The younger son of famed Japanese sushi master Jiro Ono, Takashi Ono, said his family is not expanding its restaurant’s brand into China, as previously reported by China Real Time. Jiro Ono is famous for his quest to perfect raw fish over Japanese rice, as captured in the 2011 American documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. The chef has a flagship restaurant called Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo, while his younger son Takashi manages a second branch, also in Tokyo. On Friday, China Real Time quoted Chinese investor John Zing as saying he is planning to help the younger Mr. Ono expand his family’s franchise by opening a third branch in Beijing next month. Mr. Ono said Saturday that he did not know Mr. Zing, though he may have frequented his restaurant in the past as a customer only. “We don’t have any business with them. We do not recognize him,” said Mr. Ono. “Since we are somewhat well-known now, some may attempt to abuse our name. We are aware that we need to be careful.”

When contacted via phone on Saturday, John Zing said he stood by his account and said he would provide an explanation by email after touching base with his partners in Japan. sushi conveyor belt coquitlamSince then, Mr. Zing stopped answering calls to his phone and did not provide a written response.jiro dreams of sushi nowness Mr. Zing had said that he and his family have long invested in domestic and foreign food brands in China and provided photos to China Real Time of the Beijing sushi restaurant he was readying to open.sushi conveyor belt addison Daniel Peng, who said he serves as project leader for the Beijing restaurant, also said he could not get in touch with Mr. Zing on Saturday. jiro dreams of sushi showtimes bay area

He said in an email that he understood that negotiations over the restaurant were ongoing. jiro dreams of sushi geckosHe said he could not elaborate due to reasons of confidentiality and his inability to reach Mr. Zing.sushi conveyor belt frisco This article has been modified to reflect the fact that the Ono family has denied it plans to open a sushi restaurant in Beijing. An earlier version, citing comments from a man who claimed to be an investor in that restaurant, incorrectly reported that the family planned to do so. Tom Colicchio, Padma Lakshmi, Gail Simmons Not to belabor the issue, but I’m about to belabor the issue, just like Josie belabors her cooking process (zing). Last week’s elimination was such a travesty that it needs to be addressed again. to explain the decision to send the clear front-runner packing and keep deadweight Josie around.

While they all made reasonable points, I still think they had all the evidence they needed to make the right decision but ignored it. Tom in particular keeps repeating the “You’re only as good as your last dish” rule, which we all know is not consistently enforced. (In fact, you could argue that it wasn’t enforced in this week’s episode, even though I agreed with the end result). The thing is, if the decision between two chef-testants is close, and their past performance is not close at all, it’s totally reasonable to take past performance into account. I understand that the “last dish” rule makes sense to a certain extent — if it didn’t exist, why even have new challenges week to week? — but clearly, Kristen didn’t screw up disastrously compared to Josie. Every judge confirmed that it took hours to make the decision. Gail made it clear that her vote was to send Josie home, so it wasn’t unanimous. If the judges thought Kristen and Josie were about equally deserving of going home for that particular week’s performance, it would make all the sense in the world to take past challenges into account, which would clearly favor Kristen.

Sure, Kristen didn’t stand up for herself at the Judges’ Table, but there was still enough evidence that it made sending her home over Josie inexcusable. I wasn’t serious at all when I brought up conspiracy theories last week, but if Last Chance Kitchen didn’t exist, I really doubt the judges would have sent her home. Everyone but Gail, just admit it and we can move on: You screwed up. At the beginning of this week’s episode, Brooke said about the decision, “If ever in a million years I thought it would go that way, I would have said something.” Hmm, but I bet it’s pretty convenient to be down one serious competitor (for now). Josie woke up crying and feeling about as guilty as Lance Armstrong, admitting that she “didn’t get here the pretty way.” But as Stefan said, it’s a competition and it goes on. For the Quickfire Challenge, one of L.A.’s four Master Sushi Chefs, Katsuya Uechi, was on hand to judge a simple sushi-off. I loved Katsuya’s English (Sheldon did an amazing impression), and his easy way.

He reminded me of Jiro from the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, which convinced me that every sushi deluxe platter I’ve ever eaten has been complete garbage. Now I only want to eat one perfect sliver of sushi at a time by hand, with just a light paintbrush stroke of soy sauce. NEXT: Everyone loves fried chicken … it’s an incontrovertible fact, according to Tom and friendsHello everyone, and welcome to our biggest project of the year. We’ve been given another very special opportunity to shoot a video with a master chef. Allow us to share with you Sushi Saito, arguably the best sushi chef in Tokyo. Now, there are other sushi restaurants that are more well known to foreign audiences, but from all that we’ve heard and researched, Sushi Saito is regarded in Japan as amongst the best, if not the best of the best. We’ve consulted hardcore foodies here in Japan, even famous foodies in Japan, and they agree. Sushi Saito is on another level when it comes to sushi. And from our meagre yet not-to-be-scoffed-at experiences with high end sushi, we agree that he’s definitely something special about him.

