Dishing the dirt

Among the containers of prepared salad leaves, pepper mills, a dish of large clams and myriad other ingredients found in kitchens the world over, a somewhat incongruous item sits atop the counter at Toshio Tanabe's Tokyo restaurant: a large bag of dark brown soil.

That it is in plain view is no oversight: while other chefs are wont to guard the secrets of their most dazzling recipes jealously, Tanabe makes no bones about the source of the unique taste and texture of many of the dishes at Ne Quittez Pas. The versatile ingredient he has incorporated into dressings and sauces, and drizzles over fish, meat and vegetables is plain mud.

And it is delicious.

"I came across mud as an ingredient in dishes by accident, I suppose," the 64-year-old tells Post Magazine. "It was about eight years ago and I was looking at vegetables to use in the kitchen, so I picked up a carrot that was still covered in mud. I brushed most of it off and took a bite - and realised that the mud was quite nice. It added something to the carrot.

"I knew I could not simply serve up soil on a plate to a customer, but I did want to work with it as an ingredient and so I started to try to cook with it," he says . "Little by little, I worked out how I could use it in dishes."

After tinkering with recipes in the kitchen of the European-inspired restaurant that he owns in the Gotanda district of west Tokyo - Tanabe spent three years honing his craft in France - he tried some dishes out on friends. From there he progressed to occasional mud-inspired additions to the menu. And then, in January, he introduced a full menu of dishes that make the most of the ingredient.