Recreating a 117-Year-Old Navy Chicken Curry for Home Cooks: A Collaboration Between the Clayton Bay Hotel's Head Chef and Ryuji

Before this collaboration, Ryuji had been filming videos visiting restaurants, and as part of that he had also released an episode in which he visited the Clayton Bay Hotel and tried the head chef's cooking. After that video drew attention, Ryuji sent a DM asking to collaborate. The chef said he wanted to see Ryuji's kitchen, and Ryuji asked him to "teach me a dish I can make in my own kitchen." On top of that, knowing that the chef was researching navy cuisine, Ryuji says he requested navy curry because he wanted to eat it.

There are several kinds of navy curry, and on this day it was chicken curry. As characteristics of navy cuisine, the chef cited not wasting ingredients and, since the food was prepared aboard ships, ingenuity in making it in as short a time as possible. Ryuji responded that it would be hard to simmer something all day on a ship, and said that a dish like that should be easy to make at home too, making it a perfect fit for his channel.

The filming took place at Ryuji's home, and the two of them drank while they cooked. The chef said that when they filmed at the hotel he was on duty and couldn't drink, but since this time it was Ryuji's house, it should be fine.

The chef packed the ingredients at the hotel and shipped them refrigerated. The star is two chicken thighs. According to the chef, back then there weren't as many things available as there are today, so people had to think about how to build flavor, and the answer was to use a large amount of onion. Two onions go into the curry, and one more is finely minced for the garnish.

This garnish was new to Ryuji. The finishing touch is finely minced raw onion and red pickled ginger (beni shoga). Ryuji was surprised, saying, "I've never heard of putting red pickled ginger on curry." According to the chef, the recipe survives in the literature, but the navy's records don't go as far as giving detailed quantities; the ingredients are only listed roughly. With that in mind, the chef explained that because he wanted people who watch today's video to actually make it, he made it not a complete reproduction but an easy-to-make version of navy cuisine.

The other ingredients are as follows.

• Chutney: Ryuji added that you can find it in the curry roux section of the supermarket.
• Coconut milk: Used to add richness.
• Fried green onion: White leek roughly chopped, fried in oil until crispy, then crumbled by hand. It has a strong aroma.
• Hachi Curry: A curry powder. According to the chef, it was Japan's first curry powder and was used by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Ryuji said that only S&B products usually appear on his channel, but that Hachi Curry is also well known.
• Chicken stock: A store-bought concentrate diluted tenfold as directed. The chef answered that any brand is fine.

First, they cut the vegetables, so as not to dirty the cutting board too much. The onion for the garnish is minced very finely. The chef said that if it's coarse it doesn't feel good in the mouth, so this fine is best. Ryuji was impressed, saying it was about a third the size of what he cuts.

The two onions for the curry are sliced thinly. They're cut across the grain, which Ryuji says is how he usually does it too. The chef explained that if you want to keep texture, as in a salad, you cut along the grain, but when you want to bring out the onion's sweetness, it's better to break down the fibers. At home you can use a slicer, and the thinner the better.

As for quantities, Ryuji said one onion is about 250g and one chicken thigh is also about 250g, and the chef confirmed that the onion and chicken are equal amounts. Ryuji remarked that equal amounts of onion and chicken is easy to remember.

At this point, the chef asked to try the "microwave the onion" method Ryuji uses when making curry. Heating it first cooks it through and makes it easier to turn caramel-colored when sautéed. The sliced onion was spread out and heated at 500W for 5 minutes.

The garlic and ginger were minced, about 10g combined. The chicken is cut into large pieces. The chef prefaced this by saying that if you want to cook quickly at home, cutting it smaller will finish faster, but since chicken is the main feature today, he cut it into chunky pieces. Ryuji described them as about the size of the meat in Indian curry. It's seasoned with a generous amount of salt and pepper, and old-fashioned pepper is fine. Ryuji added that this pepper is a blend of black and white pepper, with a stronger flavor than black pepper.

Since curry roux didn't exist back then, the roux is first made from flour. Melt 50g of butter, add the same amount, 50g, of flour, and toast it. The chef emphasized, "This is the only part you need to do carefully." That's because you want to cook off the raw flour taste in this step.

As for heat, the chef recommended avoiding high heat. Ryuji rephrased this as medium-low. According to the chef, you need to be careful because butter burns quickly, but you don't need to fear lumps. Even if it gets lumpy, whisking at the end will dissolve them and bring it all together. Ryuji responded that this sense of "it's fine" is important. The flour is cooked while it bubbles.

Once the flour is cooked, the Hachi Curry is added. The amount is 50g, the same as the butter and flour; they put in a full 40g packet and eyeballed the remaining 10g. Ryuji tasted the powder and said it has a refreshing aroma, isn't that spicy at first, but the heat comes afterward. He added that Hachi Curry is the one to use for this curry. There's also a method like so-called tempering, where frying the curry powder brings out its aroma, but the chef said, "You don't need to go that far," and moved straight on to the next step.

Next, the chicken stock is added to thin it out. Rather than pouring it all in at once, it's added little by little. Ryuji said this is how curry was originally made, and that curry roux was developed because this step is a hassle. In addition to the 800ml of stock they had prepared, they eyeballed about another 200ml. Ryuji confirmed that powdered chicken stock dissolved in hot water is also fine. He also shared a memory that Gyomu Super used to sell a commercial-size Hachi Curry curry, and it was among the very best of Gyomu Super's curries.

