jiro dreams of sushi legenda
In my favorite episode of Chef’s Table, a new, six-episode series premiering on Netflix this Sunday, April 26, the famous Argentine chef Francis Mallmann guts a couple of brook trout, then washes them clean by dragging them around in a lake. It's just a regular day in Mallmann land. Francis Mallmann roasts chickens over a fire in Chef’s Table. Then he uses soft, wet clay he's just dug from the water to seal the fish up, and places the bundle on a low fire to slowly cook in its own steam. It's an old, uncomplicated technique, but it's beautiful to watch him work. The best moments in this new series, each episode profiling a different chef around the world, let you quietly observe what goes on behind the scenes, equal parts food porn and character study. This is Mallmann in his natural habitat, the vast wilderness, speaking about what he does in a characteristically poetic way. Things could easily get goofy, and sometimes they do: "When you build a fire, it's a bit like making love," Mallmann says at one point.
Later he reads poetry by the dying firelight. An hour-long boat ride takes Mallmann to his home on an island. But David Gelb (who directed the lauded Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about Japanese sushi master Jiro Ono) has created a documentary series that explores complex stories about his subjects, without letting them get too cartoonish. Mallmann is the romantic, wandering the hills for firewood, reading poetry by the firelight, but he's more than that, too. Red pepper egg with everything, a dish from Dan Barber. As Mallmann grills whole lambs, and hangs chickens over the coals, the episode goes into his past, to tell the story of how Mallmann, who was born in Buenos Aires but raised in Patagonia, came to reject French fine dining and "making fancy French food for rich Argentines," and went on to champion his own rustic, homegrown cooking techniques and ingredients. It didn't happen overnight. Chances are you're already familiar with the other chef subjects, which include Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena, Italy;
Ben Shewry of Attica in Melbourne; and Magnus Nilsson of Fäviken in Järpen, Sweden. Two episodes feature American chefs: Dan Barber of Blue Hill in NYC and Niki Nakayama of N/Naka in Los Angeles. I was skeptical of the series at first. Do all these chefs deserve the Jiro treatment? After all, these chefs are famous—properly, internationally famous—and their stories have been told so many times, in so many glossy magazines, that I wondered if there would be any surprises. Salted kangaroo from Attica. Chef’s Table goes deeper into each chef's story and often nudges a bit at uncomfortable themes that most puff pieces tend to leave out, like Shewry's harsh financial struggles. Nakayama, who was not expected by her immediate family to succeed, talks about this only briefly, but the episode goes back to this theme of drive and perseverance in subtle, moving ways. The "mad genius" is a tired trope, but all these chefs have it in them in one way or another, and it's fascinating to watch it unfold.
Sushi legend Jiro enlisted in bid to wow president After arriving at Haneda airport on Wednesday evening, U.S. President Barack Obama was whisked to Ginza for a “casual dinner” with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the modest yet widely revered sushi restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro.
jiro dreams of sushi dvd kaufen In terms of entertaining visiting heads of state, it was clearly a step up from 2002, when former U.S. President George Bush dined with then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at Roppongi’s Gonpachi. The humble Jiro’s, located in a basement next to the subway Ginza Station, doesn’t compare to the retrofitted Edo style of Gonpachi, but it makes up for that with sushi that has garnered the highest gourmet accolade. So whose choice of venue was this? In 2009, former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama appealed to the president’s fond childhood memories of matcha-flavored ice cream.
The Abe administration could have set up a feast of Kobe beef, another Obama favorite, but that might have introduced awkward moments related the prickly trade issues of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Perhaps they saw the photo-op value of having POTUS enjoying Japan’s finest sushi fished from local waters? Or could it be that Obama happened to see a TV program in which celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain genuflects before the man the Guinness World Records recognized as the world’s oldest Michelin three star chef? Or did he perhaps watch the well-received U.S.-made documentary “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”? If Obama had, he would know that the 88-year-old proprietor, Jiro Ono, is a true artisan, and a stubborn man of few words. He would also know that Ono did not gain global fame with showy techniques or eccentric sushi rolls. The sushi at Jiro’s is sublimely understated and stubbornly traditional. It’s all about fresh-as-possible ingredient, expertly prepared and — as Bourdain once observed — exactly the right time.
Master chef Joel Robuchon has called Sukiyabashi Jiro one of his favorite restaurants and visiting foodies put it at the top of their culinary pilgrimages. Not surprisingly, a number of A-list celebrities, such as Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway, have pulled up to the counter, which seats only 10, to partake of the meticulously prepared “nigiri” sushi, served by Ono himself. The famous set price per person, not including drinks, is ¥30,000 (almost $300). That covers more than a dozen “courses” in roughly 20 minutes, though it’s very possible that Ono might bend his rules for these particular guests. Is it worth the high price? “Purely in sushi terms, Jiro is the yardstick by which all others are measured,” says Japan Times food columnist Robbie Swinnerton. “If you calculate satisfaction by the amount of time you spend at the counter, then you may well feel short-changed. But that will not be a consideration for Obama.” Overall, given Japan’s pride in UNESCO’s designation of “washoku” (Japanese cuisine) as an Intangible World Cultural Heritage, Sukiyabashi Jiro appears to be a wise strategic choice.