Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2010

Hey, salaryman! Are you sick of coming home tired and ravenous every night, unable to whip up anything more complex than a cup of instant ramen? This one’s for you. Produced by fashion mag Men’s Joker, Men’s Kitchen is the latest in a small but welcome push to encourage guys to cook for themselves. In the current edition, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles star pitcher—and culinary klutz—Masahiro Tanaka gets taught how to make pasta carbonara, while actor Masaru Nagai (Buzzer Beat) offers some words of inspiration for aspiring chefs. Other sections provide handy tips on freezer storage times and reorganizing the pipsqueak kitchen in your one-room apartment. This being a male-oriented affair, the recipes err on the side of carnivory—think pork katsu, beefsteak and chicken karaage—but there are also healthier dishes like gado-gado vegetable salad and bibimbap-style Korean mixed rice. In the accompanying DVD, culinary whizz Ryuta Kijima shows a hapless middle-aged bloke how to make a quick curry, oyako-don or mapo dofu. Kijima himself has already authored several cookery books specifically aimed at men, including Bento Danshi (“Bento Boy”) and Zero Kara Hajimeru Jisui no Kyokasho (“Learn How to Cook for Yourself from Scratch”).

www.m-kitchen.com