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BookTalk: Japanese chef Akane Eno prefers poetry in her native language for the rich vocabulary
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Chef Akane Eno of Ichigo Ichie restaurant, with the book she is reading, Two Billion Light-Years Of Solitude by Shuntaro Tanikawa, on Sept 24.
ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR
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Who: Tokyo-born chef Akane Eno, 47, who heads fine-dining kappo restaurant Ichigo Ichie in Orchard Road. The restaurant name references a Japanese idiom which encapsulates the idea of treasuring a unique moment in time. Chef Eno has led the restaurant since it was founded in 2020, a feat in the male-dominated Japanese culinary world. An avid fan of essays and poetry in her native Japanese language, she believes that cooking is also an art form.
“I am reading Two Billion Light-Years Of Solitude (1952) by Shuntaro Tanikawa. I first read some of his poetry when I was young and I enjoy how his writing is not overly complicated but carries depth that sparks the imagination.
