Translations:Yōshoku/3/en

History

At the beginning of the Meiji Restoration (1868–1912), national seclusion was eliminated and the Meiji Emperor declared Western ideas helpful for Japan's future progress. As part of the reforms, the Emperor lifted the ban on red meat and promoted Western cuisine, which was viewed as the cause of the Westerners' greater physical size. Yōshoku thus relies on meat as an ingredient, unlike the typical Japanese cuisine at the time. Additionally, many of the Westerners who started to live in Japan at that time refused to touch traditional Japanese food (washoku), so their private Japanese chefs learned how to cook them Western-style cuisine, often with a Japanese spin.