Unique Japanese knives

It was the just before the summer holidays when I got a call from Pablo Kuntz who works for Unique Japan, Japan’s best kept secret.

Their objective at Unique Japan is simple: To be the world’s most trusted lifestyle brand that trades in quality Japanese handcrafted merchandise. Thats exactly what I got from Pablo, was some beautiful hand crafted chefs knives.

When we first started chatting to Pablo I asked him why I should use’s these Japanese knives when I could go down the road and buy any other make. I think he was a little shocked when I asked him that but I thought it was a fair question. Although Pablo was a little shocked he answered my questions very well.

Each knife has been individually handcrafted using traditional methods in the city of Takefu on the sea of Japan, and to make it that extra special my name has been engraved onto the knives in Japanese katana characters (so keep on checking up on the blog and you will see me using the knives)

There is not really anymore I can say, but thank you to Unique Japan and to Pablo Kuntz.

If you would like to get hold of these knifes you can email me or have a look at Unique Japan’s web page.

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What is it about CUPCAKES???

Multicolored cupcakes have been the surprise winner in our credit crunched times. Cupcake businesses, mainly run by women, are booming as we comfort-eat and treat ourselves to a little bit of affordable luxury: at £2 each they are far cheaper than the latest ‘it-bag’ or a restaurant meal. Cupcake cafes, bakeries, blogs, decorating classes are popping up all over the place and the trend shows no sign of slowing down.

Cupcakes, like many culinary inventions, originated by accident when leftover cake mix was used up in pottery cup moulds in 19th-century America. During the 1950s, cupcakes became synonymous with motherly love and childhood innocence as a ritual developed from taking a tray of cupcakes into school on a child’s birthday.

In the late 90s, the TV series Sex and the City propelled cupcakes from the classroom to Vogue. As Carrie and Miranda sunk their perfect teeth into a thick layer of pink icing outside Manhattan’s Magnolia Bakery they launched a cupcake craze. Back in the UK, Nigella salivated over cupcakes in her retro kitchen and cupcake tiers fast replaced the traditional wedding cake.

Women had been given the green light to eat cake. Unfortunately, back in the real world a cupcake weighs in at 400 calories (this is never ever mentioned): nearly a quarter of a woman’s recommended daily calorie intake.

Eating a cupcake appears to be a rebellious ‘two fingers up’ to the diet police. But have we really escaped the gorging, guilt and denial cycle that has created a hugely profitable diet industry? Psychotherapist and author of Bodies, Professor Susie Orbach, says: “I think it is more to do with pretending to defy the trend against deprivation but doing it in a cutesy cutesy way…an updated version of naughty but nice.”

Some US states have banned cupcakes in schools fueling a nutrition versus nostalgia debate. In the UK, a recent government advert showing a cupcake-eating girl warns: “Is a premature death so tempting?” But cake is not the major culprit here: the real problem lies with our diet of processed foods and drinks pumped full of cheap fats and sugars.

Nikki Cameron founded award-winning Country Cupcakes in 2007 after a tip-off from a friend about the US craze. She attributes her success to creating a high-quality food: “I sell real cake made with good-quality simple ingredients. I adapted the US recipe to suit UK tastes, so mine are less sweet with restrained pastel decorations: pale pin is my bestseller.”

Boutique bakeries are a key part of this trend with gorgeous retro interiors – 1950’s black and white chequered floors, pastel pink and green walls, and old-fashioned wooden trays displaying the range of flavors from peanut butter and chocolate to rosewater, are all part of the appeal. Customers step away from office life, back in time to an idealized world of 1950s’ happy domesticity as opposed to the anxious Revolutionary Road version. The modern cupcake operates on many levels of desirability combining the infantilised language of ‘sparkles and sprinkles’, highly personalized ‘me-time’ indulgence and aspirational packaging.

Cake made with high-quality ingredients should be an enjoyable part of our diet. But perhaps we should move on from the super-sized US cupcakes, take pride in our own baking culture and bring back fairy cakes.

(Article from the sunday times)