About us

コンセプトは「和で輪をはぐくむ・からだが喜ぶほっこりごはん」。
私たちは、和食をベースにした食の提供を通じて、みなさまの食卓に和やかなひとときと笑顔の輪をお届けしたいと考えています。

サービスとしては、御家庭向けに和惣菜とお弁当の販売を、各種グループ向けにケータリングを行うと共に、個人・小グループ向けの料理教室の開催、そしてTABLE FOR TWO USAの和食育プログラムの立ち上げから講師として参加するなど、DCを拠点として幅広く展開しています。

昆布に塩麹・醤油麹 － 伝統的な和の食材や技法を活かした、お食事を召し上がってみませんか？

「からだが喜ぶほっこりご飯」

「食は命」、私たちのからだは食べたもので作られているとすれば、できるだけ安心して食べられるものを口にしたいですよね。Harmonious Kitchenのお弁当・お惣菜には、化学調味料を一切使っていません。代わりに、天然の調味料、主に塩麹、醤油麹、昆布水（細切り昆布を水につけた昆布だし）を使っています。水出しで使った後の細切り昆布はオリーブオイルに付けて、オリーブオイル昆布として炒め物や野菜のローストの調味料として使っています。食材の昆布を無駄にすることなく使い切れる、このオリーブオイル昆布こそが美味しくて優しい味の秘訣だと確信しています。餃子を焼くとき以外、Harmonious Kitchen で使っている油はオリーブ油だけで、炒め物には全てオリーブオイル昆布を使っています。また、和食で定番の鰹節を出汁に使っていないので、ヴィーガンの方も安心して食べていただけます。

ちなみに、当初は揚げ物はメニューにありませんでした。「やっぱりお弁当には揚げ物がないとね～」というお客様の声から、現在の「揚げないシリーズ」が生まれました。チキンカツ、豚カツ、メンチカツの衣は、自家製のパンでパン粉を作り、オリーブ油をまぶしてオーブンで焼いたものです。味付けは塩麹でお肉も柔らかくジューシー。鶏のから揚げとクリスピーチキンは、醤油麹で味付けし、卵とタピオカ粉を混ぜてオーブンで焼いています。油で揚げていないので、カロリーも低く、身体にも優しいのです。でも、美味しさに妥協はありません！

「和で輪をはぐくむ」

人は美味しいものを食べると笑顔になります。Harmonious Kitchenのお惣菜やお弁当を通じて人の輪が広がっていけばこんなに嬉しいことはありません。イメージとしては美味しい食卓を囲んで笑顔の人の輪が広がっていく感じです。

Harmonious Kitchenでは、調理だけでなく、マーケティングや経理などの作業を、色々な方に手伝っていただきたいと考えています。ワシントンDC近郊ではプロフェッショナルな女性が数多く活躍されています。一方、子育てやその他の理由でフルタイムでは無理だけれど働きたいと思っている優秀な女性も多いのではないでしょうか。ちなみに、Harmonious Kitchenの配達はUber Eats やDoorDashなどの外部のサービスに頼るのではなく自分たちで 行っています。外部に頼むと採算が合わないことが理由ですが、配達を自分たちでやってみて想定外の利点がありました。それは配達先でお客さまと直接繋がれることです。まだまだ小規模ですが、良いスタッフとカスタマーに恵まれていると実感しています。思いやりのある信頼関係に基づいた人の輪が少しずつ広がっていけば良いなと思います。

自然環境への配慮

人の調和（思いやりのあるコミュニティー作り）に加えて、Harmonious Kitchenが大切だと考えていることが環境との調和です。前述の昆布水でも説明したようにHarmonious Kitchenでは、できる限り食材を無駄にしないよう努めています。そのために、食品ロスの削減をミッションとするHungry Harvest とImperfect Produce の野菜配達サービスに加入して、オーガニックの野菜・フルーツを使っています。オーガニックの野菜は栄養価も高く、形が不ぞろいだったりするだけで、店頭に並ぶことなく配達されるので新鮮で美味しいのです。余剰の野菜やフルーツはほとんどが旬のもので、自分では決して選ばなかった、また口にしたことがないような新しい発見もあり、どのように調理するかを考えるのも楽しいです。そして、最後になりましたが、土に還る素材（compostable packages）を包装に使うことで環境にも負荷をかけないよう配慮しています。土に還る素材はコストが多少かかっても使う価値があると考えています。

Harmonious Kitchenのお弁当やお惣菜を購入したり、そして調理や配達などの運営に関わることで、人や環境に優しいコミュニティが少しずつ広がって、世の中を、世界を足元から変えていく手助けができると考えていただければ幸いです。

 

 

We enable busy individuals to experience harmonious community through the sharing of Japanese home-style meals. Harmonious Kitchen provides catering/meal delivery services, cooking classes, healthy recipes, and sells specialty ingredients with the focus on Japanese food with vegan/vegetarian offerings.

