Several general and authoritative Japanese cooking books exist in English, most prominently the classic Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art by Shizuo Tsuji (1980), the modern tomes Washohu and Kansha by Elisabeth Andoh (2005, 2010), and Japan: The Cookbook by Nancy Singleton Hachisu (2018). Although the concept of umami tacitly underlies the cooking techniques, recipes, and dishes in these and other books, the verbalisation of the concept and a dedicated use of the scientific underpinnings of umami and umami synergy, not to mention koku sensation, do not transpire these books. The Japanese Culinary Academy (2015, 2016) has published two major books in which umami and dashi assume a key role, and the same is true of the volume Dashi and Umami: The Heart of Japanese Cuisine (Blumenthal et al., 2009). Recently an unusual book has appeared on Japanese food culture which gives an interwoven exposition of culture, language, literature, and mealtime customs, in addition to culinary practices, recipes, and aesthetics (Brown, 2021).