The Kamogawa Food Detectives is a quick read. The print edition is around 200 pages and the audiobook, which I listened to, runs just shy of five hours. For this reason it’s a great palate cleanser of a book, especially if you like detective stories, food, and foreign settings.
The food detective protagonists of the title are father-daughter duo Nagare and Koishi Kamogawa, proprietors of the hard to find but undeniably special Kamogawa Diner, in Kyoto, Japan. Nagare, a retired police detective, is head chef, while Koishi waits tables and assists in the kitchen as needed. Koishi is also head of the detective agency, which they run out of a back room and promote only via a one-line advertisement in a specialty gourmet magazine: “Kamogawa Diner – Kamogawa Detective Agency – We Find Your Food.”
It’s Koishi’s job to interview clients and glean as much information as possible from them about a remembered dish they wish to taste again. This is never an easy task. The emotions associated with the clients’ food memories are typically strong, but details about ingredients, preparation, and sometimes even where the dish was eaten, are sparse. That’s where Nagare, with his unique combination of detective and culinary skills, comes in.
Structurally, this book reminds me of a TV detective series. Each of the six chapters feels like an episode, featuring a different client looking for a unique dish; and each case is satisfactorily solved by the end of its chapter. Chapters also follow a predictable format: the client arrives at the restaurant and sits for an interview with Koishi; after the client leaves, Koishi shares her often scant notes with Nagare; two weeks later the client returns and is served the dish they asked to have recreated; and after they finish eating, Nagara not only explains the investigative process he followed in order to recreate the dish, he also shares his insight into why the dish holds emotional significance for the client.
If you wind up consuming this book and it whets your appetite for more, you’ll be pleased to learn that The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first installment in a series. Originally published in Japan in 2013, it was translated into English and released in the United States in February 2024. An English-language edition of The Restaurant of Lost Recipes, book two in the series, followed in October 2024, and book three, Menu of Happiness is scheduled for release in October 2025. Bon Appétit!
Kashiwai, Hisashi. The Kamogawa Food Detectives. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2024.
