Episode14

Maori Haas Murota

Chef

Chef. Born in Tokyo. Moved to New York at seventeen and spent time in Bali and Tokyo before settling in Paris in 2003. After building a career in fashion, Maori made the switch to catering. Opened a cooking school in Paris and published the cookbooks Tokyo Les recettes culte (Cult-classic Tokyo recipes) and Cuisine Japonaise maison (Japanese home cooking), both with Marabout. Relocated to Nagano in 2023. Japanese publications include Vegetarian, Paris Style (Seigensha). Maori is currently working on a new cookbook. Shares everyday vegan recipes on Instagram @maorimurota.

maorimurota

Chef. Born in Tokyo. Moved to New York at seventeen and spent time in Bali and Tokyo before settling in Paris in 2003. After building a career in fashion, Maori made the switch to catering. Opened a cooking school in Paris and published the cookbooks Tokyo Les recettes culte (Cult-classic Tokyo recipes) and Cuisine Japonaise maison (Japanese home cooking), both with Marabout. Relocated to Nagano in 2023. Japanese publications include Vegetarian, Paris Style (Seigensha). Maori is currently working on a new cookbook. Shares everyday vegan recipes on Instagram @maorimurota.

maorimurota

Making it through the winter.

“In winter, the kitchen can reach -10°, so we have to put food in the fridge so it won’t freeze. In the mornings, sometimes I’ll open the front door and find a wall of snow. I didn’t get my license until moving here. It can be really frustrating driving on the snowy hills, but with so many mountains in the area like Madarao, Myoko, Togakushi, and Iizuna, my husband, who loves skiing, says he’s in heaven. The first wild vegetable of the year is fukinoto, which pokes its face out of the snow. Until we can start harvesting vegetables in June, we’ll pick away at our stockpile in the snow cellar.”

Three years ago, chef Maori Haas Murota and her family of three relocated from Paris to Nagano. Hugo, her architect husband, and Jimmy, a Swedish carpenter friend in a neighboring town, are hard at work renovating their 150-year-old home. Today, they’re getting ready to finish the walls and treat the floors with a natural insulating compound made from rice husks and lime.

“Someday, when no one lives here anymore, we want this house to naturally decompose. Right now, we’re working on the doma and the bedroom, so half the house is a construction site! The countertop in the kitchen, which is my workspace, is a desk reclaimed from a science classroom at a school. The basket we use for fetching veggies from the garden and the lanterns we use for light fixtures are all treasured gifts as well.”

The epitome of local produce

“Most of the vegetables we eat are shared with us by neighboring farms. These are bountiful harvests. For today’s lunch, I’m using tomato, satsumaimo, and eggplant we were given the other day. I usually spend around two hours in the kitchen, staring at these vegetables and choosing how to prepare them, like I’m on some kind of game show. Lots of what I make, I’m making for the first time. If it’s good, I’ll make it again and try writing up a recipe. I also write cookbooks, so my notes are filled with scribbles, almost like magic spells. Because I like to improvise, it’s hard for me to measure things out for a recipe...

How about we head out to the garden for some veggies? I had my eye on a specific mitsuba plant. There’s also basil, myoga and cherry tomatoes ready for picking. I’m realizing that I cook with different foods now, compared with when we lived in Paris. Parisians get their fruits and vegetables at the market, focusing on what’s in season, but here, I’m cooking solely with things grown in a half-kilometer radius, the epitome of local produce. The eggplants Jimmy grows are packed with seeds. We’ll eat them with soy yogurt and tomato sauce, or do a Lebanese dish using chili oil made with some of our misansho. My husband absolutely loves grilled eggplant.”

Maori is mostly vegan, while her husband Hugo maintains a vegetable-centric diet, though when they’re invited as dinner guests, they’ll gladly eat whatever’s made for them. In this day and age, relaxing one’s own rules to accommodate others is an admirable custom.

What is it you truly love?

Maori lived in Paris for twenty years. Pursuing a career in fashion, she was an assistant designer for Christophe Lemaire. She knew that she loved making things, but when she took a step back from the ever-changing world of fashion trends to ask herself what she really loved, she decided to go down the cooking path.

A portion of the truckload of rice husks drying in Hugo’s workspace on the property. They’re part of a DIY insulation that will help the floors and walls block out the cold. As a founder of the Paris architectural team Ciguë, Hugo worked on interiors for the Uniqlo U design studio in Paris. Today, he runs hugo haas studio, looking after a variety of projects in Tokyo and Paris.

“My father and mother love cooking too. I started helping them when I was little. We ate all kinds of great dishes from Japan and all over the world. For me, traveling revolves around food. Asian street food especially. I can’t get enough. Once I had built up the courage to make cooking my livelihood, my first job was catering a small show for Lemaire. After relocating to Nagano in 2023, I started writing cookbooks and making dishes using local organic produce for Vrac Market, a store run by a friend here who has helped make the move a lot easier. I was born in Tokyo and spent long stretches of time in cities like New York and Paris. This is my first time living in the countryside. I’m really feeling the effects of the environment. It’s taught me just how important community is. My husband can’t really speak Japanese, but he still helps out the old guys in the neighborhood with chopping wood. We’d imagined ourselves living a laidback existence, but each season brings its own demands, whether it’s harvesting vegetables or shoveling snow. The average age around here is eighty-five. We want to continue this lifestyle as long as we can. Not pushing things, but working naturally, and having fun.”

Maori’s family loves to spend time at the pond near their house. Denim is the perfect material for this kind of natural living. Hugo’s denim utility jacket and baggy jeans are both from this season's collection.

(L)

Utility Jacket

Baggy Jeans

My worn-out uniform

When Maori and her husband moved from Paris to Nagano, they arrived carrying two suitcases each. This meant leaving lots of things behind, but inside one of those suitcases was a pair of UNIQLO jeans she’d had for fifteen years.

“When I made the shift from clothing to cooking, I also revamped my style. I was used to wearing haute couture, but then one day I passed by a UNIQLO in Paris and discovered a simple pair of jeans. I can wear them in the field. They’re full of holes. I don’t think twice about wiping off my dirty hands on them. I want my everyday clothes to be with me for the long haul, a part of daily life. The same goes for dishware and recipes. There’s nothing wrong with dishes anyone can make. I’ve had my UNIQLO mesh belt since Paris, while I picked up the denim jacket secondhand. Whether it’s clothes, dishware, or tools, I appreciate items that have a broken-in feel. A few years ago, when I decided to focus on making delicious dishes without using animal products, I resolved to build my wardrobe around pre-worn items. Maybe this has something of the Mingei aesthetic, where tears and cracks only add to the charm of a piece. I think it’s all about comfortable longevity. Not letting the rules hold you back. UNIQLO is so important to our family. It’s part of the fabric of daily life.”

Maybe this has something of the Mingei aesthetic, where tears and cracks only add to the charm of a piece. I think it’s all about comfortable longevity. Not letting the rules hold you back. UNIQLO is so important to our family. It’s part of the fabric of daily life.”

Maori’s daughter wearing a Keith Haring shirt from the UT after arriving home from school.