There’s a magic when watching Saito work. His sushi is something else. We ate there almost three weeks ago and I’m still remembering it with a sense of wonder. He doesn’t have many good videos based on his work, though, which is why you might not know of him. Hopefully we can change that. I really hope he likes this video! Not that Saito is unknown. He’s got three Michelin Stars for many years now. He’s the second best restaurant of 2016 according to Tabelog. We went to Rachel and Jun’s place recently when we were in Nagoya: Jun opened up a book about Sushi: Saito was the first chef they talked about. He’s just out of this world. I don’t even know where to begin when talking about him. The most profound aspect of the experience was, for us, watching how he moves. His level of concentration, his tight movements. We didn’t talk about this in the video, but I’m not sure if you noticed how hard he focuses. Take a look again if you can. There are some clips we put in there where, after he puts down a piece of sushi on our plate, he stares at the piece intently as he backs away and starts working on his next piece.

It’s like he’s imbuing it with magic thoughts, or he’s forcing his supreme will upon the piece. There’s something happening at that moment. I haven’t seen that anywhere else. One of the things I wish we caught on camera is how good of a talker he is. When we talk about his intensity and his focus, I don’t want you to get the impression that this is a sacrosanct ritual we’re watching in reverential silence. He’s a talker, and he jokes with everyone, and makes everyone feel very comfortable. Old school sushi joints aren’t like that. They’re mostly like “here’s your sushi. Eat it, shut up, and GTFO” but Saito isn’t like that. Because the experience he wants you to have isn’t just of taste. He wants you to feel good when you’re there. We asked him off camera how long it takes to be a sushi master. I think he said something around 9 years, if I’m not mistaken. Interestingly, he said two of those years are to train you how to talk to customers and make them comfortable.

Funny: when we asked him why he wants to make his customers comfortable, rather than doing it old school and being curmudgeonly, he told us that you can’t be that way anymore, because of the internet. That could just be him being personable and funny. Either way, thank you, internet, for making sushi chefs nicer! Back to my point, he does all of these crisp movements while talking to everybody. I’d have thought that I’d be pulling away from his focus, but his body has all of the movements fluidly down pat. There are no slip ups. He is the perfect machine for making delicious sushi. It’s almost like that scene from the Matrix, when Neo realizes he’s the one, and he’s fighting Mr Smith effortlessly while looking off at the distance. Saito has tapped into the Sushi Matrix. He is the One. Shooting with Saito is super rare as well, let me say. He barely ever does video. One of our foodie friends is close with Saito, though, and he helped arrange this shoot. But again, Saito doesn’t need the publicity.

He is literally booked forever. Though his schedule isn’t written out in a calendar for the rest of forever, the way it basically works is like this: Saito has two rooms in his restaurant. He serves in one of the rooms, while his sous chef serves in another. If you want to get a seat, one of the regulars has to introduce you, and that’s usually done when a regular has booked a few seats and can bring you in with him or her. Afterwards, you can make a reservation yourself, which is what we did. We ate with Saito on December 1st. We booked the next closest opening, and that was for the end of June. Again, though, we booked a room with his sous chef. Saito’s room is full of regulars who book with him every month. They always get first choice. I don’t know how to become one of Saito’s regulars. Only one of our foodie friends can call himself that. How he got it I don’t know. He might have challenged one of the former regulars to trial by combat. So, then, how did we eat with Saito?

Well, he was nice enough to open for us before his first service started, which was SUPER kind of him. He won’t do that again, though. I did try saying at the end of the shooting “oh no! All of the footage is corrupted! We have to eat here again. Is tomorrow ok?” but he could tell that I was joking and had a good laugh. Anyhow, if I do want to eat with Saito again, I’ll have to swap out with one of his regulars, but hell if they want to give up that spot! I mean, I sure as shit wouldn’t. I’ve actually heard of regulars being offered $500 just for their spot, and that doesn’t count for the cost of the meal afterwards. Other fun story: Larry Page, co-founder of Google, actually ate at Saito as well, but not in Saito’s room. On another note, for those of you who might be concerned about us talking in a super high end and ultra rare place like this, please don’t worry. We had the place entirely to ourselves. Saito knew about the video, and we’re friends with everybody in the room.

And we also apologized to Saito in advance when we were filming the video, because we know he really wants people to eat the sushi as soon as he gives it to you. He’s calculated the right timing for the temperatures and the firmness to be just right. So, if he gives you a piece and you sit and wait and chat with your friends, you’re not going to get as great of an experience. Each piece has a very short shelf life. But he knew we needed to get the shots and he was totally cool with it. We handled ourselves as professionally as we possibly could. We went for the lunch course, which, when you look at the menu below, is still a pretty massive meal. We didn’t actually show you all of the pieces we ate as well. We ate there for roughly two hours, and were completely satisfied by the end of it. Here’s the lunch menu: Flounder, Yellowtail, Gizzard Shad (vinegared), Red Tuna (marinated), Medium Fatty Tuna, Fatty Tuna, Golden Cuttle Fish (Squid), White Sweet Shrimp, Mackerel (vinegared), Horse Mackerel, Small Scallops, Sea Urchin, Salmon Roe (marinated), Sea Eel (Salted and Sweet Sauce), Egg Omelet