Every so often, we have the privilege of catching up with collaborators, friends, and those who inspire our work at Veark. Recently, we spoke with Ola Szwałek, a chef based in Tokyo whose work is shaped by a deep attentiveness to ingredients, landscape and material, from wild foraging to an ongoing exploration of ceramics, clay and the tools that hold food.

Photographer Nanami Okamoto spent a day with her, read on.

Where’s home?

Japan.

What did you serve the last time you had guests?

Bouillabaisse and warm apple pie served with walnut sorbet for dessert.

What are you making or working on now?

I’m working on a collection of ceramics with one of my favourite artists. It feels like we are shaping a conversation in clay. It’s a dream come true.

What’s a tool you can’t live without?

My pocket knife. If I were an object, I would be one.

What does cooking mean to you?

Cooking is about safety — my way of familiarizing myself with spaces.

It’s also a bridge: between me and the recipient, between cultures, between two strangers. And a bridge into the world of my sensitivity.

Most overrated vs under-appreciated things in food?

Under-appreciated: overcooked broccoli — when it falls apart and becomes almost a sauce with larger chunks.

Overrated: massive piles of whipped butter, and anything that creates food waste for the sake of “visual abundance”.

A meaningful gift you’ve received?

A ceramic egg holder made by my close friend Kasia — one of my favourite objects in the house. She also runs the incredible aarticles. It has a special meaning as it’s one of her early works and has travelled continents with me.

Your tips — things you are into right now

• Anything Clare de Boer writes on her Substack “The Best Bit”.
• My friend Hania recently released a beautiful album “Non Fiction: Piano Concerto in Four Movements”.
• The work of Iris Humm, Ana Roque, and the musical “Play” by Alexander Ekman.
  
• A recent publication I treasure: my friend Stefan Dotter’s first monograph documenting natural habitats and Indigenous communities in the Amazon, Borneo and Madagascar.

Photography from Stefan Dotter’s first monograph

Recommendations / places and experiences

• Japanese Folk and Craft Museum, Tokyo
• Kankakari Gallery, Kyoto
• Zentokuji Temple, Johana, Toyama Prefecture — where I had the honour of running the kitchen this summer; a hidden treasure in the countryside.
• SAIME, Tokyo — a restaurant run by one chef-host, where every dish is cooked over fire or in clay and served in earthenware. It eliminates the distance between soil and plate and is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.
  

Kankakari Gallery, Kyoto

SAIME,Tokyo