Autumn Mountains in Japan
The fame of Mont Blanc
Japan is a remarkably seasonal country. Each change of weather is marked by important landmark events, foods, and colours. As we transition into autumn, I want to introduce my readers to one such location. The most seen mountain in Japan during autumn.
Any guesses?
Mt Fuji?
Great guess, but I’m thinking of a place that is seen from all over Japan. I am of course posing a trick question and referring to Mont Blanc. Not the famous French mountain. Not even the famous French pen. Mont Blanc in Japan means one thing. The Mont Blanc dessert.
What is a Mont Blanc?
This is a dish that I first encountered in Japan. Here, it is ubiquitous. Put simply, the dessert is a chestnut cake puree arranged into a beautiful mountain via vermicelli. I’ll break it down into more manageable words and ideas.
For starters, I’ll explain chestnuts.
As the name suggests, chestnuts are nuts encased in a tough outer chest. They are flaky, sweet and almost buttery when roasted, and in the Western World are closely associated with Christmas and Winter as the feature artist in “The Christmas Song”. If you don’t know the song, the subtitle is “chestnuts roasting on an open flame” and the song has been covered by all the generationally important Christmas artists like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé and Ariana Grande.
In Japan, chestnuts didn’t get the Christmas feel, so they are squarely an autumn treat. They aren’t called chestnuts, instead known as marron from the French pronunciation, or kuri (栗). Even the actual chestnut is different with four major types of edible chestnuts (American, European, Chinese and of course Japanese) so ecological differences might explain the seasonal time jump.
All this to say, chestnuts are and always are an autumn special. So why not just eat chestnuts over an open flame and call it a day? Is Nat King Cole’s culinary expertise not good enough for Japan?
Well, chestnuts are a difficult product at the best of times given the aforementioned chest. Various approaches to enjoying the chestnut flavour were trialed, but what has remained popular has been the peel-free Mont Blanc.
The first summit of Mont Blanc
The name might be a giveaway that this is not an entirely Japanese invention. Origins are unclear, with dessert historians debating who deserves credit for the creation. Some suggest the invention was first documented in an 1850’s French cookbook, while others claim it might be from much earlier Italian, German or Swiss roots.
The old-timey descriptions were much the same, focused on three key aspects: the dessert was sweet, there was lots of whipped cream, and atop all of the cream was chestnut puree that was shaped into striated lines shaped like a mountain. We may never find out who came up with the many-stepped process of developing the dessert (roasting chestnuts, then pureeing, then creating a cream, then piping into thin lines atop a prepared cake base), but it has become a beloved dessert from that day forth.
Whatever the case, this was a fancy fine dining dessert eaten by the upper classes in Europe. How did it become a Japanese classic?
This one we do know. The year was 1933. Climber, eater, and baker Chimao Sakota had just been to France to climb and eat but not yet bake. Feeling proud of his accomplishment of summitting the highest mountain in the Alps (Mont Blanc), he opened up a store in Tokyo. Named Mont Blanc. While in France, he had also visited a French Cafe (Angelinas) which served this dessert. He decided that to cement his legacy of climbing a great mountain in Europe, he would spread this news across all of Japan ( just a note to say the actual first summit of the Mountain was very well documented in 1786 by a Frenchman, and is summitted about 20,000 times each year).
Where to find the best Mont Blanc
To write this article, I was forced to try many pastries and desserts to seek the best Mont Blanc in Japan. Taking on this momentous task, I tried to keep the criteria as chestnut based, sweet, and vaguely shaped like a mountain.
This might sound like vague choices and you’re right. However, given the popularity of the dessert, there are many shops that sell varieties of Mont Blanc that eschew the humble marron. I’ve seen pumpkin, sweet potato, matcha, even chocolate, as if there weren’t enough chocolate desserts in the world.
As such, I’m going with traditional interpretations.
Mont-Blanc Chimao - The Original
I failed to mention that Chimao Sakota’s original store is still alive and well. Maybe not the original store, as that was moved for land redevelopment a couple years ago, but the same family-run business with the same menu. Now Chimao-san’s grandson is in charge of this long-run legacy of telling everyone of his father’s great hike. The store itself has become its own pilgrimage site for dessert history lovers, although maybe not yet supplanting the actual mountain in fame.
Mont Blanc Style- Didn’t get in
Perhaps the most notorious of any dessert shops in Tokyo, the name says it all. Mont Blanc Style. A place where the chestnutty delight reigns supreme. So much so, that you can’t actually buy the dessert.
Well at least if you’re a commoner like yours truly. Mont Blanc Style is a member’s only club. Memberships here are rarer than a well-adjusted anime protagonists. They had only opened applications this April for the first time in two years. The search closed within the day, “with far too many applicants”.
They specialise using only the Hitomaru breed of chestnut, which is smaller, harder to keep fresh and more difficult to grow. Yet they are regarded as the best in chest, as they are sweeter and more specifically chestnutty than others. Thus, the Mont Blanc’s at Mont Blanc Style has become the Fabergé Egg of popular Japanese desserts.
Masahiko Ozumi Paris- Osaka
We won’t leave out Osaka, and want to share this relatively new entrant to the institution of desserty goodness. Mashiko Ozumi is the proud owner and creator of this store, and studied in the French Capital. He had worked with superstar patisseriers(?!) across France, and came home to bring that famed French innovation to this Japanese favourite.
He looked at the classical laces found in Mont Blanc and saw the face of wool. Yarn was on his mind, and thus he debuted the Zabuton. Styled after the ubiquitous Japanese tatami pillow, Masahiko Ozumi’s renowned dessert looks so good you could sit on it. All the normal brilliant comments about Mont Blanc apply for this entry too; they use fresh and excellent ingredients etc etc, but mostly, look at how much it looks like a piece of furniture!
Although these recommendations imply that a high quality Mont Blanc is only found in secret societies or the big cities, that is not true. Almost every town and city has wonderful patisseries that will showcase this Autumnal treat. While I’ve not been to every cake shop in this country, I am confident that each of them has a Mont Blanc worth trying. If you find yourself so far away that not even a local patisserie is on hand, there’s always the conbini Mont Blanc. The big 3 of 7-Eleven, Lawson and Family Mart all have seasonal Mont-Blancs that can keep you from never missing out on an chestnut-charged Autumn day.
I appreciate you writing where you didn’t get in! Which I feel is a common position for those trying to try the “best.” We too often read accounts of those who score impossible reservations or are led past velvet ropes.