A Higonokami pocket knife sent from Ichizo Honpo reached the hands of Outlaw Chef Damjan Bistričić, a cook based in the Istria region of Croatia — and he turned the experience into something we didn't expect: an article, a recipe, and a quietly moving story.
From a Knife to a Dish
Damjan received the Higonokami and made a promise: as a gesture of gratitude for a traditional Japanese knife arriving from across the world, he would create a dish with it. He kept that promise, documenting the process in words and photographs.
The dish was "Rižoto od divljeg radića" — a wild radicchio risotto.
On a rainy day, wearing a raincoat, he walked to a small harbor nearby and foraged divlji radić (wild radicchio) by hand. He prepared it with the Japanese blade, and cooked it into a single, careful plate. The image that comes through — the rain, the coastline, the foraged greens, the knife — is quiet but vivid.
"Just Having a Sharp Blade in Your Pocket Calms the Mind"
One line from Damjan's article stood out to us:
"Just having a sharp blade in your pocket calms the mind."
He isn't treating the knife as a mere cutting tool. He's describing it as something that brings steadiness to daily life — a companion rather than an implement. Reading that, we felt a genuine warmth. It's exactly the relationship with a blade that we hope people will find.
The Recipe
The risotto is simple, and deliberately so. Wild radicchio and rice form the core, supported by olive oil, ljutika (a small shallot-type onion local to the region), sea salt, and honey. Notably, Damjan cooks the rice in water rather than stock — a considered choice to keep the flavor of the wild radicchio undiluted by aromatics. The dish is finished with shaved Gouda melted through, and a single caper placed at the center.
It's the kind of cooking that listens to its ingredients — and the kind of cook who would notice what a sharp knife actually does to the food.
A Note of Thanks
Damjan, thank you for such a thoughtful and generous response to receiving the knife.
Knowing that a blade made in Japan has found its way into someone's daily life, into the way they forage and cook and think — that means more to us than we can easily put into words. That's what we're working toward.
To see Damjan's own photographs of the Higonokami, the finished dish, and the Istrian coast, please visit the original article (in Croatian):
https://istarski.hr/node/122420-odlucio-sam-kreirati-neko-jelo-s-nozem-pristiglim-iz-japana