The mountain top overlooking downtown Oita was developed to serve as a social welfare facility.
Running a farm and aiming for a borderless healing base.
The "Stone Oven Kitchen & Cafe Burabo & Farm."
Programming in LogicCafe & Farm on top of a mountain
About 5 minutes by car from the Oita Interchange on the Oita Expressway. Although relatively close to the center of Oita City, the café "Ishigama Kitchen & Cafe Burabo Burabo Farm" is surrounded by a forest that makes you feel as if you are deep in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.
In addition to table settings, the restaurant has an adjoining space with tatami room seating so that people with small children can enjoy their meals in peace. The second floor is a free rental space that can be used for meals, small parties, and various workshops.
Today, it is a popular place with cars lined up all day long, but it was originally a place that was shunned by the locals because of its bleak atmosphere after being used as a materials yard for a construction site and then abandoned. However, it had a great view of the Oita city center, and the owner wanted to turn the site into a place that would please people, so he began cultivating farmland and opened a café where the vegetables would play a leading role.
[Report: Nozomi Nakamoto (left) and Chiho Takei (right)
The restaurant opened 10 years ago in 2008. In the beginning, they served macrobiotic cuisine in which vegetables were the main ingredient, but as a result of encounters and relationships forged over the past 10 years, Italian cuisine, which is derived from Sicily, is now the main focus of the restaurant. The mainstay of the café is a large stone oven installed in the center. The main menu features hot pizza baked in this stone oven, lasagna, focaccia, and sweets. The dough, the lifeblood of pizza, is a blend of pesticide-free wheat from Oita and wheat from Italy, and is fermented slowly with Shirakami Kodama yeast. The vegetables used are safe and gentle to the body, such as vegetables grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers at the "Burabo Farm," which is located next door, and seasonal vegetables carefully grown by local farmers.
The pizza is finished with a generous drizzle of "Bar Paradiso" extra virgin olive oil, which is hand-picked and slowly pressed in Sicily. Along with the steam rising from the dish, the lush, fresh aroma of the oil is like waking up every cell in your body. Other ingredients such as wine imported from Sicily, olives, fruit, and other processed foods also decorate the table, giving you a taste of the unique cuisine of this café.
Store LocationsTurning an inorganic materials office into a warm space
Takei: "Are you sure this is the right road ......?" Takei: "Are you sure this is the right road? It was a warm afternoon for early winter when I visited. The view spreading out from the hillside caught my eye, and from the enoki trees standing as if guarding the store, golden leaves fluttered and fluttered, catching in my hair. ...... It was a very comfortable place to be even before entering the store. Now, enter the store, where the aroma from the stone oven wafts through the air!
Ishigama Kitchen & Cafe Burabo and Burabo Farm were established on the winter solstice of 2008. The night is the longest day of the year, but from a different perspective, the day was considered to be "an important day that marks a turning point toward spring," and they decided to establish the farm on the winter solstice. What kind of growth and flowers will bloom in the future? The opening of the new building was filled with various hopes, and it has just celebrated its 10th year since then.
From the site, you can enjoy a panoramic view of the Oita city area. The Oita Expressway can be seen in the center.
Aiming to make the most of the rich soil nurtured by nature and to create a space where people can heal their minds and bodies in a quiet place, they decided to open a farm and a café on a neglected wasteland. They set up a non-profit organization to develop the farmland, and took the initiative in employing people with minor disabilities as a social welfare project, contributing to the local community as they operated the farm and cafe. The café's scenic view and its integration into nature caught the attention of a movie director and other film crew, who requested the café as a location for a movie, and it has even appeared on the screen.
The building that serves as the store is a renovated office building that was once used as a materials yard. While retaining its inorganic appearance, it is decorated with handmade interior decorations, warmly colored table sets, and a pop-colored stone kiln, creating a soft atmosphere.
The first stone kiln of ▲Burabo Cafe. Installed at the entrance of the store, it is still an active stone kiln that can be used for many years to come.
The legs of the table set were cut off and the floor was re-covered to create a tatami room space so that guests with children can dine in a relaxed atmosphere. The interior has been minimized as much as possible, and it is nice to see that the children can spend their time in a relaxed atmosphere.
Culinary Story Chef Hiroshi Horibe
What enters the body through the mouth creates cells. The greatest joy is when people smile after eating food that has been carefully prepared and tastes good, and when they feel even more energized.
