Donburi

With the success of Japanese chefs in France displaying the inspiration they find in French tradition and ingredients (for instance Kei Kobayashi, Kazuyuki Tanaka or Patisserie Tomo), it's not surprising that French chefs are drawing on Japanese traditions.

Julien Lemarié, a Michelin-starred chef from Rennes who worked with the likes of Michel Troisgros, Yannick Alléno, and Gordon Ramsay, is drawn to the possibilities of donburi—the simple bowl of rice, often served as street food, which is typically dressed with anything from roasted vegetables to raw or quickly cooked fish or meat.

Offering nearly fifty different donburi and a host of accompanying sauces and condiments, Lemarié clearly respects the Japanese love of simplicity with versions such as cuttlefish, daikon, and seaweed. But the French influence is evident in the likes of pork sausage with fennel, or monkfish with cauliflower and lime.

Thoughtful, interesting, and not too far-afield.

In French. Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.