Restaurant

Naomi Terao says that when she finds herself in a situation where she has no choice but to do something, her body moves before her head. The same thing happened to her when she first caught wild game. When a hunter killed a deer and laid it in front of him, there was no one to cut it, so she thought she had no choice but to do it herself, so she grabbed a butchering knife.

Wild animals cause damage to crops when their numbers increase too much. Terao sympathized with the idea of ​​delivering the bounty of the mountains to the table before it becomes a pest. However, without a stable supply, there would be no takers such as chefs, and the business would not be sustainable. There, he worked hard to train as a ``craftsman who handles game meat'' at a dismantling plant. He killed more than 10 deer in about 3,000 years. Delicious game cuisine requires fresh meat, so we worked to speed up the processing. Before he knew it, he was able to process one animal in an hour and a half.

Eventually, Mr. Terao began to consider a shift from providing game meat as an ingredient to cooking and serving it. After that, he became a member of the ``Fuji no Kuni Seasonal Food Association (Shun no Kai)'' and demonstrated his natural sociability to expand his network of contacts. With producers of a variety of crops, butcher shop owners who sell wild game, university professors working on the front lines of nutrition, French chefs specializing in wild game cuisine, and national and prefectural officials involved in preserving the mountain and forest environment. He actively interacted with the students, was inspired by them, and says, ``I was engrossed in studying.'' His energetic activities show no bounds, and he has also taken on the challenge of developing products such as venison ham and sausage and pet food in collaboration with food manufacturers, chefs, and nutritionists.

The fruit of this training is DINNING Yushu, which opened in 2022. All the wild game sold at the store is produced within the prefecture. As for the vegetables, Terao says, ``The ones that are harvested nearby are fresh, and the ones that are in season are especially delicious.'' Another popular menu item is the vibrant seafood dishes that his son, who works at a seafood company in Shimizu, prepares on weekends.

The desire to ``connect hunters and eaters from the mountains to the sea'' is expanding into green tourism activities that incorporate gibier experiences. Mr. Terao's challenges continue.

Roasted venison from Shizuoka Prefecture. Kaki greens, sunny lettuce, ice plant, arugula, etc.

The garnished vegetables are purchased from a nearby farmers market.

Tempura of tiger puffer fish from the Enshu Sea. From spring to summer, you can also enjoy wild hamo from the Enshu Sea.

*From the article “Introducing the 2020 Fujinokuni Food Capital Creation Worker Award Winners”