Nagon’s Hakkou Shows Off Surprising Cooking Skills in New Recipe Book
“I’ve always wanted to publish a recipe book”Cooking while drinking
“I’ve always wanted to publish a recipe book. When we do cooking on our YouTube channel, part of the idea was, ‘If this goes well, maybe we can make a recipe book’ and it worked perfectly (laughs).”
Publishing a recipe book is no easy feat unless you’re a professional culinary expert. Yet, Hakkou (32) of the comedy duo Nagon has released Nagon Kō’s Tonight’s Surprisingly Delicious Recipes (Tatsumi Publishing).
Known for his sharp-tongued comedy, love of alcohol in private, and smoky, rough-around-the-edges persona, Kō surprises many with his ability to quickly whip up snacks that go perfectly with drinks. The book is packed with simple yet foolproof recipes, alongside stories about his family and fellow comedians.
The food photography for the book was conducted at Kō’s own home. Without assistance from a food coordinator, he prepared all the dishes himself in his familiar kitchen.
“We spent two days shooting the food photos. Of course, the staff helped with plating. On the first day, I was drinking a dozen or so drinks (I don’t remember exactly!) from morning until evening while cooking. By the end, I was pretty drunk.
The slightly sexy look of me in the photos is because I was intoxicated, my eyes were half-lidded. I look like a married woman (laughs). True to the concept of this book, the later recipes are designed to be made while drinking. When sober, I’m more cautious, but when I’m drinking, I feel like I can just whip things up quickly,” Kō said.
Also showing off his cooking skills on the Nagon Official YouTube ChannelAn episode that’s not about being rough-around-the-edges
Kō’s encounter with cooking began when he started living alone. At first, he did it out of necessity.
“I started living on my own around 18. I didn’t have much money, so convenience store food was expensive, but I was still hungry, so I couldn’t get full without cooking for myself. I started cooking to save money.”
Gradually, he began to enjoy cooking on his own.
“I never felt that I was bad at cooking. I think part of it comes from seeing my mom, who was good at cooking. But the bigger factor was probably the experience I got at restaurants I worked at as a student. I even made staff meals there, and that’s where I learned some of the know-how.”
Still, his cooking is entirely self-taught. It’s far from fancy knife work.
“I can’t finely and quickly shred cabbage by chopping ‘ton ton ton,’ and I’m not good at filleting fish because I’m clumsy.”
“When I worked at a major izakaya chain, they put me in the kitchen because they thought I could cook. One time, I was told to fillet a horse mackerel that had just come out of the live tank. I couldn’t bring myself to fillet a live fish, so I quietly put it back in the tank.
Yes, it was swimming around happily (laughs). But, of course, I got scolded. I didn’t have the skills, but the truth is, I had always felt sorry for that mackerel, and after closing time, I would secretly feed it, so I had grown attached”
In telling this story, Kō shows a side of himself that’s a bit different from his usual rough-around-the-edges image.
At first, cooking at home was for saving money“I want my future husband to have a simple palate”
When Kō started living alone and cooking for himself, he would sometimes send photos of his dishes to his mother with messages like, “Look what I made!” and receive replies like, “Amazing!” When he returned home, he would say, “Today, I’ll cook!” and serve his family. Being away from home made him realize the effort his mother put into cooking, and he probably wanted to show that he could cook well too. This reveals the warm and gentle relationship between Kō and his family.
“Even if we ran out of cooking sake, we’d just use the leftover nihonshu—my mom did that too. I also loved eating snacks my dad liked with alcohol, like salted squid. Growing up in a family like that, it’s no wonder I naturally became a cooking-loving, alcohol-loving person (laughs).”
One of the dishes Kō made for his family, also featured in his book, is the “Unwrapped Lazy Shumai.”
For this, the shumai filling is fried in a pan in a circular shape, pieces of the shumai wrapper are scattered on top, and then water is added to steam it. It may seem lazy since it’s unwrapped, but it’s a practical and logical way to cook.
“My older brother isn’t very talkative, but he ate the ‘Unwrapped Lazy Shumai’ saying, ‘Delicious! Delicious!’ and I was really happy. When I became a comedian and appeared on a cooking show with him, he was asked which dish of mine was the best, and he didn’t know the name. After thinking for a while, he said ‘Quiche’ (laughs). Sure, it’s not really quiche, but there was no proper name for it, so quiche it was.”
Even while embarrassed, Kō adds humor—classic of a successful comedian.
Like the “Unwrapped Lazy Shumai,” the focus of the recipes in the book is on being simple, with few steps, using ingredients and seasonings that are already at home, so nothing extra needs to be bought.
“There aren’t any fancy-looking party dishes. I want people to cook casually, even using leftovers. Especially for those just starting to live alone, I hope it can be a reference.”
What does cooking mean to Kō?
“For me, cooking probably changes depending on the moment. Right now, I enjoy just adding seasonings freely and quickly cooking. I’m happy if people think it’s tasty. But in the future for example, if I get married, I might think, ‘I should make more formal, presentable dishes’ to show my husband. It might change again if I have kids. Even when I’m a grandmother, it’ll probably change again.”
In these words, a girlish side of Kō peeks through. One might think his rough-around-the-edges persona is breaking down.
“Marriage? I don’t have any plans yet (laughs). But I wouldn’t want a husband who cooks either. He’d probably be fussy and have a refined palate. In that case, a man with a simple palate would be better (laughs).”
It seems the rough-around-the-edges Kō is still very much alive.
“Nagon Kō’s Tonight’s Surprisingly Delicious Recipes” (by Kō Hakkō / Tatsumi Publishing)
PHOTO： Takero Yui