Freshly squeezed fruit juice

Method

Before I opened Atelier September, my friend Nisei Ota invited me to Chihana in Kyoto, Japan. It was a real kaiseki meal with poetry and precision, but the main thing I remember is the dessert, if you can call it that: a glass of melon juice. I can still picture the glass, the wooden plate it sat on, and the juice. Oh the juice. And how it completed the meal in this perfect way, magically clearing my body and my mind. The joy of a glass of fresh fruit juice remains with me. We always have options on hand at the restaurant. Pink grapefruit has a longer season, from late October to May in Europe, and is nicely balanced between bitter and sweet. Blood oranges are also lovely because they are a later winter fruit that heralds the possibility of spring. This is not exactly a recipe; you just use a juicer or a squeezer to make it fresh. The key is to use a fruit that is in season and to squeeze the juice just before you drink it.