Cooking for myself is about "independence," "freedom," and "self-confidence."

Five years ago, I suddenly developed a troublesome food allergy,making it impossible to eat out, travel, or share meals with my family, and before I knew it, I had started turning a blind eye to "food."

"Food" was something painful.
It was something that always made me feel down.

Even though I had loved it so much, enjoyed it so much, and it was my area of expertise to the point where I ran a restaurant guide and wrote several books.
Well, I suppose because my love for it was so strong, I turned a blind eye to it more than necessary.



Then one day, I reflected deeply, thinking, "It's really not good for my life to be this negative about the three meals I have every day!" andI decided to start "cooking for myself" to regain the "joy of food."

It had to be minimal so that I could keep doing it.
And it had to be food that was good for my body and mind.

Also,"not being controlled by recipes"is important too.
If you get caught up in detailed recipes—like 1 tablespoon of this, 2 teaspoons of that, how many grams of flour, 500g of water, half a daikon radish, or 200g of chicken breast—it eventually becomes a hassle and you stop doing it.

I did have a period when I was single where I cooked for myself with Yoshio Marumoto's books in hand, but thinking about it now, even Marumoto's recipes, which touted simplicity, were too elaborate. In my experience, as soon as things get a little busy, you start neglecting it and stop.

I can't explain it well, but I felt that if I didn't keep it up, I would end up hating it even more.
I felt I would drift even further away from food.

So I searched, prioritizing "being able to continue cooking for myself."

Hmm, is there nothing, some kind of cooking I can keep up with...

Even when I look at recipe sites online, or at the many cookbooks I have as a hobby, nothing really clicks...

And so, I arrived at"Ichiju-issai" (one soup, one dish).I thought it was a range of cooking I could do at my own discretion without being controlled by recipes, and above all, it's super simple.

If I make a miso soup packed with ingredients, the nutrition is sufficient. For the protein I'm missing, I can just drink a protein shake.
Besides,

I've always loved brown rice and miso soup.In other words, I won't get tired of eating it.I might get tired of eating feasts, but I'm confident I won't get tired of this.
It was also a blessing that I don't need dashi if I use good miso (seafood dashi is a no-go for an Anisakis allergy). When I list it like this, I start wanting things like grilled salmon or shirasu, but there's no helping that.

My mentor in spirit is Yoshiharu Doi.
I reread"The Proposal That One Soup and One Dish Is Enough" that I read before, and I slapped my knee, thinking this is it. Ah, I can do this. I can keep this up. I read various other books by Mr. Doi to build my ideological backbone (a necessary approach for someone argumentative like me).

Yuka Yamaguchi's"Cooking for Myself" was also spot on. It really is "cooking for myself." This is exactly it. On impulse, I emailed Ms. Yamaguchi and decided to learn "home cooking" from her next time. I'll report back on that later.

And although it's a bit different in nature,"The Last Diet".
Over the last few years, I had developed such a strong image that "rice = carbohydrates = sugar = getting fat = bad for the body," but this changed that image. It's persuasive that it was written by Yu Kimura, a former world boxing champion (meaning a diet professional), and there are many people around me who "lost weight by eating rice."
Moreover, my friend YUTA, who is a trainer, keeps telling me, "Please make sure to consume carbohydrates after training. If you don't, your metabolism will drop and you'll actually be more prone to gaining weight." The image of "sugar = evil" was broken within me, and the path to Ichiju-issai became clear. Brown rice is full of nutrients, after all.

So, I started cooking for myself.
Every morning, sometimes for lunch, and occasionally for dinner too.

I started on November 4th, so it's only been about a month and 10 days and I've only made 73 meals in total.

But there are things I've started to understand little by little.

Cooking for myself is "independence," it's "freedom," and it's "self-confidence.".


In the sense of nourishing myself, cooking is directly linked to independence. Both physically and mentally.
And once you can cook for yourself, you are no longer bound by eating out or buying pre-made meals, and you can freely entertain yourself depending on your mood that day. You also become free from the complex of knowing about dining out but not being able to cook.
These things lead to self-confidence. A sense of self-confidence that comes with the survival feeling of knowing you can manage with just a few ingredients.

The fact that a simple meal of one soup and one dish is plain but rich in flavor and incredibly satisfying is also a big deal.
It's like the bottom of my stomach is happy, I can feel my cells rejoicing, and I am filled with a sense of satisfaction. This might also be leading to self-confidence.

This type of sense of independence, freedom, and self-confidence is something I haven't really felt much in my life until now.

I haven't reached the point of "enjoying food" yet, but I feel that if I draw a line from here straight into the future, it will lead to "enjoying food" as a daily color.

Or rather.
For men over 60, cooking for themselves every day is a required subject..

Oh, and not in terms of gender, but as a symbol of men who have never cooked for themselves before. And I'm talking about daily, plain home cooking, not the so-called elaborate "men's cooking."

Not cooking to feed someone else, but cooking just for yourself. Cooking for yourself without relying on family.
I realize that this leads to "independence," "freedom," and "self-confidence," and these are exactly the things that are necessary and important for people in the elder stage (I don't like terms like senior or elderly, so I call it the elder stage).

And when I think about

the possibility of being separated from family and living alone someday, I really think it's a required subject.No, I'm sorry.


I'm acting like I know everything just because I started cooking. It's normal for people who have been cooking for a long time, right? But there are surely things you notice because you're a beginner.

So, I'm continuing to cook for myself.

Just as I continued running for 1551 days (currently on break due to a knee injury), I feel like I've gained the ability to keep things going at this age (I was someone who couldn't keep anything up when I was young), so I think I can probably keep it up, and I want to continue and discover more things.


By the way, I created a dedicated Instagram account for my daily one-soup-one-dish & home-cooking life. Please take a look if you'd like. I update it several times a day.