Taiko's Ingredient of the Year: Circle of Soy

Every September on Taiko New Year, Taiko restaurant celebrates its birthday. Inspired by the rotation of Zodiac signs at Chinese New Year, Executive chef Schilo van Coevorden chooses a new ingredient each year which surprises and adds a new dimension to the award-winning Taiko menu. After the great exposition for Wagyu, wasabi and red king crab, this year Soy takes centre stage in the brand new ‘Natsu menu’ of the much acclaimed Asian kitchen led by head chef Hugo Engels.

By choosing Soy, Taiko gœs back to nature and pays homage to a single bean, the bean that is one of the holy races in China and such an essential ingredient in Taiko’s cuisine. Following the bean’s life circle from a dry bean into a sprout, becoming a plant and growing fresh beans again – these different stages of the bean are all represented in one menu, from appetisers to desserts and from sushi to noodles. Taiko has collaborated with Tomasu, home of the only micro brewed soy sauce in Europe, which finds its origin in Rotterdam. Respecting centuries-old Japanese and Dutch traditions, the soy sauce is fermented and aged, for a minimum of 24 months, in 25-to-50-year-old whisky barrels specially sourced from Scotland’s finest distilleries to give the soy sauce a richer and one-of-a-kind taste palette. The relentless search for flavour fuelled the collaboration between Taiko and Tomasu. Both honouring beautiful flavours and textures and the mutual drive to push the boundaries: a natural collaboration emerged and finally resulted in ‘the year of soy’.

Experience different ways of preparations of this precious bean, from tofu to miso to our own Dutch Taiko Soy Sauce – a taste of soy you never had before. The ‘Natsu menu’ is available from 18 September 2018 to September 2019.

Video Credits: Shoot My Food & Food Inspiration