Cooking

Twelve kitchen tools worth owning, starting with two good knives and a sharpening stone, then a wooden spoon, scissors, pans and a saucepan.

Sake, a knife set forged by the same methods as 1,000-year-old katanas, a sushi kit and brass chopsticks. Ten Japan-inspired gifts for him.

Kintsugi tableware carries a message: mend the break in gold and show it off. That, plus nine more Japan-inspired gifts for her.

Most kitchen gifts get used once, then forgotten. These eleven don’t, from a Sakai Kyuba knife set to an Aomori Hiba cutting board.

Four ways to stay safe with kitchen knives, keeping them sharp, using a large wooden board, and choosing a knife that fits your hand.

How Japanese business meetings run, from seating by rank and tight timings to interpreters, confirmation calls and slides translated into Japanese.

How greetings and bowing work in Japanese business, where first meetings run formal and foreign executives are usually judged more leniently.

Ten storage ideas for cramped kitchens, from magnetic knife racks and cabinet-top bins to floating spice strips and islands with built-in drawers.

The four knife cuts worth knowing, the slice, the chop, the back-slice and the rock-chop, with how to grip the blade and use its full length.

Fifteen creative hobbies to bring more balance into life, nine of them Japanese in origin, including ikebana, bullet journaling and kintsugi.

Not all wood suits a cutting board. Judge a species by Janka hardness, toxicity, porosity, conditioning and cost before you buy or build one.

A magnetic strip mounted out of small hands’ reach, knives dried the moment they’re washed, and knowing when a child is ready for a real blade.

Cutting a pomegranate without the mess takes a paring knife, a board and a bowl. First, here is how to pick one that is ripe and juicy.

Electric pull-through, manual sharpener or whetstone: which one your knives actually want, plus serrated edges, over-sharpening and smart storage.

You don’t need a twelve-knife block. Why three well-made blades cover almost everything, and how a Japanese 12-15 degree edge differs from a Western one.

Five steps to a minimalist kitchen, from decluttering by the 9-month rule to restricting colours, losing handles, and planning hidden storage.

Fifty cooking tips gathered from top chefs, covering baking temperatures, storing spices, making stock, seasoning evenly, and much more.

A step-by-step recipe for making sourdough bread from scratch, including how to grow your own starter and why a slow rise deepens flavour.

One chef owns around 100 knives but reaches for the same 7-to-9-inch blade for most jobs. What to weigh up before you buy your one workhorse.

There is no women’s knife, only the right size for your hands. For smaller hands, a 150mm petty knife is nimble and easy to control.

The traditional Japanese diet is rich in fish, vegetables and fermented foods, low in sugar, and linked to long life and good health.

It started with Carlo Petrini’s Slow Food in 1980s Italy, an antidote to gulping lunch at your desk. Consuming less, and actually noticing the day.

Flow is the absorbed state where time disappears, and it leads to happiness at work. Ten steps draw on Zen to help you reach it.

Macrobiotics is a Japanese diet of balance built by George Ohsawa, favouring whole grains, organic seasonal produce and yin and yang foods.

Wabi-sabi is the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection, teaching us to value simplicity and accept that nothing is permanent.

Ten tips for decorating your home with cushions, covering how to match existing decor, go bold with colour, layer textures and mix prints.

Minimalism trades possessions for experiences. A 20-year Cornell study found that lasting happiness comes from what we do, not what we own.

Fork on the left, knife and spoon on the right with the blade facing in. Three settings, from casual to formal, so hosting stops being guesswork.

Thumb for worry, index for fear, middle for anger. Hold each finger 30 seconds and this Japanese technique settles you in under five minutes.

The Japanese tea ceremony explained, from matcha and the Way of Tea to the rituals, utensils and hospitality behind each gathering.