Hisashi Kashiwai — The Kamogawa Food Detectives

Translated by Jesse Kirkwood

Once upon a time, I wanted to do something nice for my mom-in-law’s birthday. This proved a tad challenging for a woman who’s not a huge reader, hobby enthusiast, or coffee drinker until I recalled a notorious family legend: where she, whilst gabbing away with her relatives, polished off an entire cake by herself — one bite at a time.

The cake in question was a gooey butter cake — a regional favorite, which, at that point in time, hadn’t hit the mainstream (yet). So, finding a recipe online was a non-starter. Even worse, in a fit of downsizing, she tossed out all her handwritten family cookbooks, thinking all the tried-and-true recipes within them were now redundant, thanks to the internets. Which left me up a creek without a paddle because I had no clue what went into this confection besides sugar, butter, eggs, and flour.

Fortunately for me, a few months later, Bake From Scratch magazine ran a feature on regional or lost bakes (I can’t recall which) that included this St. Louis treat. And my mom-in-law was thrilled when we showed up for the next family gathering (Thanksgiving, I believed) with it in tow.

However, if I’d failed to purchase that month’s magazine or the publisher decided against running that feature, I might never have run across the recipe. 

And that’s where The Kamogawa Food Detectives (would in theory) come in. 

If I lived in Japan and faced a similar conundrum of a lost recipe, needed to reconnect with an old memory linked to a specific dish, wanted to recreate my grandmother’s signature ramen or other similar culinary mystery — The Kamogawa Food Detectives would do their level best to figure it out and reproduce it for me.

(Here’s a preview for Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories.)

If you enjoyed watching Netflix’s Midnight Diner or Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories ten-to-one, you’d enjoy reading The Kamogawa Food Detectives as the two share a similar-ish vibe. (BTW: You should try the Midnight Diner if you haven’t already; it’s a fantastic show.)

Though the story does feature food, a lot of magnificent-sounding food, at its heart, The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a mystery. Nagare, a former police detective, follows leads, interviews people, and uses his experiences and intuition to solve each case brought to the agency housed in the back of the family restaurant. Whilst Koishi, Nagare’s daughter, is the people person of the outfit. Conducting the initial interview with the clients, she pulls out as much information as possible about the dish in question, the person responsible for its creation, and the client’s relationship with it/them. 

In some ways, the format of The Kamogawa Food Detectives reminds me of Issac Asimov’s Black Widower short stories in so far as the structure of each case follows a pretty rigid pattern.* Admittedly, this makes the book sound formulaic, which I suppose in a way they are — but in the best possible way as this set pattern compels Kashwai to find unique ways to inject twists, turns, and surprises into the stories — which he does beautifully. Moreover, the precise arrangement of standard story features is comforting rather than feeling derivative.

Though the chapters in the book read more like short stories than a continuous novel, the thread linking each episode together is not only the book’s repeating pattern and delectable dishes of food but also Koishi and Nagare’s lives. With each investigation, you learn just a tad more about them. And it’s these little scraps that kept me from setting aside the book between chapters and reading onwards. It’s also what compelled me to pick up the book and reread it again a few days later, at a far more leisurely pace, savoring each and every word.

I would recommend The Kamogawa Food Detectives to anyone who enjoys reading about food or non-murder mysteries or those who delight in Japan and/or the country’s cuisine and are looking for something cozy/interesting/lovely to read on a cold winter’s night.

*(BTW: The collections of Asmov’s short stories are all out of print but are definitely worth tracking down. Try here. And thank you, Fran, for turning me onto them all those years ago!)