The Rising Trend of House-Made Soy Sauce in Restaurants

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Across the globe, chefs are tapping into the potential of soy sauce to enhance the rich flavor of umami, which is often considered the fifth basic taste. While there are many high-quality commercial soy sauces available, a growing number of chefs are opting to create their own blends from scratch. This practice varies from crafting unique infusions tailored for specific dishes to engaging in a labor-intensive fermentation process that transforms soybeans and other ingredients into a flavorful condiment. The resulting homemade soy sauces often become a hallmark of many restaurants.

In-House Soy Sauce Blends

At the newly opened Manhattan omakase venue Sushi Akira, Chef Nikki Zheng customizes her soy sauce blends for each type of fish served. “The blend’s profile is influenced by the fish’s characteristics, guiding whether a light or robust flavor is appropriate,” she explains. Similarly, in New York, Omakase Room by Shin utilizes a carefully reduced mixture of sake, sweet sake, and soy sauce to enhance dishes as a marinade, finishing touch, or condiment. Chef Shin Yamaoka notes, “Many guests attribute the flavors they enjoy to the quality of the fish, but my unique soy sauce blend is my secret ingredient.”

At China Live in San Francisco, Chef George Chen combines a salty Japanese soy sauce with a sweeter Chinese variety and incorporates a hint of Indonesian kecap manis sweetened with palm sugar and spices, creating a signature House Soy Sauce that pairs perfectly with dishes like sheng jian bao.

Unlike many sushi chefs who infuse soy sauces privately, Daisuke Nakazawa, associated with Sushi Nakazawa in New York and Washington, D.C., sees this personalization as innate to his culinary offerings. He employs a technique called “nikiri,” crafted by boiling soy sauce from Honzen, a historic Japanese brewery, mixed with sake and mirin—integral to his entire menu concept. “True sushi chefs will often sample another’s nikiri to discern its unique preparation methods,” he remarks.

In-House Soy Sauce Infusions

Chefs increasingly enjoy infusing soy sauces with unique flavors. At the Boston-based restaurant Mr. H, the house “strange sauce” features a blend of star anise, cinnamon, fennel seeds, Chinese black cardamom, and Sichuan peppercorn. In Hilo, Hawaii, Mark Pomaski from Moon & Turtle infuses soy sauce with kiawe smoke to lend a distinctive taste to his sashimi.

New Orleans’ Porgy’s Seafood Market gets creative by using smoked elements to enrich its white soy sauce. Owner Caitlin Carney emphasizes their commitment to maximizing every part of the fish, leading to the creation of “Spinal Soy,” a flavorful white soy sauce crafted from the smoked spines of large fish like tuna and swordfish.

The restaurant’s signature dish, the Lady Monger’s Crudo, showcases the freshest catch along with seasonal fruits and herbs, serving as an excellent platform to highlight the Spinal Soy.

Crafting Soy Sauce from Scratch

The meticulous process of making soy sauce from the ground up utilizing koji spans several weeks or even months. NOIO, situated within the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai in Hawaii, has streamlined this by collaborating with the Japanese brewery Kajita Shoten to create bespoke light and dark soy sauces.

James Wayman, a chef who operates Nana’s in Rhode Island and Connecticut, co-founded Moromi, specializing in traditional soy sauce and miso. His establishments leverage not only locally sourced small-batch soy sauces but also innovations like utilizing soy sauce lees for unique recipes, such as being pressed, dehydrated, and combined with Parmesan for a creative pizza topping.

Some restaurants are taking the full plunge into the art of soy sauce creation. At Benu, overseen by 2012 F&W Best New Chef Corey Lee, fermentation vessels are prominent features, alongside guarded processes involving dried soybean blocks. Doi Moi in D.C. sells its house-made sauces, which includes mushroom soy sauce and sweet soy sauce, used generously in recipes like drunken noodles.

The chain Sushi by Scratch Restaurants, which operates multiple locations nationwide, enhances its in-house soy sauce by thickening it with the husks of brown rice, which is also used in its sushi rice preparation. Meanwhile, chef Ockhyeon Byeon of New York’s Round K By ferments his own ganjang, or Korean soy sauce, ultimately reducing it with sugar and barrel-aging it to create soy syrups that infuse flavor into coffee.

The effort involved in producing soy sauce from scratch is considerable. “It requires significant time and dedication, but the process is immensely satisfying when the final result is rewarding,” reflects Delfin Jaranilla, chef and partner at Brooklyn’s Leland Eating and Drinking House. He uses his concoction judiciously, often applying it to a tuna crudo or incorporating it in a dashi or ponzu.

At Id Est Hospitality in Colorado, Director of Fermentation and Sustainability Mara King has developed a distinct version of soy sauce that does not rely on traditional soybeans, which are not prevalent in her region. “We incorporate Japanese koji growth techniques while drawing inspiration from various Asian traditions, focusing mainly on locally sourced Colorado ingredients,” she explains. “Finding accurate names for our creations can sometimes be a challenge as we aim to respect the cultures they relate to.” Broadly, these items are labeled “amino sauces,” highlighting the process of koji breaking down proteins into rich amino acids.

For instance, her burnt-nut amino sauce is emulsified into a beurre monté, enhancing grilled vegetable dishes at Denver’s Hey Kiddo. In a twist on tradition, another amino sauce utilizes toasted leftover bread and pinto beans instead of soybeans and cracked wheat, becoming a flavorful touch for biscuits and gravy at Dry Storage, a bakery and grain mill in Boulder. Id Est’s approach promotes the use of seasonal, local ingredients year-round, thereby minimizing waste while enhancing the culinary experience. “Fermentation connects the past, present, and future,” she emphasizes.

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