<p>The first biryani Takamasa Osawa ate wasn&rsquo;t in Hyderabad or Lucknow. It was in a modest restaurant in Coimbatore in December 2009. The Japanese chef, then unfamiliar with Indian food beyond the mild, international-style curries served back home, found himself staring at a menu he couldn&rsquo;t decipher. He ordered biryani almost by accident.</p>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/aug/Takamasa-Osawa_e.jpg" alt="Takamasa Osawa" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Takamasa Osawa</em></strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;The biryani was so delicious,&rdquo; the 36-year-old Osawa recalls, seated in Mumbai a day before Indian Accent hosted his Tokyo restaurant, Biriyani Osawa, for a two-night pop-up. He ordered another. Then another, at a different restaurant. By the end of the trip, biryani had become less a meal than a fixation. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I realised this had become my favourite dish,&rdquo; he admits.</p>
<h2>Search for the best</h2>
<p>Back in Japan, however, the dish had all but disappeared. Restaurants advertised biryani, but what arrived was curry mixed into Japanese sushi rice. He began scouting for an expert to teach him. The first mentor, he admits with a laugh, didn&rsquo;t know how to cook biryani either.</p>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/aug/Dum-Biryani_e.jpg" alt="Dum Biryani" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Dum Biryani</em></strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;But it gave me a start.&rdquo; Then came another teacher. Eventually, an Indian restaurant agreed to prepare what they considered an authentic biryani, but only if he booked the entire restaurant. &ldquo;So, I reserved the whole restaurant.&rdquo; The meal revealed what would shape the next decade and a half of his life. &ldquo;I realised biryani becomes truly delicious when it&rsquo;s cooked in a large pot.&rdquo; It also taught him that biryani could never be mastered from a recipe alone.</p>
<h2>In the beginning</h2>
<p>Returning to India in 2012, Osawa apprenticed with chefs in Delhi before setting off across the Subcontinent. His travels eventually took him through Pakistan and Bangladesh, then to Iran, searching for the dish&rsquo;s origins, In Myanmar, he learnt about Dan Pauk, a similarly fragrant layered rice dish. Every journey complicated the story. The farther he travelled, the less interested he became in defining authenticity, &ldquo;Authenticity changes over time. If a dish is delicious, it is authentic.&rdquo;</p>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/aug/Persian-biryani_e.jpg" alt="A Persian version of the Biryani" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>A Persian version of the Biryani</em></strong></p>
<p>For Osawa, biryani resists consistency. &ldquo;You can cook exactly the same recipe every time, and it still tastes different. Sometimes it&rsquo;s wonderful, otherwise, it isn&rsquo;t.&rdquo; Rather than frustrating him, that unpredictability became the attraction. &ldquo;Because it&rsquo;s so complex, there&rsquo;s always more to learn.&rdquo;</p>
<p>That pursuit unfolded inside Biriyani Osawa, the Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant he opened in Tokyo&rsquo;s Kanda district in 2021. When he first learnt to prepare biryani, he measured nothing. &ldquo;I used my hands because I believed that was the authentic way,&rdquo; he confesses.</p>
<h2>Japanese touch</h2>
<p>Only after he could consistently reproduce traditional flavours did he begin introducing science. &ldquo;I started weighing every ingredient and recording every temperature.&rdquo; The data explained why one pot sang while another fell flat. Temperature became non-negotiable. Spices remained instinctive.</p>
<p><img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/aug/Dan-pauk_e.jpg" alt="Dan Pauk. Pic courtesy/Wikimedia Commons" width="1280" height="720" /><br /><strong><em>Dan Pauk. Pic courtesy/Wikimedia Commons</em></strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;I keep asking myself what&rsquo;s happening inside the pot. What&rsquo;s the temperature? How much moisture is there? Why is this flavour developing?&rdquo; It is an unusually Japanese way of approaching one of South Asia&rsquo;s most instinctive dishes. When we nudge him to pick favourites, he answers without naming a restaurant. &ldquo;My favourite biryani is simply the most delicious one.&rdquo; His preference, however, is for the Hyderabadi version, before correcting himself. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mean every biryani served in Hyderabad. I mean the layered style. Every bite tastes different.&rdquo; He is equally fond of Tamil Nadu&rsquo;s Ambur, Dindigul and Thalappakatti styles, refusing to jump into the argument over whether they should instead be called pulao. &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re all authentic biryanis,&rdquo; he maintains. If authenticity has become the defining debate around biryani, Osawa seems almost bored by it. &ldquo;Authentic means tasty,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>That philosophy has helped reshape biryani&rsquo;s position in Japan. When he began cooking, biryani was another item tucked inside Indian restaurant menus. Today, diners travel specifically for it. &ldquo;I wanted people to see biryani as a classic, as an iconic dish.&rdquo; Michelin recognition accelerated that shift. &ldquo;People realised a restaurant serving only biryani could exist,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>More importantly, they became curious. &ldquo;Many Japanese didn&rsquo;t know what biryani was. First, they have to understand the original. Only then can I take it somewhere new,&rdquo; he signs off.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>At the table</h2>
<p>For this writer, the evening began with a sense of d&eacute;j&agrave; vu. Like every alternate Sunday of childhood, watching her mother peel back the foil from a large handi before the aromas filled the house, there was the same quiet anticipation as Osawa lifted the lids off his own handis at Indian Accent.</p>
<p>Soon the table disappeared beneath plates of lamb, chicken and mushroom biryani. The lamb proved the standout, aromatic and balanced. The chicken, though slightly dry, carried remarkable flavour, while the mushroom version, enriched with porcini, offered an earthy depth that lingered long after the meal ended.</p>
<h2>Persia link</h2>
<p>Biryani originates from Persia. The word &lsquo;biryani&rsquo; also hails from the Persian word &lsquo;biryan&rsquo;, meaning fried or roasted before cooking, reflecting the dish&rsquo;s Central Asian and Persian influences.</p>
<h2>Off to Myanmar</h2>
<p>Burmese biryani, known as &lsquo;Dan Pauk&rsquo; or &lsquo;Dum-Bauk&rsquo;, arrived in Myanmar with South Asian Muslim communities in the late 19th century. Cooked using the traditional dum method, it combines fragrant basmati rice, spiced meat, fried shallots, cashews and raisins with distinctive Burmese influences.</p>

A Japanese chef’s encounter with the dish in Coimbatore sparked a 16-year journey across South Asia, turning him into one of its foremost global ambassadors

How a Japanese chef's love for biryani helped him master the art of making the delicacy

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Ganeshotsav 2026

Home / Mumbai-guide / Things To Do / Article / How a Japanese chef's love for biryani helped him master the art of making the delicacy

How a Japanese chef's love for biryani helped him master the art of making the delicacy

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Ganeshotsav 2026