Chef Horigome: "All of the vegetables, wheat, and seasonings used in our dishes are organic, chemical-free, and health-conscious, and we use locally harvested, seasonal produce. My role is to take vegetables that would normally be on the dinner table, prepare them with carefully selected seasonings, and transform them into authentic Italian cuisine in a stone oven. My role is to transform vegetables that would normally be on the dinner table into authentic Italian cuisine using carefully selected seasonings! That is my greatest joy.
The café's main dish is stone oven pizza made in Sicily, Italy. Other dishes such as lasagna and sweets are also baked in the stone oven.
Pizza toppings are often made with seasonal vegetables, but cheese and olive oil are imported with authenticity in mind.
The dough is baked in an instant in a high-heat stone oven, resulting in a dough that is crispy on the outside but chunky on the inside. The toppings take a lot of time and effort to be cooked just right in this short baking time, including pre-cooking the ingredients according to their size and character.
MenuThe cafe's signature pizza
Pizza, the mainstay of the cafe, is available in a variety of styles, from the style loved in authentic Italy to original pizzas made mainly from the farm's prized vegetables. From among them, we would like to introduce pizzas made with seasonal vegetables.
Pizza with bacon and winter vegetables in tomato sauce 1,500 yen (not included in lunch set)
Lunch includes homemade veggie Dish and beverage set.
*Report introduction is for Pizza only.
Pizza and Veggie Dish (one-plate vegetable deli dishes) are made with Sicilian orange salt, garlic salt, and olive oil to match the individual characteristics of each dish, giving the vegetables and wheat their original flavor.
The aroma of the dough rises up the moment it is brought in front of you, stimulating your appetite. The original tomato sauce and the sweetness of the winter vegetables are enhanced by the Sicilian salt.
Bianca style with Chinese cabbage and mozzarella 1,700 yen (not included in the lunch set)
Lunch includes homemade veggie Dish and beverage set.
*Report introduction is for Pizza only.
This simple pizza is made without tomato sauce, but with toppings, cheese and olive oil. The rich creaminess of the cheese can be tasted directly matched with the chewiness of the elastic dough. Most unusual of all is the use of Chinese cabbage, whose crunchy texture seems to enhance the freshness of the local vegetables.
Bacon and winter vegetable pizza with sakekasu bechamel sauce 1,500 yen (not included in the lunch set)
Lunch includes homemade veggie Dish and beverage set.
*Introduction is for Pizza only.
The original béchamel sauce, made with Oita sake lees, has a gentle sweetness and soft flavor that goes perfectly with the vegetables. It is also light on the palate, so there is no feeling of being smothered after eating.
Italian sweets 350 yen (not included) and up
The image is of Italian baba napoletano, a baked pastry soaked in wine. The sweetness of the whipped cream is tempered, making it a mature sweet that makes you want to eat every bite with care.
Takei: The first thing that strikes me about any of these pizzas is the abundance of delicious vegetables used! There are also vegetables that you generally don't see on pizzas. My favorite is Chinese cabbage. ♪ I heard that some of the ingredients are sauteed first to match the short cooking time of the stone oven, and that this extra step creates the best balance when the dish is finished. The royal tomato sauce holds the whole dish together well, and its refreshing acidity and flavor are the best match for the cheese. The béchamel sauce is combined with sake-kasu, which has a chewy texture, and the aroma you can feel in your nose is addictive! The pizza without sauce, which brings out the best of the ingredients, is a dish made with confidence and love, and together with the fragrant olive oil, you could eat it as much as you like. We paired it with a white wine from Sicily, Italy. The wine is mild and easy to drink, blending well with the mild character of the vegetables, making it perfect for a casual meal! It is so easy to drink that it may be a bit risky (laugh).
[Focaccia]
The hot dough is then split and drizzled with so much olive oil........ The texture is soft and fluffy, and the saltiness is exquisite! The texture is so soft and salty and exquisite!
[Dessert]
The fragrance and rich sweetness of the wine-soaked, uufufu-nai sweets melted in the mouth with the whipped cream.
Select olive oils essential for finishing dishes
Olive oil from Sicily is essential to the cuisine at "Burabo Cafe," which has ties to the Italian island of Sicily. Among them, we mainly use an extra virgin oil called "Bar Paradiso. It is made from olives handpicked in Sicily and slowly extracted at low temperatures, giving it a strong, green, fresh aroma. It is also sold in stores. He met an olive oil sommelier in Iwate Prefecture through a chance encounter, but it is precious and only available in two places in Japan, here and in Iwate Prefecture. They also sell a rare jam made from Sicilian olives, which is a rare product available only here in Japan.
