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Yesterday, at 8 PM on the 29th, the resale of OTTINETTI's 14cm mini saucepan and the new release of the 12cm model began simultaneously.

These popular items often sell out quickly, but I'd like to take this opportunity to convey the merits of OTTINETTI products. First, their appearance is truly adorable. "Love at first sight" is a phrase that perfectly describes OTTINETTI.

The power of the silver aluminum body with the gold brass handles is amazing. The ceramic pot's white is glossy, so the contrast between the rough exterior and the shiny interior is also wonderful.

The overall color palette is subdued, allowing the food inside to stand out. It looks great in both photos and videos, and as kikkake, we feel that encountering this cookware has broadened our culinary and photographic horizons.

Another appeal is that the ceramic pot and the pan are separate. When I first saw it, I just thought, "What an interesting pot." However, when I started using it, I found it to be more versatile than I expected. First, the pan alone can be used for direct heat cooking, so it functions as a small pot.

The ceramic pot can be used in the oven to make dishes like stewed hamburg steak and gratin. Putting these dishes in the pan adds an extra touch of cuteness, which is fantastic. It's also subtly pleasing that you only need to wash the ceramic pot after eating.

Its adorable appearance makes it function wonderfully as a serving dish. Not only cooked food, but also store-bought side dishes or sweets look great when served in it.

The 14cm size is perfect for sharing dishes like ajillo or tomato stew placed in the center of the table. However, what I really recommend is making gratin with the 12cm size. You might need a few, but serving individual portions at the table creates a lovely, chic restaurant-like atmosphere.

OTTINETTI's mini saucepan is a unique product that serves as both a cooking tool and a dish. I hope to continue using it, discovering various ways to incorporate it, and sharing those findings with you.

Neapolitan spaghetti.
It's like Japan's quintessential Western-style pasta, and if there were a competition for pasta that best suits chopsticks, I'd spontaneously nominate Neapolitan spaghetti or tarako pasta.

I hadn't made it all that often, but the Neapolitan spaghetti featured in the manga "Fermat's Cuisine" looked incredibly delicious. I was curious to see if there was a difference between making it using the exact recipe and process from the manga versus making it the usual way, so I made both and compared them.

Here are my thoughts after trying it:
"Neapolitan spaghetti is delicious!"
It's a simple pasta, just vegetables and sausage stir-fried with ketchup, but it was far tastier than I expected.

Since my cooking skills are nowhere near those of the manga's protagonist, there wasn't much difference between the two Neapolitan spaghettis I made. Both were equally good and perfectly delicious. That was the outcome.

The "Fermat's Cuisine" version involved some unconventional steps, which was fun to do. But even including the simply made Neapolitan spaghetti, my impression was, "The person who invented this dish is amazing!"

In my opinion, the beauty of Neapolitan spaghetti lies in "removing the core from the noodles." While I usually find pasta tastier with a slight bite, with Neapolitan spaghetti, it feels just right to cook it until the core is completely gone, almost to the point where you think you might have overcooked it a little.

Since it seems to be a pasta dish that developed uniquely in Japan, perhaps the texture when swallowing is important after all. I feel like it tastes better if you think of it as a dish somewhere between pasta and soba when you make it.

Wow, it's such a common dish, and with its strong image of being popular with kids, I hadn't eaten it recently, but Neapolitan spaghetti was great!

I love the pasta dish "Italian" at the famous Jimbocho cafe "Sabouru," which seems to be Neapolitan spaghetti without the ketchup, so maybe I'll try making that next time.

I made Pyen-lo nabe for the first time in a while.
I think the last time I made it was about 10 years ago.
It's a hotpot dish with napa cabbage, pork, and vermicelli noodles, made with dried shiitake mushroom soaking liquid as the dashi.

It's a very simple dish where you ladle it into your own bowl and eat it with salt and Ichimi togarashi (Japanese chili flakes).
You add so few seasonings that you wonder if it will taste good, but it was incredibly delicious.
It was so good I thought, "Wait, was it always this delicious?"

One thing I think I messed up on was making it in a small pot.
I definitely could have eaten it all if I'd made it in a large pot.

