Butter
Book Author: Asako Yuzuk
What is the key to a great steak? Butter.
What is the key to a great mash potato? Butter.
Popcorn? Butter. Croissants? Butter. Rice? You guessed it, butter.
A single key ingredient can elevate a dish from a nice meal to a fantastic gastronomic experience.
Asako Yuzuki’s (translated by Polly Barton) Butter is on its surface a collision of culinary indulgence and criminal intrigue, a dramatic thriller taking place in Tokyo. But do not let its finely set dinner table fool you, it is an expose on consumption, identity, and power.
The novel explores societal expectations dictating women's bodies, scrutinizing their diet, appearance, and behavior - down to how they speak. It details how women's food choices are policed, their physical forms pressured into idealized standards, and their voices constrained to conform to femininity. Ingredient by ingredient, the book takes the reader on a journey through which they can question what they see around them.
Asako Yuzuki does a masterful job of revolving the plot around a journalist investigating a suspected serial killer through a series of one-on-one interviews at the Tokyo Detention House. The interactions between the Rika and Kajii are indepth, revealing and hold the tension of a tennis rally. The style with which Asako plays with the reader’s sensory processing and memories is gripping. A steaming konkatsu be damned!
Bringing Butter back to the world of investing and entrepreneurship. In the startup landscape, culture acts as the "butter"—a single, crucial ingredient that can completely transform or elevate a situation. It's often overlooked, yet it's ever-present and persistent. One can have a steak without butter basting it, but it won’t be at its best. A company can exist and perform without the right culture, but with the right one - it will be world-class. Akin to an episode in the book, when Kajii scolded Rika for using margarine instead of butter,
In Rika and Kajii’s world, butter is in a massive shortage. Being increasingly replaced with margarine, finding good butter is a non-trivial affair. In the current world of AI where finding hard-ingredients is getting easier by the day (vibe-coders/designers/writers/researchers/etc) getting and setting the right culture within a group is our butter searching of today.
Throughout, Asako’s pages glistens with sensory precision: a “starry sky formed of grease” at the bottom of a broth-stained bowl, the enveloping smell and warmth of pot-au-feu simmering in a friend’s kitchen.But beneath these luscious surfaces runs a quiet tension—Kajii’s motives remain opaque, Rika’s convictions soften, and the reader, like a diner at an omakase counter, never knows what the next course will reveal. This book brings many nuanced issues to light and is as complex as the main ingredient of every recipe it introduces - butter.
What is the key to a great book? Turns out, it is … Butter.
