The legendary restaurant lives on
The Minami Aoyama neighborhood of Tokyo is home to a restaurant that has attracted long queues of customers for decades. Fumin was opened in 1971 by Sai Fumi, affectionately nicknamed Fumin Mama. She was 25 years old when she became the sole chef–owner of her Chinese-style home cooking restaurant. She had always been confident about her culinary skills, but never attended cooking school or trained on the job. She took her small restaurant of only under 8 tsubo (26 square meters) and later relocated to a space large enough for a team of chefs. And when she turned 70, she handed over the reins to her nephew and co-manager. Fumin Mama thus retired from Fumin.
But Mama hasn’t stopped cooking or serving her guests. She continues to work, switching to a style that feels comfortable for her now. That is, she went back to being the sole chef–owner of a small restaurant.
The shift from a large professional kitchen to an ordinary home kitchen means her cooking style has changed too.
“At the restaurant, I made the soup stock from chicken and pork bones. But that’s too much to do in a home kitchen, and it generates a lot of garbage. So now I make the soup stock from ground meat. And instead of throwing out the meat scraps afterward, I use it to make a special fine-crumbled soboro dish that I serve to my guests.”
The soboro recipe may have been born of necessity, but it’s a standard dish with loyal fans now. One of Mama’s career goals is to minimize waste and make full use of the ingredients.
Mama’s cooking made by everyone’s palate
“One day, a customer who had finished a dish of bok choy stir fry said it was too salty. So the kitchen staff and I tried it, and it tasted just right. When I told that to the customer, he said he likes to drink every last drop of the soup. Now that made sense. From then on, we adjusted the seasoning so that the soup would taste good to the last drop.”
In that way, Mama took all kinds of hints from the customers and fine-tuned her recipes to perfection. Everyone has a different and unique palate. When it comes to sense of taste, ultimately it’s all about personal preference. The amazing paradox is that everyone’s palate pitched in and helped polish Mama’s cooking.
“At the end of the day, it’s better to be flexible and open to suggestion. Listen to what others have to say. Lend them an ear and accept their opinions and advice, and it will turn out to be a plus for you. Many of the customers at my first restaurant were creators, and they showed me by example that if you master one art, you master all others. My only art is cooking, and I haven’t even mastered it yet. But I think that’s what keeps me flexible and open to hints.”
What a surprise that after being a chef for fifty years, Mama still doesn’t consider herself a master of her art. But a chef must be a creator too, and if that’s so, then perhaps the minute she stops exploring, she will lose her creativity.
Continuing to present gifts from the kitchen
In 2021, Mama made a fresh start and opened a new restaurant in a condominium surrounded by fresh green trees. She named her new business Sai.
“For several years, I had been thinking about continuing to work but in a style that felt right for me now. It’s a dream come true to have found the ideal location and given shape to my ideas. I dare say I’m done making my end-of-life plans [smiles]. Now I work just two days a week, and serve only one group of guests a day. The experience is a luxury for my guests, and for me too. I’ve had a fair share of hardships, but it would be fantastic if I could give back to my guests and make them happy. How long do I plan to continue working? For the rest of my life, of course. This is all I know how to do.”
The people who love Mama’s cooking
Gifts from the Kitchen is a documentary film about Sai Fumi. The camera follows her in Fumin during preparation and business hours, and travels with her to her mother country of Taiwan. Those scenes are juxtaposed with interviews with Fumin’s fans and supporters—figures like Remi Hirano, whose late husband, the illustrator Makoto Wada, offered the hint for the signature dish wonton with green onions; Taro Gomi, the children’s book author and illustrator who designed the Fumin logo; and countless other creators and influencers whom anyone in the know would recognize. Having these celebrities on the bill should be a huge selling point for the film, but they appear without credit and remain anonymous, suggesting that all are equal who love Mama’s cooking and enjoy her gifts from the kitchen.
Film screening schedule
Gifts from the Kitchen
The story of Sai Fumi and her Minami Aoyama restaurant Fumin
2024 / 89 min. / Japan / Giggly Box Co., Ltd.
Directed by Hisashi Kikuchi, Narrated by Haruka Igawa, Music by Masakatsu Takagi
Theatrical release May 31, 2024
https://negiwantan.com