梅原 裕一郎

1. Udon making (December 2018 / January 2019 issue)

Actually, I once had udon on a school trip in high school. But at that time, I had to stretch out the dough one by one using a wooden tool, so it was my first time cutting with a kitchen knife. With the tool I used this time, it was difficult to adjust the thickness of the udon noodles by raising and lowering the knife. From kneading the dough to stretching it, all the work requires strength, so I thought it was a job that required a lot of physical strength. I feel like I didn’t get much out of my muscle training (laughs).

Udon was very good. I’m satisfied with not only the taste of the udon, but also the thickness of the noodles to my liking. I used to live in Nagoya, so I’m more familiar with udon than soba. Even though I alone, I still eat udon often. Frozen udon noodles are always stocked so that you can eat lightly when you get hungry in the middle of the night. I do cook for myself sometimes, but once I start doing it, it gets complicated, so I can’t do things like cooking quickly daily.

The udon here is really delicious, so I want to go there again, but I’m too embarrassed to go. It would be embarrassing if they remembered me, but if they didn’t notice me, that would be the same. The voice actor, Kazuyuki Fukagawa, happened to go to this store, and the store manager and I talked about it (laughs).

• Sweets (February / March 2019 issue)

Making Japanese sweets is difficult. I’ve been interested in it for a long time, and this time I was able to experience it in this “Plum Goyomi,” but it required more delicate techniques than I had imagined. It’s food, but I feel like I’m making a craft. I proceeded with the teacher showing me a model, but when I put them side by side, there was a big difference, and I felt again that craftsmen are amazing.

I tried to make 3 types of nerikiri, but the 3 colours of plums with 5 equal petals were the most difficult. The fabric was softer than I expected, so I had trouble adjusting the amount of force. It turned out to be a distorted petal, but I like it because it’s easy to understand that it looks like a “plum.”

The theme for 2019 is “Stability.” As you all know, 2018 was a really turbulent year. It’s been 6 years since my debut, and when I think about it, I feel like I’ve been working as a voice actor for a long time. Also, I’ll soon be 28 years old, so I will start studying what it means to be an uncle so that I can play the role of an adult uncle (smile).

The work was delicate and difficult, but I felt the depth of wagashi in the process of forming the flowers. Personally, I enjoyed cutting the dough into small pieces with a special tool. I like Japanese sweets because they look cute and colourful. We took the Japanese sweets we made home and ate them with tea. It was delicious.

• Porcelain arts (April / May 2019 issue)

The theme of the mug cup and square plate I will make this time is “Kutani ware.” I’ve always liked pottery, and I have some Arita porcelain, but I especially like the Kutani porcelain pattern. Among the many design sheets, there was a sheet with a Japanese pattern that was perfect for the image, so I chose a combination of colours and patterns that would create a subdued finish.

Fine-tune the position after pasting the sheet wasn’t that hard. However, the work of painting the gold leaf part gradually made my eyes tired and blurred, so it was difficult (laughs). I used to say in this series that I don’t cook much for myself, but recently I’ve started to do so. After that, if you eat out or buy something, the nutrition will be biased. I would love to make something and eat it on this plate. Also, recently I’ve been drinking hot water. I’m addicted to it.

Drinking plenty of water is good for your throat and body, and I didn’t like it much in the past, but recently I’ve come to like the taste as well. What’s more, drinking a large amount of hot water at night will force you to go to the bathroom in the morning, so you don’t have to set the alarm clock (laughs). I want to drink plain hot water from the mug!

I use plates and mugs for meals. However, the fact that I couldn’t put it in the microwave because I used gold leaf was a real bottleneck… At this time, I commented that I was addicted to drinking hot water, but I still like hot water. I drink all the time.