When I was younger, I preferred dishes with bolder flavors, so I think Pyen-lo nabe felt too simple and bland to me.
Pyen-lo nabe is a dish for adults.

It's an easy yet wonderful dish that lets you enjoy the natural flavors of the ingredients with just salt, so I highly recommend it if you're interested.

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Pyen-lo Nabe

Rehydrate 5 dried shiitake mushrooms in 600ml of water.
Put the soaking liquid directly on the heat, add as much napa cabbage, pork, and vermicelli noodles as you like, a drizzle of sesame oil, and Shaoxing wine.
Chop the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms and add them to the pot.
Serve in your own bowl, and add salt and chili flakes to your liking.

For the finale, adding rice or udon noodles is the best.
Add beaten egg and season with soy sauce and salt.
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When filming for YouTube, I often create prototypes beforehand to deepen my understanding. Although I sometimes shoot without prior preparation, filming goes more smoothly if things are decided in advance, so I basically create things exactly as prototyped.

During prototyping, I create quite freely, and then I refine or discard ideas repeatedly while discussing them with my filming partner, KONEGI, to make decisions. The actual shoot then involves executing those decided elements based on the results of the prototyping.

Most of the time, the prototyping leads to a better outcome in the actual shoot, but occasionally, I worry that I haven't surpassed the prototype.

I've noticed that this happens consistently when I'm "tracing" my steps. When I imagine my movements from the prototyping phase and act as if I'm tracing them, I feel like I won't be able to surpass it.

It's fine when I act "based on" the prototype, but it's risky when I'm acting as if I'm "tracing" the prototype.

It's difficult to put into words, but if the goal is set to be the same as last time and you act accordingly, then merely imitating the previous attempt becomes the only goal, and it feels like it turns into a cheap copy.

While it might just be a matter of mindset, prototypes exist to improve the precision of the actual shoot. If I feel like I'm just imitating the prototype in the main production, I need to be able to recognize that something is off.

I made capellini for a YouTube shoot, and it was absolutely delicious.

I remember thinking, "It's good, but I'd prefer something warm," whenever I was served cold pasta as part of an Italian course, so I’d always avoided making it myself.

I decided to try making cold capellini with super-fine pasta strands because it looks stylish and refreshing. But I was surprised by how delicious it was—even more so than I expected.

I made cold capellini with crab and scallops. Since the seasoning wasn't much different from my usual spaghetti dishes, I was worried it might taste bland, like a cold, non-spicy tomato pasta. But it wasn't bland at all; it was incredibly tasty.

Perhaps the pasta's firm texture from being chilled in cold water makes it easy to slurp down, much like soba or udon. It was so delicious and easy to eat that it could easily be a regular pasta dish during the hot season.

Starting kikkake has led me to try many different dishes, which has broadened my interests and allowed me to enjoy cooking and eating even more, and I’m very happy about that.

When you buy nice tableware, you can't use it until you make the food to put on it, so you think about what to make.

When you buy nice cooking utensils, you want to use them right away, so you end up buying ingredients to use with them.

Entering a hobby "from the outside in" (focusing on the appearance or tools first) is sometimes used in a negative sense, but I think it's a good thing.

If it motivates you to act, then the trigger doesn't matter, and whether the joy expands from the outside in or from the inside out is irrelevant.

When I was snowboarding in my youth, I think I admired the snowboarder look itself more than wanting to slide on the snow. And when I started playing guitar, I think it was more about wanting to be like my favorite band itself, rather than the music itself.

As I was writing this, I thought to myself, "Am I, perhaps, a bit of a fanboy?" The reason I seriously started cooking was because I started watching "Tomomi Ogura's Italian Pro Training Course" on YouTube, and I started buying the same cooking utensils that Ogura-san was buying. It seems all my triggers are pretty straightforward.

I started writing this intending to describe "entering from the outside in" in a positive light, but it ended up sounding like I was justifying myself.

...Well, anyway, cooking, tableware, and cooking utensils are all fun, and I can feel myself getting a little better, so I think entering "from the outside in" is a good thing!