Youshokuya Taimeiken Yomoyama Hanashi

Youshokuya Taimeiken Yomoyama Hanashi, illustrated by Hiroshi Modeki, serves as a culinary history and memoir centered on the iconic Nihonbashi Taimeiken restaurant in Tokyo. Established in 1931, the restaurant is a pillar of yoshoku—Japanese-style Western cuisine—and the volume was created to document the cultural evolution of the establishment alongside its signature recipes. It provides a narrative bridge between the restaurant's historical roots and its identity as a modern culinary institution.

The design and content reflect the warm, approachable aesthetic synonymous with Taimeiken, focusing on the human stories behind the menu. Through Modeki’s illustrative style, the work captures the atmosphere of the kitchen and the restaurant's interactions with patrons over the decades. It has been received by enthusiasts of Japanese food culture as a definitive look at the preservation of traditional yoshoku techniques amidst a rapidly changing culinary landscape in Japan.