Ryuji Wins the Recipe Book Grand Prize for Bento for Living, Making a "5-Minute Taco Rice Bento" and Harapeko Grizzly's Low-Sodium Udon at the Awards Venue

At the ceremony, Ryuji was called up along with the name of the winning book and received the award amid applause. Ryuji said that in the past, the usual routine after the ceremony was to look over the other winning books and then head home. This time, someone from the committee explained that the networking session afterward is the liveliest part of the Recipe Book Awards. The reason is that there is no other occasion where so many people who make cookbooks gather in one place. The session began with a toast, and the time for Ryuji to cook was set up as a "new experiment."

Ryuji made the "Taco Rice That Looks Great 5 Minutes After You Wake Up" from the winning book. Ryuji cooked in a suit without an apron, to show that the recipes are so simple they won't even dirty a suit. Mornings are just that busy, which is why the recipe uses these steps, Ryuji explained, adding that they had worked as a company employee for 10 years.

All you do is put ground pork in a heatproof container and add consommé, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, garlic powder, and pepper in that order. The consommé package featured Winnie the Pooh, prompting Ryuji to remark, "Oh, they're doing a collab with Pooh." Each seasoning came with a short explanation.

• Taco rice usually calls for a variety of spices, but for home cooking, curry powder is plenty.
• Worcestershire sauce contains fruit, so it's very aromatic.
• Use a generous amount of ketchup: 4 teaspoons.
• About 7 shakes of garlic powder (a bit too much went in this time) and about 4 shakes of pepper.

Mixing the ingredients beforehand helps them cook more evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and heat in the microwave. Ryuji started to say 2 minutes 30 seconds, but changed it to 3 minutes because the venue's microwave was 500W. Ryuji laughed that the constant struggle with microwave demos is having to keep talking for the entire three minutes of heating.

Put warm rice in the bento box and lay lettuce on top. Ryuji said it's already delicious enough at this point. Top with the cooked ground meat and scatter as much pizza cheese as you like, and it's done. Ryuji said they hope everyone will make lots of dishes that make them feel, "Breakfast can be just this."

While waiting for the microwave, Ryuji talked about the aim of the book. Getting out a frying pan or using the stove in the morning is a hassle. So the book relies heavily on the microwave, trying to reduce the hassle and pressure of morning cooking as much as possible.

This taco rice is on the colorful side, but Ryuji said the book contains many plain-looking bentos. Ryuji believes a bento doesn't need to be colorful. There's a vague pressure that if you bring a dull-looking bento, people will think, "Oh, so that's the kind of bento this person brings." In response to that, isn't a delicious bento with just one side dish good enough? Ryuji said the book was made as one proposal along those lines, and added that they were extremely happy that a book with so much feeling put into it won the award.

At the end of the demo, Ryuji also explained how the book came about. Ryuji originally hated making bentos and at first said they would never put out a bento book. Even so, Ryuji made it while thinking about what kind of bentos they could have brought when they were a company employee, and the result was a very simple cookbook, which ended up being recognized. Ryuji wrapped up by saying they want people to enjoy simple bentos without trying too hard, and that they wrote this book because they want a world where no one feels embarrassed about a bento like this.

The finished bento was tasted by Amano, who was present. Two shoots were running at the same time: the vertical camera was capturing footage for TikTok and Instagram, and the horizontal one for YouTube. Because of this, Amano was repeatedly made to wait to eat during retakes.

Amano, surprised that it was made using only a microwave, kept saying "It's good." When Amano asked about the sauces, Ryuji answered, "I think they're mostly things you'd have at home." Amano said it's pretty tasty even when cold, and that this is what matters for a bento. Someone at the venue also commented that you could make it even while drunk. At the end, Ryuji showed off the suit and confirmed it was still clean.

Since they had come all the way to the Recipe Book Awards venue, Ryuji wanted to make another cook's recipe too. Ryuji's own pick was Harapeko Grizzly's The World's Most Delicious and Healthy Lazy Meals. According to Ryuji, the two had collaborated once before on a different media outlet. Ryuji said Harapeko Grizzly has won the Grand Prize twice so far.

