Restaurant & Institutions
Japanese Currents
As consumers become acquainted with this Asian cuisine, interest in its ingredients continues to grow
by Laura Yee
June 15, 2002
Masaharu Morimoto, best known as an "Iron Chef" on the popular cooking show, is intent on redefining Japanese cuisine on America's culinary landscape.
There's a lot of ground to cover, swaying guests to venture deeper into a cuisine with which most Americans have only a basic familiarity. Since opening Morimoto in Philadelphia last year, he has found that the local customers are not as adventuresome as those in New York City, where he was executive chef at Nobu for seven years.
"Diners here are very conservative," says Morimoto. "I challenge them to try steak that is more rare [preferences tend toward well done] and raw fish. They don't understand cold sake nor my cooking style, but a little bit at a time—just like New York—they will be more interested and accepting."
While most diners do not have an appetite for such esoteric Japanese delicacies as raw lobster or crab-brain dip, Morimoto has seen a gradual revolution in Japanese food during his 18 years in the United States. Nudged by consumer interest in other cultural influences, Japanese flavors are moving into many levels of foodservice, a trend that shows no sign of slowing. With its heavy reliance on pristinely fresh seafood and vegetables, the cuisine has many appealing elements, from perceived healthfulness and bold, clean flavors to its spare aesthetic.
The delivery of Japanese flavors may be understated, as with the maitake-mushroom tortellini that accompany grilled Arkansas rabbit loin, confit of turnip and kohlrabi with rabbit rillette at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago or the sea scallops, braised oxtail, wild mushrooms and sweet soy at Spring, also in Chicago.
Today's Far Eastern influences often are more pronounced than they are subtle and perhaps more Americanized as well. Japanese flavors are making more frequent appearances, joining well-established Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines. At Orlando, Fla.-based Red Lobster, a menu special includes sesame-ginger-seared fish of the day with Asian vegetables and noodles in sweet sesame-ginger sauce. At Portland, Ore.-based McCormick & Schmick's location in Beverly Hills, Calif., Hawaiian ahi tuna is served rare and spicy with wasabi, soy and pickled ginger.
While menus at Japanese restaurants often are based on traditional fare, many dishes are contemporary renditions, with chefs reinterpreting the cuisine using French and other influences. At Kaz Sushi Bistro in Washington, D.C., Chef-owner Kazuhiro Okochi embraces a freestyle approach, fashioning food with Eastern and Western components. Sake-marinated grouper partners with spicy ponzu sauce while wasabi-miso sauce complements Japanese-style duck confit.
Perhaps no food is more emblematic of Japanese fare than sushi. In recent years, sushi bars have sprung up in unlikely places, including The Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia, after the hotel's renovation. Most recently, Philadelphia-based contractor Aramark adopted a national corporate strategy to make sushi available to its campus accounts.
"We have localized vendors in our operations doing sushi to order," says Scott Zahren, executive regional chef for campus services, representing 52 universities. "It's definitely something kids want. If we don't offer sushi they go elsewhere to find it."
At schools such as George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and New York University in New York City, the choices include items such as California rolls, crab rolls and sashimi.
"When corporate management picks up on a trend like this, it's a sign that the cuisine is evolving," Zahren says.
Beyond Teriyaki
While the sweet flavor of teriyaki has found a permanent place in the American repertoire, other Japanese ingredients also show strong potential. Wasabi, ponzu, yuzu, shiso and miso are just a few traditional ingredients migrating to the mainstream.
At Tim and Liza Goodell's Red Pearl Kitchen in Huntington Beach, Calif., the Chinese-based menu is rounded out with other Asian influences, many distinctly Japanese. Consider hamachi tartare with hijiki-seaweed salad and wasabi-pepper sauce; tempura-style gulf prawns with shisito peppers, or vine-ripened tomato with shiso leaves, palm sugar and rice vinegar.
"There is a certain exotic flair and allure with these flavors that people can't seem to get enough of," says Jeffrey Armstrong, the restaurant's chef de cuisine.
At Pacific East in Amagansett, N.Y., the draw of Japanese flavors is apparent. Chef-owner Michael Castino easily fills the 340-seat restaurant with a Pan-Asian and French-inspired menu. His signature dish is cedar-roasted Japanese black cod over truffled celery-root purée and mirin pan juices. Other popular items include steamed edamame; miso-rubbed chicken salad over hearty greens, sugar-snap peas and won tons, and yellowfin tuna sashimi with toasted sesame rice and sea vegetables. New for the summer season is a menu of 12 high-end sakes.
"The interest in Japanese flavors is changing, with more chefs incorporating Japanese ingredients in their cooking so they are palatable to the American public," says Castino.
Slow Moves
But Castino and other chefs say that acquainting diners with less familiar flavors requires an understanding of customers' preferences and perhaps taking a little creative license. Chawan mushi, a popular steamed Japanese custard containing bits of meat, has shown up on a handful of upscale menus. When it does, however, operators often simply label it custard.
"There are many traditional Japanese flavors, foods, snacks and ingredients that would not fly with American diners," says Castino.
His signature salmon dish, for example, is garnished with small "papers" made of dried anchovies. "We grill the papers and describe them as ‘fish chips.' Diners say they are great, but if we called them dried-anchovy papers, no one would eat them."
Morimoto grapples with a similar challenge. "If you give customers sashimi with wasabi they won't eat it, but if you put the same fish on a plate with salt and pepper and call it carpaccio, they like it," he says. "You have to be creative in how you present the food."
Morimoto hopes to gain converts with his omakase menu, seven to eight courses plus sushi and dessert. Prices start at $80 per person and reach $450. "The sushi wouldn't be regular sushi but dishes such as hot oil-seared fish," Morimoto says.
While he endeavors to push his creativity to the limit, Morimoto understands the practical aspects of the equation: that he also must offer foods with which customers are familiar. "It always is give and take," he says.
Among his dishes is crispy whole fish ichi yaboshi. The fish is cured overnight, dusted with cornstarch, then deep-fried three times and served with daikon salad. Another popular item is lobster épice (eight-spice lobster), which is pan-fried with cumin, chiles, cayenne, garlic powder and other spices in butter and oil and served with spicy crème fraîche.
Favorite Players
At Nobu in New York City, a popular dish also has become one of the most emulated across the country. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa often is credited with popularizing black cod with miso. Presented simply with a garnish of hajikami (pickled ginger shoots) or Japanese pickles, the fish is marinated in a mixture of sake, mirin, white miso and sugar for several days. It is broiled or grilled, either option imbuing it with buttery, rich texture and sweet flavor.
Dishes at Nobu are built on simplicity. White fish tiradito (red snapper sashimi with sea salt, lemon and yuzu juices and Peruvian chile paste) and black-squid tempura with squid-ink sauce rely on freshness and quality to carry them. More complex are freshwater eel and foie gras garnished with eel-bone crackers and a reduction of soy and mirin.
At Chaya Brasserie, which has locations in Los Angeles and San Francisco, favorites include grilled filet mignon with hot chile-mushroom sauce and wasabi mashed potatoes; miso-marinated Chilean sea bass with tamari-yuzu sauce and rice with soybeans, and albacore tuna sashimi coated with black sesame seeds and served with yuzu-pepper-garlic vinaigrette.
"People see Japanese dishes as healthy, fresh and light with a lot of flavor," says Shigefumi Tachibe, executive chef for the Chaya restaurants. "That makes the food very popular."