Tucked away on Frith Street, you’ll find KOYA – many a Londoner’s choice udon place. The noodle bar also has a spot in the City, with a menu spanning various rice and udon dishes, alongside a changing specials board.
We sat down with Head Chef and Co-Founder of KOYA, Shuko Oda, to learn about her path to becoming a restaurateur and how travel as a child – moving between London, Tokyo, and Los Angeles – helped to shape and inform her cooking style.
Read on for the latest instalment of The Chef’s Table, featuring KOYA boss, Shuko Oda.
How did you first get into cooking?
I wasn’t into sweet snacks growing up and would often ask for a light meal instead for my elevenses. As my requests started to get a little too fussy for my mother’s liking, such as miso soup and rice ball Onigiri, she decided to teach me how to make them, so I started cooking when I was nine.
What are some of your childhood food memories?
Eating a whole roasted peppery crab in San Francisco with my family as a 10-year-old and feeling very mature (though eating with our hands of course!) and shocked at how flavoursome, tender, and juicy it was.
Who most influenced your cooking?
A food writer called Yoshiko Tatsumi. One of her most famous books and the one I cherish is For You – A Soup To Hold Your Life. And my fellow cooks I’ve cooked with, including chefs I currently work with, my mother, and my grandmother.
The food that makes you happiest and why?
Onigiri rice balls made with freshly cooked rice, still steaming and hot wrapped in crispy nori sheets. Or ones in a lunch box made that morning, so they’re cold and the nori is damp and stuck to the rice. Both work for me! I suppose the latter may not sound so appealing, but there is a strong connection with memory and food, and onigiri carries many happy feelings for me.
Favourite cooking gadget?
My clay pot that transforms everything and makes any dish wholesome and tender.
Credit: Steven Joyce
What’s the one ingredient you can’t live without?
Rice vinegar – it always works.
Where are the best places to shop for Japanese produce in London?
For seasonal Japanese vegetables, Namayasai have many drop off points around London now. Harvested on the same day of delivery, their produce is beautiful, warm, and, mentally and physically, totally fulfilling.
How does travel influence your cooking?
Encountering a new culture drives me to stay open-minded and to be accepting, and to learn what I appreciate in that culture. And by doing this, I realise a little more about myself too.
Must-visit food cities include…
All around Japan!
How do your surrounds influence the dining experience?
The people and the conversations, the environment, even the weather determines your whole eating experience. Whether it’s a few drinks of sake and snacks from a fridge forage on a tiny table in a kitchen with your friends late at night, or having a warm bowl of soup with your family while camping.
Where are your favourite places to dine in Japan?
There is a local Chinese restaurant we always go to on the first night of our arrival. My favourites are their juicy Xiao Long Bao, fried rice, and simple stir fry of yellow chives and mushrooms. I also make sure I go to as many soba noodle places as possible, as this is hard to get back home in London!
Enboca is a pizza restaurant in Japan, they have a few branches now, but originally started out in a beautiful wooden house in Karuizawa (Nagano prefecture) in the Shinshu mountains, surrounded by trees and their vegetable garden, which they would cook from. They had a small but extremely attractive presence, serving honest, simple food, cooked in their pizza oven. Their hospitality and food was and remains warm, produce-led, and full of love – the best way of cooking that touches people.
What do you always avoid ordering on a menu?
I used to never order desserts, now I make sure I order all of them…
By contrast, must-order items on the menu at Koya include…
If you’re a party of two, order a couple of one-cup sakes, and start with a pickle and two-three small plates from the seasonal blackboard. Then get the Kakuni braised pork belly if, like me, you can’t avoid ordering it! Finish with a noodle dish each.
Credit KOYA
Why do you think it’s important to gather round the table to eat?
It’s how I remember family and friends, and it’s how my children will form their memories.
Cooking and eating are fundamental parts of our lives, that make all of us happy, and brings smiles to our faces. It’s one of the strongest, most straightforward and honest ways of expressing ourselves, and therefore is best when shared with people you love and care about.
What is your go-to meal at home when you’re low on time?
Rice and natto.
Do you find cooking therapeutic?
Yes!
Advice for women thinking about starting up a business in the food or restaurant industry?
Start with something simple and strong and build from there. Always go back to where you started.
Any Questions or Tips to add?