Since the 1980s, the increasing enthusiasm for Japanese cuisine in the West has driven sales growth, but the company is taking a different approach to India because India has a large vegetarian population.
“It’s not about making everyone eat sushi. We want our soy sauce to be the tomato sauce of India,” Kosato said.
He hopes that the sale of sauces as an infinitely adaptable condiment will resonate in a country where culinary innovation has become part of the street food culture.
For example, Bombay’s grilled Bombay sandwich-a staple food for hawkers-is a buttered English toast, but the filling includes boiled potatoes, onions, tomatoes, beetroot, and coriander chutney, sprinkled with a little “sev”. A crunchy deep-fried Indian snack.
Therefore, it may not be surprising that some Indian chefs started using soy sauce in their dishes long before Kikkoman was launched in the country earlier this year.
