#japanese-a5-wagyu

#japanese-a5-wagyu

Endo Kazutoshi was on the train to Paris when he heard about the fire that had destroyed his restaurant, Endo at the Rotunda, located on the eighth floor of the Helios building. The fire had started on a terrace and quickly spread, affecting the dining room and kitchen, built mostly from 200-year-old hinoki wood.

Sushi Amamoto debuted in the Michelin guide with two stars in 2019, rumored to be due to inspectors being unable to get a table before then.

Kaede, opened by married couple Shinji and Izumi Uehara in the quiet Sellwood neighborhood in 2023, is a sushi kappo restaurant, serving a mix of sushi and cooked dishes - a little buttoned-up, but less formal than a kaiseki restaurant. Shinji stands behind the sushi counter, while Izumi is the server and the head of the kitchen.

Wagyu has quietly, confidently risen through the ranks to take its status as one of the world's most coveted foods, counting only the likes of caviar, foie gras, and truffle as its contemporaries. So then, being able to open a restaurant on the premise that you are the only one in the US serving wagyu from one Japanese cattle ranch comes with a certain amount of gravitas.

The caviar, uni, and egg dish has been in Akiyama's repertoire since he worked at the now-closed NYC restaurant Lan. It's presented as a rich chawanmushi, topped with generous uni and caviar. The nigiri course comes with three pieces, including the aori aka, in which the bigfin reed squid is chopped and intricately layered; the texture was far creamier than I ever expected squid to be.

When it opened in 2021, Brixton Market's Temaki quickly became a hit with the city's sushi aficionados. The restaurant, which was London's first dedicated to handroll sushi, received a Time Out reviewer's praise for its 'triple whammy of expertise, exceptional produce and classy execution'. Alas, the south London Temaki wasn't to last. The California-style sushi joint shut its Brixton outpost last summer. Now, however, Temaki has announced a grand return to the city - this time in central London. A new location will open on Mayfair's Maddox Street

Living in Japan in the early 2000s, Fralick fell in love with an Italian restaurant in the city of Shizuoka, where he ate Italian food, but with Japanese influences, like pastas made with uni and the fermented soybeans known as natto. "It really reminded me of home," says Fralick, who grew up in upstate New York and started his cooking career in Italian fine dining.

Tse was not raised cooking Japanese food and, in preparation for opening The Azuki Room, travelled to Tokyo to train at the Japan Culinary Institute. He told me a bit about this process, but where his resilience has really been tested is in London. The Azuki Room was due to open in 2025 but suffered a series of unfortunate events: the site was occupied by squatters, the premises were damaged, stock and equipment were stolen, and the specialist sake Tse bought in Japan was consumed.

For many beef lovers and chefs, marbling is one of the most important aspects of steak quality. Unlike the thick fat cap found on the outside of a piece of steak, marbling refers to the streaks of intramuscular fat dispersed within the lean muscle of beef. This is integral to an elevated steak-eating experience. As the steak cooks, the fat melts, basting the meat from the inside, leaving you with a flavorful and tender piece of meat.

Fall's scarlet and gold was fading from the mountains around Sapporo as I sat with a small group around a heavy wood table with a charcoal grill in the center. We watched a chef cook channel rockfish over the coals. This northern Japanese delicacy is cherished for its meltingly sweet flesh, which takes on a light pink color because of the species' shrimp-heavy diet.

There are numerous types of mushrooms, each with unique flavor and texture characteristics. Shiitake mushrooms are from Asia, featuring a classic bulbous brown cap and a thinner, edible stem. Their meaty chew and deep umami flavor is a boon to many recipes you're sure to love, whether it's a conventional Asian stir fry or a creamy risotto. Of course, a successful shiitake recipe starts with the freshest mushrooms.

Annabel's, which is owned by Richard Caring and located on Berkeley Square in Mayfair, has announced it will be home to the Michelin-starred sushi expert Endo Kazutoshi for five months as a pop-up. Annabel's usually charges an annual fee of 3,250, but will now allow the public to book tables regardless of whether they are a club member. But the much-coveted London party spot will still maintain strict house rules diners will not be allowed to use their phones, wear perfume or submit dietary requests.

Pizza toast is a throwback snack popularized in Japan's classic kissaten coffee shops. The first kissaten to serve pizza toast - milk bread topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella and pizza toppings, toasted until the cheese is melted and bubbling - is reportedly Cafe Benisica in Tokyo, in 1964, which is still operating. The key to this version is to first make toasty garlic bread, and I use marinara instead of the yoshoku ("Western-style food") tradition of making a ketchup-based tomato sauce.

Some chefs pride themselves on blurring the lines between food and art. For Executive Chef Andrew Oh, Momoya SoHo has become revered for putting beauty on plates, such is the case for the restaurant's beautiful wine glass parfaits. However, Oh is known for sushi creations that are equally impressive. We asked the chef for tips on sushi-making (known as one of the most difficult culinary techniques to master) so that our next batch of caterpillar rolls look more professional than problematic.

Sour like lemon, bitter like grapefruit, sweet like mandarins and tangy like oranges, yuzu might be the consummate citrus and it brings all of that complex magic to this light, clean noodle broth. Yuzu-miso soba noodle soup. Yuzu is a citrus, but it's not very common to find it outside of Japan. So mostly we can use yuzu juice. Add five cups of vegetable stock or vegetarian dashi.