Kaiseki is a multicourse Japanese meal with each course, often 12 courses, served in a unique beautiful dish in a very small amount. Kaiseki dinners are served over long periods of time along with elegant and often alcoholic drinks.
This elegant, slow, delicate meal seems to have originated in monasteries which is where it's tradition continues to be maintained. The first kaiseki meal I had was in a private guest room at Eihei-ji, the primary monastery of the Soto Zen sect in the mountains. I will never forget it.
One year a friend of mine came to visit me in Tokyo and we had at least four kaiseki dinners because he is a fervent gourmet. They are expensive and they are spectacularly imaginative.
The kaiseki idea of dining is not the kind of eating any other people in the world would adopt. It requires an aesthetic that is unique to the Japanese. It is also associated with the incomparable Japanese Tea Ceremony.
I went to the finest restaurant in San Francisco a few weeks ago, Quince, and was served a regular dinner of three courses and coffee at the end. In between there were 14 elegant tiny food creations in unique dishes. Pure kaiseki.
I eat the most elegant available food in the United States two or three times a year. The use of kaiseki is universal in the world of elegant food.
Thanks to the Japanese again for the hundredth great contribution to American life.