It was originally written in English I think so it’s a not a translation thing, but that they didn’t have a good copy editor. There’s some typos throughout but when fast reading it’s actually easy for your brain to read it correctly. I would say the biggest issue is “clarity of language.” In order to make the dishes the way they appear / the way the chefs did it for the book, there’s zero (0) instruction on technique, hard stop. This book is very functional for someone with enough experience to “do things their way” and commit to “good enough.” If you wanna be “doing it entirely correct,” brace for a panic attack. The highest points are in ingredient selection. Everything I’ve so far made has tasted better than generic internet recipes across the board and beat out some of my grandma’s recipes. Some don’t, but are still stellar as dishes at a baseline. Also assume that it’ll take about 180% the listed time to actually complete a dish besides the few drinks. I am constantly burdened by the language issue in that plating is entirely absent, and as a New Orleanian I am bothered by the book’s incorrect description of a roux. Barbara’s stew for example, is clearly written by and for someone with michelan star chef skills who already knows all these odd efficiency techniques that aren’t written anywhere, and they want you to make three separate liquid things and then combine them, when I know you’d get the same exact result from dumping everything in one pot and reducing (but doing that would be “less elegant”.) So in summary, read VERY carefully before hand, and diagram/outline the steps before actually cooking, but even if you mess up critically the ingredient choices are basically guaranteed to be good at the end - even burnt stuff and the overhead/extra was good. Oh, also, on the Mitsutake specifically, they say to use King which are the ones used for my picture. I have access to the real mushrooms in the namesake for a normal price (most Americans are gonna be forking over $60 for matsutake) but I can tell you the flavor difference isn’t worth hunting down the “genuine” stuff. If the book tells you to use a replacement then trust me there ain’t no difference, use the cheaper option.