Simplicity is one of the surprising and pleasing things about Japanese cooking. It is similar to Mediterranean cooking, which relies on fresh ingredients simply prepared. The techniques required are not difficult and are easily acquired.

In the past the British have not been great fans of Japanese food, perhaps feeling it to be too alien but a revolution has taken place in just the last year. Witness the appearance of trays of sushi in every supermarket and the explosion in numbers of noodle bars, especially the chain Wok Wok, country-wide. Consumers too have rediscovered a passion for fish and now even raw fish. Also much has been written recently about the health benefits of miso and green tea.

Japanese cuisine is rich in these foods which are good for you, it has been shown to prevent disease and is above all tasty. The style of eating too is conducive to good heath: lots of little dishes with small portions eaten slowly over the course of an evening. It is like Spanish tapas or Greek meze and just as convivial, especially when accompanied by sake.

Shirley Booth originally worked in television making documentaries. She has made three films about Japanese food and lived in Japan for a total of six years, where she studied Zen temple cookery with the abbess of Sanko-In Temple just outside Tokyo. She is the only westerner to have taught Japanese cooking in Japan. She taught Zen vegetarian cookery to both Japanese and foreigners in Japan and Britain. She has also give demonstrations of general Japanese cookery at Yaohan, the Japanese superstore in North London.

In this, her first cookery book, she gives us a wonderful, engaging history of Japanese food, its styles and traditions from Imperial cooking to temple cooking to the food of the Yatai (or street vendors). She explains every aspect of this great cuisine, the ingredients, the techniques, the importance of colour and presentation and over 200 recipes.

For anyone who wants to eat healthily, simply and stylishly, Japanese food is the perfect choice. Incorporating Japanese foods and habits into your eating can be a way of staying slim and healthy and living long.