Ryuji loves Harapeko Grizzly's recipes and honestly feels unable to compete with them. As reasons, Ryuji cited how well structured and easy to understand the recipes are, and how complete they are as a recipe book. Ryuji added that Harapeko Grizzly has a perspective different from typical cooks, is great at putting things together, and that what Ryuji likes is how the recipes make you think, "So that's how you approach it." It also came up that in the recipe book industry, the two are often compared or described as rivals.

Harapeko Grizzly first became a bestseller with a book on "The World's Most Delicious Marinated Eggs." Ryuji recalled that when they were just starting out, Harapeko Grizzly's books were selling well, and Ryuji thought that was amazing. Ryuji was confident in their cooking, but said recipe books are a different matter. Beyond the recipes being delicious, how the book is written and how things are conveyed matter a great deal. Ryuji noted that Harapeko Grizzly handles much of that personally, even thinking about which character to break a line at to make it easier to read. Harapeko Grizzly said something to the effect of wanting to make books that readers want to read all the way to the end. Ryuji said, "I thought, wow, there are people who write books like this," and called Harapeko Grizzly one of the cooks Ryuji respects.

Every recipe in this book keeps salt content to 2.5 g or less. Ryuji stressed that creating recipes with 2.5 g of salt or less is very hard because you still have to guarantee they taste good, and joked that they would never want to do it. According to Harapeko Grizzly, they test-made a huge number of recipes and narrowed them down while getting critiqued by experts, ending up with 100 dishes. Harapeko Grizzly expressed gratitude, saying the book was completed with the support of many people, including on the budget side, and was not the result of their efforts alone.

The dish was "Shiso Wasabi Butter Udon." It was a recipe Ryuji had never made before, so Ryuji followed along as Harapeko Grizzly gave instructions.

Thaw frozen udon in the microwave beforehand. The amount of shiso is large, about 10 leaves. Harapeko Grizzly explained that since this is a book about health, they wanted to work in as many vegetables as possible while keeping it tasty.

The most important step is adding the wasabi first. Adding about 5 cm of wasabi to piping-hot udon and mixing it in makes the heat dissipate. After that, add 1 teaspoon of soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of Hondashi, and 5 g of butter, mixing while the residual heat melts the butter. Finally, top with plenty of chopped shiso and sprinkle with white sesame seeds, and it's done.

Using a lot of wasabi also serves to keep salt down. According to Harapeko Grizzly, even 5 cm of wasabi contains only 0.18 g of salt. Wasabi with its heat cooked off adds richness without using salt. That was the thinking behind the recipe, Harapeko Grizzly said. Ryuji was impressed, saying, "You really thought this through."

After eating, Ryuji said, "This is ridiculously good." Ryuji said you'd never guess it was low in salt, and that it was a delicious, very satisfying flavor even by Ryuji's own standards. Ryuji had thought it would be spicy with that much wasabi, but mixing it in while hot means you don't feel any heat at all. If anything, the butter and wasabi really come through, and it goes well with a drink, Ryuji said. Being low in salt and still good with a drink is the best, Ryuji added. Partly because it was a combination Ryuji wouldn't normally try, Ryuji said, "I need to step it up too."

Finally, Ryuji spoke in their own words about what the award meant. The most visible activity is YouTube, but at heart, Ryuji considers themself a cooking researcher. The things that make the news are always controversies or fights with someone. But winning the Grand Prize or having people buy their recipe books makes Ryuji realize anew that they are being recognized for their recipes, and reminds Ryuji that at their core, they are a food person.

Ryuji also shared something they haven't talked about much: the first time they won an award. When the debut book Buzz Recipes received a prize, Ryuji cried at home. Ryuji said that winning the Grand Prize again after a long time made them feel that they are a cook, not a controversy YouTuber, and ended the video by thanking everyone at the venue.