You’ll know when you’ve arrived outside Ajo Base: nowhere else in Kita-Senju smells quite like it. Even in this gastronomically experimental Tokyo district, the restaurant enjoys a reputation as truly unique… because it’s all about garlic. Really. Almost nothing else is processed or consumed here. “There’s a common misconception that garlic always has a strong smell and can only ever taste garlicky,” says Miho Yamazoe, Ajo Base owner and head chef. “Including among Japanese diners. But by using specific fermentation, ripening, and cooking techniques, you can reduce the smell and bring out a variety of mild flavors.”
Image: Ajo Base
Yamazoe’s garlic expertise arises out of a firm belief that people should eat more garlic because it’s very good for them. But it’s also the product of decades of experience – the Yamazoe family has been in the garlic business since 1975. “We’ve been running our shop in the Tokyo district of Sugamo for 50 years, and we’ve developed a wide variety of products rooted in Japanese spice culture. Most of our regular customers have coming to us for 50 years now; the majority are 60 or older, and even those over 80 are healthier than average and full of energy.” Now, though, Miho Yamazoe wants to encourage the younger generation to follow in the older ones’ footsteps, to incorporate more garlic into their diets for better health. Her restaurant concept is part of those efforts.
In dialog with the Ajo Base garlic concept
The idea came about in spring 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. “That was when we realized that we needed to start engaging with young consumers as well. And we needed to do it in dialog, to figure out how to tailor our products to fit their tastes. So we created Ajo-Base here in Kita-Senju as more of an open-ended concept,” Yamazoe says. It’s a cross between a cafe, a restaurant, a food lab, and a relaxed get-together spot that helps us get a better sense of young people’s habits and preferences.”
Image: Ajo Base
But what does that mean exactly? For one, Ajo Base only works with select local varieties of garlic. Fukuchi White Rokkata from the Aomori prefecture, for example, has become particularly popular among the new generation of diners. “It has a sweet but strong taste whose full flavor profile unfolds when it is heated,” Yamazoe explains. Another popular base ingredient is AJO Koji, an additive-free garlic salt cleverly fermented with koji in order to bring out mild yet intense garlic flavors. And then there’s Aomori garlic, which is normally known for its strong smell. “We don’t use it raw, though,” Yamazoe says. “We heat it gently for a long time, which gives it a pleasantly mild, complex flavor. The Rational iCombi Pro and iVario Pro help us enormously with those preparation techniques. Thanks to flexible temperature and time settings, we don’t have to constantly supervise throughout those long cooking times,” she continues – and then explains the principle behind them: “The typical garlic smell fades in less than ten minutes for all products. The longer you wait, the more the mild complexity of its flavor dominates instead of the smell.”
How does Ajo Base’s food taste?
Watching Yamazoe work is especially fascinating, because Ajo Base makes use of the iCombi Pro and iVario’s advantages in a variety of preparation methods. For optimum long-term preservation of pesticide-free herbs, fruits, and vegetables, she relies on a gentle low-temperature drying process. On the AJO Pan – a butter-cheese-garlic sandwich – the iCombi Pro yields surprisingly delicate baking results with brown, crisp crusts and perfectly melted interiors. The AJO Black – a highly complex bun using black garlic, which is fermented through constant heat – uses the iCombi Pro’s steam function; Yamazoe swears that no other cooking system would yield the same fluffy, moist texture.
Image: Ajo Base
And then there’s AJO Pilpil Rice, which is cooked very slowly in a cast-iron pan and then topped with juicy pork steaks and whole roasted garlic cloves. “Although there are two whole cloves in it, it doesn’t smell,” Yamazoe says. “And it tastes so good that it’s one of our most popular dishes. “A lot of people swear they feel their tiredness fade after one bite. It’s fascinating! If we made this dish at home in the oven, it would turn out completely different. The iCombi Pro ensures that it’s cooked to perfection… and that perfection is ultimately why our customers come to us.”
So the question remains: Can Yamazoe really manage to infect the younger generation with her garlic enthusiasm? Yamazoe is more optimistic than ever, and recent years have given her reason to feel that way: the new Kita-Senju endeavor has proven more than worthwhile, and the strategy of seeking dialog with the new generation through a hybrid concept is bearing fruit as well. Miho Yamazoe is convinced that more and more young people in Japan are starting to discover the health benefits garlic offers. Healthy indulgence is the order of the day, after all. “Provided that you know how to prepare something so that it will taste really good.”
