and pulses?

· &LAB TOKYO, Jingumae

Chie Ando and a guest from India looking at a tray of fresh rice koji during UMAMI & KOJI LAB in Jingumae, Tokyo

Our guest had never made miso. Or koji.

But when a flavorist and biotechnologist from India came to &LAB TOKYO, our small kitchen in Jingumae, Tokyo, the questions arrived long before the lesson did, and they went far beyond a beginner’s class.

Could koji grow on basmati rice? What about urad, mung, masoor or chana dal? Foxtail millet, barley, peanuts? How would their different compositions change fermentation, enzymes and flavour?

This became much more than a koji lesson.

The questions came first

Before the session, our guest sent us a list of what they wanted to explore. It read like the notes of a working scientist:

  • Whole soybeans and soy flour, and the possibilities of basmati and other rice
  • Maize, barley, peas, peanuts, foxtail millet, and dal: urad, mung, masoor and chana
  • Composition data for each ingredient, sent ahead so we could discuss how each might affect miso and fermentation
  • A technical approach: microbiology, enzymology and sensory evaluation

The goal was to learn both the principles and the practice, well enough to reproduce them back home in India.

The UMAMI & KOJI LAB textbook on the table with the extra workbook made for this session
The UMAMI & KOJI LAB textbook, with the workbook written for this session.

Beyond the standard course

UMAMI & KOJI LAB is built around a core program, supported by an English textbook of approximately 100 pages. When guests have a particular area of interest, we ask them to tell us in advance so we can determine what can reasonably be covered.

This time, the requests went much further. Our guest had shared professional questions and detailed composition data before arriving in Tokyo, so alongside the standard course, we prepared a separate 15-page supplementary workbook, From Grain to Umami, specifically for this session. When the workbook was opened on the table, our guest’s eyes lit up.

The guest writing notes at the table, with koji samples and a tasting plate in front
Notes, questions, and koji samples on the table.

Bridging the technical parts

Chie Ando, who founded &LAB TOKYO, teaches in simple English. For this session, an American member of our support team joined us to help bridge the more technical parts of the discussion, together with a team member who studies fermentation alongside Chie. Terms from microbiology, and the finer points of how koji mold behaves, could be discussed precisely, and the conversation kept going deeper.

What we did

  1. Inoculate

    Steamed rice and tane-koji

    Sowing koji spores onto steamed rice by hand, with guidance on how tane-koji is used.

  2. Compare

    Several kinds of koji

    Making ama-koji, then tasting several kinds of koji side by side.

  3. Observe

    Koji under the microscope

    Looking at koji mold, its hyphae and spores, through the microscope.

  4. Discuss

    Indian grains and pulses

    Pulses brought from India: could they become koji? And what about natto?

  5. Make

    A miso session, added

    Miso is not part of a standard UMAMI & KOJI LAB session. Because it was requested in advance, we added how miso works and a hands-on miso session.

Hands sieving tane-koji spores over steamed rice in a wooden tub
First, sowing tane-koji over steamed rice.
Hands breaking up freshly made rice koji wrapped in cotton cloth on the kitchen table
Koji prepared in advance, taken out of its cloth.

Our guest took notes throughout and kept asking: how could India’s many pulses and rices open a fermentation culture of their own? Questions like that bring a kitchen to life.

In The Fermentation Alchemist Course we make a wider range of koji seasonings: not only shio-koji and ama-koji, but versions made with onion or garlic, or with blended curry spices. They are not limited to Japanese cooking, and that is what makes koji useful in other kitchens. Miso is not part of a standard UMAMI & KOJI LAB session; because it was requested well in advance, we added how miso works and a hands-on miso session. Of everything on the table, the cacao miso we make in class was the favourite.

We also put out the more unusual misos we make for ourselves. Guests taste them, and almost everyone says they want to try making them at home. People who come to this lesson are curious by nature, and that curiosity carries past any gap in language.

A stone plate with five kinds of miso and two kinds of sake lees, ready for tasting
Five kinds of miso and two kinds of sake lees.
The guest looking at koji through a microscope with a phone mounted on the eyepiece
Koji as it looks up close.

At the table

Vegetable sushi on pink rice with grilled vegetables, lotus root and lime, made with koji seasonings
The &LAB TOKYO Signature Lunch, made with koji seasonings.

The session ended around the table with the &LAB TOKYO Signature Lunch. Our guest went home with a soy sauce-making kit, rice koji, hishio koji, tane-koji, our special sushi vinegar and both textbooks.

Where koji meets other kitchens

Countries, cultures and languages differ. The wish to understand food, and to find out what makes it taste good, does not. What new flavours will appear when Japanese koji meets the grains, pulses and spices of India? We are already looking forward to finding out.

If you would like a tailored session like this one, please send your request at least two weeks before your date. New material has to be written and the ingredients sourced. Regular bookings close four days before the date, because the koji is prepared in advance.

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