Umami is the brainchild of Copenhagen-based restauranteur Jesper Boelskifte who asked Orbit Design Studio in London to design the environment for his latest venture. Since Umami is a blend of mainly Japanese cuisine enriched with French flair, Orbit did their own blending and used walnut, stone, silks and chandeliers to create a clean Japanese feel with the addition of a soupcon of French glamour. Alongside the interior design, Orbit's Bangkok office were responsible for the visual identity of Umami using menus, uniforms, match boxes, business cards, and bags. The result is equally as elegant as the restaurant itself.
Last Friday evening when lifeiscarbon® visited the restaurant, Umami´s first floor sushi bar was filled with the young and fashion-conscious, while the clientele of the upstairs restaurant was slightly older and more varied. The entrance bar had limited seating, but lemongrass martinis and the laid back lounge with the DJ's mix of jazz/funk certainly made us want to hang around for a while. Towards the end of the evening, we got the feeling that the bar was turning into a popular pick-up spot.
Umami serves Japanese food with a French twist and the food tastes as good as it looks! We enjoyed seared breast of duck with candied root vegetables; fried black tiger shrimp with wasabi mayo, and a fantastic crème brulée with plum granité.
But the very best part of our experience at Umami was the sommelier´s insightful and innovative approach to the wine list. Our ideas of wine and food combinations were certainly challenged and changed forever.
Umami by Orbit Design Studio
Umami
Store Kongensgade 59
1264 København K
Danmark
Tlf. +45 33 38 75 00
What does UMAMI mean?
Here's more than you'll ever need to know....
Umami is a Japanese concept – and somewhat difficult to translate. It can be described using less precise words such as appetizing, delicate, piquant, sharp, delicious and full-bodied. It is used today as a positive adjective. Umami is associated with the experience of perfect quality in a taste – that little bit “extra”, the out of the ordinary. The concept is used especially when talking about Japanese cuisine, which seeks to offer an exquisitely delicate taste experience.
It is not only used to refer to taste, but also where the other senses are concerned, to describe an extraordinary quality.
It is widely agreed that the human tongue can differentiate between four basic tastes: sour, sweet, salty and bitter. Umami has been introduced as the fifth taste which reacts to taste sensations other than the four already accepted. Scientists in the West, however, dispute the existence of a fifth taste.
The fifth taste reacts to protein and glutamate-rich taste sensations. We know today that umami originates from certain amino acids such as glutamate, and monosodium glutamate in particular, which is also known as ”the third seasoning”.
The flavour-enhancer can be used in cooking and brings out a strong umami, or delicate flavour.
Umami was given its name and systematically studied by the Japanese professor, Kikunae Ikeda, at Tokyo Imperial University in 1908, who carried out research into taste.
Professor Ikeda believed that there was a special taste, common to foods such as asparagus, tomatoes, cheese, meat and protein-rich foods in general, which did not fit into the four established taste categories.
Research into the source of the taste led him to kombu (a special type of seaweed used in Japanese cuisine). From large quantities of kombu he made crystals of the amino acid glutamine and monosodium glutamate which is used in cooking.
So, in other words, umami is a positive adjective, a chemical substance, and now a restaurant too!
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