Interview of Supporter Stores Premium Japanese Food Trading Co.

What does it take to offer the finest Japanese cuisine to upmarket Europeans with a refined interest in food? It starts, of course, with acquiring fresh, top-tier ingredients, and continues with the chef’s expertise and artistic flair. This then brings us to the question of flavor enhancement.

Over the past decade or so, the variety of ingredients available in Europe has increased significantly, as has the number of individuals who have learned and developed Japanese culinary skills. On the other hand, when it comes to availability in Europe of traditional flavor-boosting ingredients – such as soy sauce – the selection remains quite limited.

Recognizing this limitation as a good business opportunity, Samson Bakonyi and Daniel Szekely jointly founded Premium Japanese Food Trading Co. in 2023.

Bakonyi, a professional chef with experience in upscale restaurants both domestically and internationally, explains the motivation behind the venture: "There are so many different types of olive oil in Europe, but you can only find a few types of soy sauce that are meant for the mass market. We simply aim to provide the highest-quality goods from traditional Japanese producers that you can’t find in European supermarkets."

Premium Japanese thus offers a collection of eight essential flavor ingredients in "The Ultimate Japanese Pantry Box". Priced at EUR 499, including VAT and intra-EU shipping, the box contains:

With the exception of the bonito flakes, Premium Japanese imports each of these ingredients directly from Japanese producers.

Bakonyi, the company’s creative director, curated the box personally, and emphasizes that these particular ingredients are essential for creating best-in-class Japanese cuisine.

Having completed a course in Japanese cuisine for foreign professional chefs, in 2022, Bakonyi earned his ‘Taste of Japan’ program certification (the official name is ‘Certification of Cooking Skills for Japanese Cuisine in Foreign Countries’). He then immersed himself in an exploration of the foundational seasonings that enhance the flavor of Japanese cuisine.

‘Taste of Japan’, operated by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, aims to popularize Japanese food and culinary culture by certifying foreign chefs who have obtained a certain level of knowledge and cooking proficiency.

The Ministry states that, as of March 2023, 2,422 non-Japanese individuals have obtained program certification at one of three levels: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Only 22 individuals have obtained Gold-level certification, while there are 976 Silver and 1,424 Bronze certificate holders. No Hungarian has earned Gold or Silver certification, but Bakonyi is one of just four individuals in the country with Bronze certification.

Building on Bakonyi’s experience as an active chef on superyachts and his wide range of connections in the yacht industry, Premium Japanese is targeting owners and chefs of private and chartered yachts in the Mediterranean.

The yachting season, which starts around March and stretches into October, lures approximately 10,000 yachts – including 2,000 to 3,000 so-called superyachts or megayachts – into these idyllic waters.

A sale to just half of 1% of these yachts would result in the company achieving its first-season target of 500 boxes. The next mid-term goal is to sell 1,000 boxes.

According to Szekely, because of early feedback from individuals in the yacht industry on the product’s large size and luxurious impression, the partners are considering a ‘gift box’ promotion.

Szekely and Bakonyi, having known each other since high school, have already launched several businesses together. Szekely, who oversees the business operations at the company, draws from a wealth of entrepreneurial experience and comes to decisions only after thorough consideration. Bakonyi tends to generate the ideas, and Skekely believes that this is a good one.

“I usually say ‘no, no, no’ to Samson’s ideas, but this time I said ‘yes,’” Szekely recalls with a smile. “I listened to him bemoan that fact that he simply can’t find proper seasonings anywhere in Europe to create the best Japanese food for his clients. He’s a chef on superyachts, and if he says so, then there is indeed a serious problem to address. He was so passionate about the issue, so I said: ‘Let's do it together.’”

Naturally, profitability is the primary business goal, but the partners also aspire to educate foreign chefs. Premium Japanese offers approximately 30 standard recipes with precise instructions on how to get the most out of their flavoring ingredients. The recipes are available free of charge for registered website users.

Bakonyi and Szekely acknowledge the formidable challenge of sourcing seasonings from Japan.

One obstacle is the European Union’s strict food and hygiene regulations. As the regulations make it nearly impossible, for example, to import bonito flakes directly from Japan, Premium Japanese obtains them from Makurazaki France Bonito Flakes, a Japanese producer based in France that deploys a method similar to the one used in Japan.

The partners also mention that some Japanese suppliers are not very well prepared to export their products.

They conducted an initial search for producers on an online catalog site called Japan Street, where foreign JETRO-certified buyers can log in to discover products from Japanese businesses looking to expand their operations overseas. The duo discovered, however, that most candidate products turned out to be unsuitable for export to Europe.

This is when they looked for help from JETRO, which provided them with a list of about 200 candidate products from a wide range of companies. After requested samples from each of them, only 34 satisfied Premium Japanese’s requirements.

According to Sekely, even if a producer could send several samples at one time, the product labels were all in Japanese, and many of the accompanying English-language explanations were either insufficient or failed to identify the corresponding product.

“JETRO was very helpful,” Skekely says, “but we felt that many producers are incapable of exporting their products to the EU, due either to regulatory issues or communication difficulties – or both. We hope that the situation will improve in the future.”