Thirty grams of chutney is added to the roux. Its role is sweetness, and Ryuji confirmed that no sugar goes into this curry. Next, 30g of coconut milk is added to make it milder.

When Ryuji asked, "Did coconut milk exist 117 years ago?", the chef said it did. Asked whether it was canned back then too, he said he thinks so. Ryuji took this to mean that milk would spoil, but canned goods keep, and that this is another way the navy character shows through.

Now the fried green onion goes in. According to the chef, it's needed because there's no time to sauté the onions until caramelized. The fried green onion adds an aroma like sautéed onions, so you deliberately don't need to cook the onions that far. Ryuji described it as "charred green onion" with an intense aroma, said it's a fragrance you don't get from store-bought roux, and that it's probably the key.

Finally, the minced garlic and ginger go straight into the roux without being sautéed. Ryuji was surprised, saying, "Normally you'd sauté them, right?", and expressed his anticipation, saying he couldn't imagine the taste at all. When the chef checked how it was made back then, they didn't sauté them. With that, the roux is done.

In a separate frying pan, 30g of butter is added and the microwaved onion is sautéed. The liquid released during heating went in too, since it would be a waste. Ryuji said the liquid contains umami so it's fine to add it, but it's also fine to discard it. On the fact that it uses quite a lot of butter, like old-style Western-inspired Japanese cooking (yoshoku), the chef suggested that perhaps it means advanced cuisine was first created by the navy.

Once the onion's moisture has cooked off, the chicken goes in without caramelizing the onion. According to the chef, when recreating this at home, if you cut the chicken small you only need to stir-fry it briefly, which makes cooking faster. In this step, you render a bit of the chicken fat and cook off the onion's moisture to concentrate the umami.

Once the chicken is cooked through, the roux is brought over and transferred into the frying pan, and it's done after it comes to a boil. Ryuji said it's a method that doesn't lose any of the onion's or chicken's umami, and was surprised at how quick and easy it was.

While cooking, the two also talked about what navy cuisine means. Ryuji said that rather than putting in a lot of effort like hotel cuisine, it's food that excels at delivering nutrition efficiently and deliciously, so in terms of saving time, navy cuisine might come out ahead. He also said it might be interesting to adapt it for home cooking and revive it. When Ryuji said that eating was probably about the only pleasure out at sea, so cooking properly must have been considered important, the chef agreed. The chef further explained that the cooks were responsible for the crew's health, and that what they ate was their source of energy. This curry uses plenty of butter and meat, and you can clearly see it was designed so people could get enough calories, he said.

Regarding the color of the finished curry, Ryuji described it as "very Showa." Today's curries are dark, but this is the color of something whose roux was made by hand, he said.

While the rice was warming, they tried "Ore no Niku Tare," a hotel sauce the chef had brought. The illustration on the package was drawn not by an illustrator but by a new employee at the hotel.

Ryuji first tasted it straight and said, "It tastes like something I don't know." It contains Worcestershire sauce. According to the chef, typical yakiniku sauces lean heavily on garlic, but he wanted to move away from that, so this sauce contains only a fraction of a percent of garlic. Instead, it uses ginger, which he likes, and green chili. Ryuji confirmed that the ginger flavor is strong and that the heat comes from the green chili.

They stir-fried pork and bean sprouts that were in the house, drizzled the sauce over, and everyone ate. The impressions were that it has a pronounced acidity, a tingling heat comes afterward, and it seems like it would go well with fatty meat too. The chef said it also goes well with offal and oysters, and recommended simply grilling meat, putting it on rice, and pouring the sauce over. Ryuji described it as a barbecue-leaning sauce. As for where to buy it, the chef answered the hotel, as well as Youme Town and Fresta. Online sales are scheduled to start this month.

When the roux is poured generously over the rice, you can see that it contains quite a lot of onion. The chef acknowledged, "It's kind of like an onion curry." A generous amount of raw minced onion is placed on top, with red pickled ginger on the side. The chef explained that even though the curry already has plenty of onion in it, raw onion still goes well with it.

Ryuji first ate it without the garnishes and rated it "perfect in every way," including the heat. The chef explained that this curry powder is mellow the moment you eat it, but the heat comes afterward. Next, mixing in the raw onion and red pickled ginger, Ryuji said, "These go incredibly well together," surprised that red pickled ginger suits curry and that the raw onion was also very tasty. The chef added that, personally, he thinks it goes well with a highball.

Ryuji speculated that the curry's punch comes from the curry powder, or that the charred green onion is also having quite an effect. He also said, "It's so good you could open a curry shop with this curry." The staff who ate with them offered comments such as: the spices feel like something new, the curry powder is really coming through, it probably wouldn't taste like this without Hachi Curry, the minced onion is great, and it warms you up.

Ryuji said he hadn't expected an old curry to have this much punch and satisfaction. His assessment was that the amount of onion was just right, and that while it's gentle as a roux, it asserts itself afterward. The chef revealed that he'd been worried the whole time about what Ryuji would say, and said that he too was shocked the first time he ate it.

Ryuji said he was deeply moved that a dish like this existed 117 years ago and is still so delicious it moves you when made today. He also said that if he hadn't filmed with the chef he would never have known this taste, so he was glad to be a culinary researcher and glad he went to the Clayton Bay Hotel. Finally, he summed up by saying he had imagined a more classic Showa-era curry, but it was delicious enough to hold up perfectly well today, and encouraged viewers to try making it.