We also love to see young people develop healthy eating habits in a fun way with easy-to-make and well-balanced delicious Japanese home-style meals. Harmonious Kitchen has participated in TABLE FOR TWO USA’S Wa-Shokuiku: Learn, Cook, Eat Japanese in Washington DC since the program’s inception.

Try our delicious and well-balanced Japanese home-style meals using traditional food ingredients such as kombu (edible kelp), salt koji, and soy sauce koji!

Healthy and Balanced Meals

Harmonious Kitchen’s motto is “You are what you eat.” We strive to prepare and eat healthy and balanced meals which are based on the five basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Harmonious Kitchen uses no additives and no preservatives. Instead, we use natural seasonings, such as salt koji, soy sauce koji, and kombu soup stock. Salt and soy sauce koji are natural seasonings used to marinate, tenderize, and enhance the umami or savory flavors (one of the five basic tastes) in foods. We also use kombu water, which consists of kombu kelp broth made with pre-shredded kombu and water. Kombu is a great source of umami flavor because of its high glutamate content (amino acid). After using kombu to make broth (or “dashi” in Japanese), the leftover kombu is placed in a jar with olive oil. We use this olive oil kombu to marinate and stir fry foods, so no food is wasted! We only use olive oil (healthier oil) in all of our recipes, except when we cook gyoza. Several of our dishes are vegan-friendly. Although Japanese soup stock typically uses a combination of kombu and dried bonito flakes which are derived from fish (bonito flakes is another umami source in the form of inosinic acid). Harmonious Kitchen does not use bonito flakes in its meals.

Originally, Harmonious Kitchen offered no deep fried food on our menu. However, our Japanese customers told us they wanted fried food in their bento boxes. In an effort to provide tasty items that meet our customers interests while remaining true to our beliefs, we have created a series of “non-deep-fried” products, such as “oven-baked chicken thigh (Karaage唐揚げ),” “oven-baked pork cutlet (豚カツ), “oven-baked chicken cutlet (チキンカツ), and “oven-baked breaded burger (メンチカツ). In order to provide a healthier alternative to a fried coating, we make our own bread crumbs from our home-made bread. We bake the bread crumbs in olive oil, coat the meat with them, then bake the meat in the oven. They are not deep-fried, so they are low-calorie, low-fat and healthy–yet there is no compromise in taste! Our customers have given us great reviews on our non-fried products; many have shared that they do not miss the fried versions at all!

Community-Building through Japanese Food

People start smiling when they eat tasty food. We sincerely hope that we may help to expand communities through Harmonious Kitchen’s authentic Japanese home-style meals and bento boxes. Our desire is to increase the circle of smiling faces around the dinner table while eating our food.

We want to encourage more people to participate in Harmonious Kitchen’s activities, not only preparing and cooking our meals, but also marketing our services to potential new clients. Although there are many professional women who work for the federal and state governments, international corporations and organizations in this area, some women may desire to work, but cannot work full-time due to their personal responsibilities such as caring for their children. If you are interested in learning more about part-time opportunities with Harmonious Kitchen, or you know someone who may be interested, please let us know. We would welcome the opportunity to share how you may get involved with Harmonious Kitchen!

We do not use outside delivery services such as Uber Eats and DoorDash, for they are quite expensive given our existing business model. However, as a result of our delivery service, we have gained an unexpected benefit, i.e., connecting with our customers on a personal level. Our personal delivery service further demonstrates that Harmonious Kitchen is founded on caring and trustworthy relationships among our staff members and customers.

Living in Harmony with Nature

In addition to building a harmonious community that is based on trustworthy relationships, Harmonious Kitchen believes that it is important to live in harmony with nature. As previously mentioned, we are committed to reducing the amount of wasted food as evidenced by our use of the leftover kombu with olive oil to marinate and stir fry our foods. Additionally, we use the organic produce delivery services of Hungry Harvest and Imperfect Produce, whose missions are to eliminate food waste and end hunger. Both of these services provide fruits and vegetables that may be slightly scarred, smaller/larger than normal, or oversupplied, but they still are fresh, seasonal produce that are full of nutrients. They deliver their products directly to subscribers rather than the grocery store. Given the variety of produce that is delivered, Harmonious Kitchen uses this opportunity to try some new and exciting menu items. It is fun to do online research on unfamiliar fruits and vegetables and their recipes, then provide the best ones to our customers. Finally, Harmonious Kitchen also uses compostable and biodegradable packaging materials to reduce environmental burden. Although these materials cost more, we believe the extra cost is worth spending to do our part to live in harmony with nature.

We would be elated if you decide to purchase Harmonious Kitchen’s products and participate in its operations, such as cooking, delivery services, and marketing! Your participation would make a difference at the grassroots and global levels by expanding our caring eco-friendly community. Harmonious Kitchen is looking forward to being the company that brings a circle of smiles to your dinner table in the near future.