Let me tell you about my belief in cooking. I believe cooking can be put into two simple　words. Love Spirit; cooking with one's soul. Many chefs spend years training and some can cook quite decent dishes like seasonal vegetables, baked dishes, and some has the skill of cutting the fish as if putting on a performance.
But what is important here is that if you don't cook with your heart, the masterpiece would become tasteless filled with chef's ego. I realize that there are many restaurants today like, ramen and soba that serve dishes without the chef's soul.
What makes a dish excellent? Is it the special material, and condiment that the chef use? I admit that it's true that if a chef cooks with the special and selective ingredients, the dish will not taste bad. But, there's something missing in making the dish fabulous.
Recently, I realized what was missing.
Back home, my mother cooked dishes according to the needs of my brother, grandmother, and father. Every night dining table is filled with dishes of love. For my brother, in hope of making his bones stronger, my mother cooked him small fish. My father, who was always tired from work, had small dishes to go with alcohol. Finally, a healthy seasonal boiled　vegetable dish for my grandmother.
Sometimes there were messages, which were more like an order. The dishes weren't gorgeous but yet, it is our family's kaiseki. A dish filled with LOVE. I always tell my staff members not to cook with just using their head and their hands. It's really not the skill that matters. The fabulous dish can be achieved through your heart.
What I really want to say is that, the hidden ingredient is love. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but there's only love that makes the dish a real masterpiece. The changes in married couple's and couple's feelings become clear through cooking.
Make sure you don't drown yourself in virtual reality when cooking. Use your instincts, but before that, think of someone you truly care for. My dishes are always simple, but yet I always cook as if I'm serving a loved one.
A dish with love is fabulous. Everyday it is the taste of love.