オInterview with Kyoko Kanda
The café, farm, and seminar room all have "healing" as their main focus.
Can provide 'healing' in many ways, including eating, resting, and nurturing.
We want to become a healing center.
Q: Why did you start the café?
I originally ran an event planning and design company, and one of my businesses was producing a free newspaper. I had many opportunities to meet and connect with writers and artists of organic vegetables and handmade goods through my reporting activities. As an extension of these encounters, we began to hold more and more marches, events, and workshops together, and we thought it would be better to create a place where people could gather.
Q: I am interested in the concept of Italian food made in a stone oven.
When we opened, it was a macrobiotic café focusing on vegetables from the farm. I went into the kitchen and steadily made that as well, but even though I had originally planned to allow myself to work freely, I found myself completely immobilized, so I looked for a chef. Then, quite just in time, an acquaintance introduced me to a female Italian chef who was active in the Kanto region and had come to Oita on business, and the original seed that led me to my current cuisine and my encounter with Sicily was born. Then, many recipes and menus were developed by the current chef Horigome, leading to the style we have today."
Q: Why did you choose this location?
I knew that the land had been neglected since then, and I wanted to make the most of its good view and abundant nature. There is also a tea plantation nearby, so I thought that if I developed this vast site as a farm, I could develop it in many different ways, and founded 'Burabo Farm.
Q: Pioneering takes time and effort, how did you go about it?
I wanted to make it a fruitful pioneering effort rather than simply operating it as a farm, so I set up a non-profit organization and created a social welfare facility to work as a workshop, where people with minor disabilities could work. However, it took a lot of time and money until we were able to grow crops.
On the other hand, since we set up our café and farm here, we have been blessed with miraculous encounters. A few years ago, a young man who runs an outdoor free school asked us about this large plot of land, saying that he wanted to set up a camp there. At the back of the farm, we offer a place for campers to develop their spontaneity without a program, as a "school for everyone. In the near future, we plan to build a children's school on this property, where children can be educated in a relaxed and nurturing environment.
Q: What is your outlook for the future?
We want to make this place a kind of healing center that can heal people from many angles. For example, eating is healing for the body, and napping is healing for those who are tired. I think it would be wonderful to have a place where adults can relax next to a facility where they can raise their children in a carefree environment. I am also working while raising my children, so it is nice to have a place where I can relax after a hard day's work. In addition, there is a shortage of successors in the farming industry, including in the neighboring tea fields. I dream of establishing a factory café where farm products can be transformed into dishes and products, and a large all-weather hall where various seminars and workshops can be held.
Q: Thank you for your time.
epilogueAfter the interview
Takei: I met the owner, Kanda-san, for the first time, and he is a charming man full of energy! I could sense that she carefully puts her thoughts into words, word by word. I was impressed by the fact that, despite her incredible energy, she is natural and not overly self-conscious in a good way. He is not a one-man operation, but rather, he is thinking about the circulation of society as a whole, and shares his ideas with those around him. As we talked with her, we were drawn in by her personality, which has a core but is also flexible. Her ideas are expressed everywhere in the café. She is particular about what she puts in her mouth, and she seems to be constantly evolving the space so that everyone can spend a pleasant time there. For example, a private room where you can take off your shoes has been added in order to provide a place where you can enjoy proper food without worrying about taking your children along. It is not easy to take one's own experience and give it shape, and to continue to do so.
I'm so lucky!" says the owner cheerfully. Behind her lovely smile, you can sense something more passionate than just that. I wonder what kind of place this place will become in the future... This encounter made me want to visit again and again.
Access5 minutes drive from Oita Interchange
Ishigama Kitchen & Cafe Burabo
Burabo Farm
Address: 2-1 Shonohara, Oita City, Oita Prefecture
Phone: 097-594-3239
Business hours: 11:30-18:00
Lunch time 11:30-15:00
Dinner and events are available upon request.
Closed: Sunday and Monday (irregular holidays on Monday)
MAP
Interview and editorial staff
Model Report: Chiho Takei
Reporting and Editing: Nozomi Nakamoto
Photography and production: VOKE Ltd.