KAGOYA KITCHEN

Buy Professional Quality Cookware
[published August 2023]

At Kagoya Kitchen (also called Takumi Seisakujo, or Takumi Works), you can buy various tools and utensils used by professionals in restaurant kitchens in Japan. These include the obvious frying pans and colanders, but they also carry many items specifically used in Japanese and Asian cooking. In particular Kagoya Kitchens’ specialty is the seiro, a steaming basket made of wood. It is used by setting it on top of a pot of boiling water, and in a relatively short time you can make tender meat and vegetables, making for a healthy way to cook in lieu of oil. You can also make healthy desserts like steamed cake by steaming cake mix. Sizes for wooden seiro steamers range from solo compact size to giant family size and come in many varieties. These steamers are mostly used for Chinese dim-sum type of cooking, but there is also a Japanese version called the wa-seiro, with a different thicker wooden lid. The highest quality steamers at Kagoya Kitchen are wa-seiro made by skilled Japanese artisans suing high-grade Japanese Cypress wood that has a very pleasant aroma.

Kagoya Kitchen also sells Chinese style stir frying woks. Their original woks are only 1 millimeter in thickness, making them thinner than typical 1.2mm thick woks. It may sound like a negligible difference, but you will be amazed by how much lighter they are when you are stir frying. Other special items you’ll find here that are unique to Japanese cooking include bamboo spatulas and the yukiri-zaru, a deep type of strainer with a vertical handle used by professional ramen chefs. If you go to a ramen shop in Japan, you will often see the chefs draining the water from the noodles by giving a few powerful shakes with this tool. If you want to make ramen as the pros do, you may want to purchase one of your own! You’ll also find many smaller and lighter items that would make great souvenirs, like pot stands made from corn husk fiber or small baskets for your kitchen.

The yukiri-zaru is a strainer used by ramen professionals to get the best noodle texture.

Kagoya Kitchen is located in Asagaya, Tokyo, just 8 minutes from Shinjuku Station or 23 minutes from Tokyo Station, using the JR Chuo Line. The shop is a 5-minute walk from JR Asagaya Station (JB05, JC08). Its sister store, Kagoya, which sells fashionable handmade basket bags and accessories, is located diagonally from Kagoya Kitchen, so be sure to check them out as well if you want to see more fine Japanese crafted goods.

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writer: M. Mizuochi
photographer: A. Kasamine
translator: G. Mudarri