SWEDEN, CANADA, JAPAN
A CAFE WTIH ROOTS FROM MULTINATIONAL FOOD

A perfect harmony of biscuits & soup filled with vegetables

At 8:00 am, Melting Pot’s day begins in a relaxed ambience with many familiar faces. The proximity to the beach brings many customers heading back from the beach, therefore you might even find sand mats at the entrance of the shop. Lunch welcomes both tourists and locals as everyone enjoys their time in their own way. The owner and chef, Ayako Bechman Hara, born and raised in Kamakura has dreamed of having her own shop since she was a child. She dreamed of a shop exactly like Melting Pot, one that would blend into the ordinary scene of everyday life.

Hara who worked as chef in Canada and Sweden, was born and raised in Kamakura

Their speciality is their daily soup and biscuit and the majority of the vegetables used in the soups are locally grown or produced domestically. Their soups are additive-free and seasoned with natural flavors that brings out the taste of the ingredients. The biscuits, made from 100% Hokkaido flour are based off of buttermilk biscuits that were made at a bakery she used to work at while on a working holiday in Canada. By using ingredients found in Japan and adding her own twist, she managed to create a biscuit that is somewhere between a pastry and bread. Hara never cooks in large quantities, in order to prevent food loss, and instead makes small batches of everything and uses up all the ingredients on hand.

Tomato and Mozzarella Cheese Soup, a classic item on the munu

Biscuits in various flavors such as Earl Grey and Irange Peel

Hara’s husband and father-in-law at a crayfish party in Sweden

Hara moved to Sweden after Canada where she worked as a chef at several famous Scandinavian restaurants featured in the WHITE GUIDE, a Scandinavian restaurant guide, which explains why Scandinavian cuisine can be found on the menu at Melting Pot. While working at one restaurant in Sweden, she learned that although there were several chefs, there was no common recipe and that it was expected for the food to taste different depending on the chef. For Hara, this idea was such a culture shock and although she didn’t agree with it completely, it allowed her to gain a new perspective.

In the past, they have accommodated individual vegetarian requests but have now created a regular vegan menu that includes seasonal vegetable potage soup and traditional Swedish pancakes. The diverse menu represents the different nationalities, races and ethnicities of the guests and is exactly what melting pot is, a fusion of diverse cultures that creates a new lifestyle. The name, Melting Pot, named by her father represents Hara’s speciality soup, an exact representation of the restaurant that she has created.

Raggmunk, a disch that everyone in Sweden knows. The vegain version with Lingon berry sauce and tofu cream is one of Hara’s original recipes