The teppan chef handles his tools like a magician, deftly making slices of fresh vegetables and juicy, steaming meats fly across the sizzling grill.
More than a style of preparing food, teppanyaki is food prepared with style. When an experienced chef steps behind the hot plate the simple act of cooking seems more like high art.
The method of teppanyaki (derived from teppan meaning iron plate and yaki meaning cook or grill) likely began approximately 200 years ago with family meals prepared on small grill in the home. The concept of preparing food as it is eaten is nothing new in Japanese dining. Other dishes, such as sukiyaki and shabu-shabu - a variety of ingredients simmered in and eaten from a communal iron pot - are longstanding traditions.
Until the end of the 18th century, the Japanese were mostly vegetarian. Until that point, the country had various taboos on meat eating due in large part to the prohibitions against killing in the popular Buddhist and Shinto philosophies. A change in these eating habits, says the Cambridge World History of Food, accompanied the industrial revolution that introduced Western technology and culture to Japan. The government began to encourage the consumption of meat and dairy, allowing for the development of many of today’s Japanese dishes.
But teppanyaki, also known as hibachi, has moved beyond it’s humble beginnings. Over time, changes were introduced to step up the performance side of the chef’s preparation, such as juggling utensils and flipping food though the air. Misono restaurant in Kyoto claims to have invented it’s current form in 1945. Rocky Aoki, founder of the popular restaurant chain Benihana, brought this form of tabletop cooking to the United States in 1964, when he opened it’s first restaurant in New York.
In the last four decades teppanyaki has worked it’s way into pop culture. It has made appearances in commercials - a memorable one features a teppan chef working his considerable knife skills on a credit card - and in movies, insinuating itself into our collective conscious. Although the Japanese have a long culinary history that includes a wide variety of dishes and cooking styles, this preparation, along with sushi and tempura, have become the standards when most Americans think of Japanese food.
THE EXPERIENCE
Won Kim has been cooking professionally for nearly 30 years, and he is still learning his craft.
Kim, a teppan chef at Uchi Japanese Restaurant in Brownsville, first came to the United States from Seoul, Korea when he was 18. Originally trained by Nakajima Shoji, a teppan chef from the Gumba prefecture of Japan, Kim spent years honing his skills.
"I’ve been cooking, I’d say, Japanese food, like 26 or 27 years. But another three years I’ve been cooking Chinese and Korean."
Even after all that time spent mastering the unique style of culinary acrobatics, he can still get nervous when he steps in front of the grill.
"It takes a long time (to learn) because even though you learn in kitchen, when you actually go out there you get very nervous," said Kim.
"Even though I’ve been working that long, I still get nervous. I try not to make mistakes in front of you but it does happen once in a while."
"I’m always training."
Although most of his time is spent at the restaurant’s teppanyaki grill, he also spends time in the kitchen or behind the sushi bar. Kim’s job also includes teaching other chefs.
"Basically, I train people ... we hire them if they want to work here, and they are healthy and have a good mind for food," said the chef. "It’s not that hard to learn but it takes a long time to (make it) yours. So that means you have to do it every day, over and over and over. Every day you have to stand in there in front of people and just practice."
Although the style of cooking may be fairly simple, teppanyaki is all about the show, and that is one thing that Kim excels at. In front of the teppan, he has a smile on his face and works to keep the customer entertained.
"Being a teppanyaki chef, proud to be, is about cooking and serving to the customers ... I so enjoy (interacting) with the customer, especially the kids - trying to have fun with them together and taking care of food for them because I always felt that (I am) cooking for my family."
"We meet a lot of people, make new friends," said Eriya Irisawa, a server at the restaurant. "We don’t just want a customer-server relationship ... you know, ‘You give me money, I give you food.’ We want them to relax. Uchi means home. We want the customer to be at home."
THE PHILOSOPHY
Japanese cuisine is based on a simple philosophy.
"The way Japanese food is presented, the showy things or appearance is with this thought," said Irisawa, a Japanese native.
"We eat three times ... first, we eat with the eye, meaning the appearance (of the food). Second, you eat with tongue, meaning it tastes good. And third, you eat with stomach or whole body, which means good for your body ... healthy."
"We are very careful with the food we choose, we eat. It has to be healthy."
If you choose to cook teppanyaki at home, Kim offers these four basic principles.
Heat - Temperature is very important when cooking any kind of food, but especially on a grill or a teppan. If the grill is not hot enough, the food will be undercooked or will have to cook for too long causing the food to lose texture and flavor. If it is too hot the food can burn.
Timing - Different foods reach the ideal level of doneness at different times. In order for everything to be hot, fresh and ready to be eaten at the same time, the ingredients must be thrown on the grill at different times. Know how long your ingredients should take to cook before you begin.
Appearance - The eye influences the palate. Presentation not only includes the way food is placed on a plate, but the cleanliness of the work area and the chef as well.
Ingredients - Using fresh food and spices is very important. Fresh vegetables and lean meats like strip steak and chicken, as well as fish and shellfish are typical in teppanyaki. Spices like soy sauce, sesame seeds and mirin, a sweet rice wine similar to sake but with a much lower alchohol content, are used to lend subtle flavors to dishes.
"The main thing I want people to know about teppanyaki is ... we don’t do to go because it’s designed to be eaten right of from grill. So it’s always better to eat when it’s hot, right after just cooking so you always get it fresh and eat right away," said Kim. "You are seeing what kind of material I’m using, so you can see that it’s all fresh."
"It makes everything taste better."
DO IT YOURSELF
Teppanyaki is traditionally cooked on a grill plate, on or near the table, and is eaten in batches; a portable electric grill is ideal. You can cook on a grill plate on the stove top or outside barbecue.
Heat the grill or pan, then lightly brush with olive, sesame or sunflower oil.
This simple Japanese style of cooking is idea for thinly sliced breast of chicken strip steak and shellfish, especially shrimp. A variety of vegetables are used, including mushrooms, onions peppers and zuchinni, but feel free to use whatever you like.
During preparation, the food can be seasoned with salt, soy sauce, mirin and sesame seeds to taste. Additional flavor is added by the use of dipping sauces.
Cut the meat/vegetables you would like into bite-sized pieces. Then, grill them on the pan at the table. As food is cooked, dip into sauce and eat.
For the dipping sauce, you can use yakiniku sauce sold at stores or make your own.
