Our guest today is Mitsunori Isoda, the executive chef at Omakase Room by Mitsu in New York. The Omakase Room serves authentic Japanese Edomae-style sushi at his beautiful 8-seat hinoki wood bar counter in Manhattan’s West Village. These days you can find great sushi restaurants in New York and other...

Debates around what’s traditional or authentic are constantly spinning in the culinary world— so much so that numerous organizations have been formed to protect the authenticity of various dishes and production methods. In Mezcal’s case, there is an organization whose name translates to The Mexican Regulatory Council for the Quality...

Our guest is David Schlosser who is the chef/owner of Shibumi in Downtown L.A. Shibumi opened in 2016 and shortly afterwards, it earned accolades from various prominent media, including The Los Angeles Times’s Jonathan Gold who ranked Shibumi number two restaurant of the whole city. Currently, Shibumi holds one Michelin...

Our guest is Takashi Miyazaki, who is the chef/owner of ichigo ichie in Cork, Ireland. Takashi moved to Ireland in 2008 where Japanese food was yet to be more deeply discovered. Also, he was met by the global financial crisis shortly after his arrival in Ireland. After going through numerous...

Our guest is Massud Ghaussy who has a Japanese food and restaurant blog on instagram under TokyoManhattan. His posts not only describe restaurants he has visited, but also include many other elements behind the dishes, such as history, culture, cooking methods. He appeared on Episode 125, 136 and 152 and...

When’s the last time you ate sushi? Chances are, it was fairly recently! Sushi has become part of the American diet, and you can now find raw fish prepared in a traditional Japanese style across the US. From casual neighborhood joints to high-end omakase restaurants, sushi is seemingly ubiquitous. So...

On today's episode, Chef Nick Kim Chef and Partner in Shuko located in the East Village, is on the show to discuss omakase and kaiseki menus. Shuko, which Chef Kim operates with his partner and co-chef Jimmy Lau, received 3 stars and was a critic's pick from Pete Wells in...

Our guest is Derek Wilcox who studied Kaiseki cuisine at the 3 michelin-starred restaurant Kikunoi in Kyoto, and Edomae sushi at Ginza Sushi Aoki in Tokyo, also Michelin-starred, for 10 years in total. Now he is the chef at Shoji at 69 Leonard Street in Tribeca, New York, which earned...

David Israelow is the global winner of the 5th Washoku World Challenge, which is a cooking contest where chefs from around the world compete in technical expertise and passion for Japanese food. David joins the host Akiko Katayama to discuss how he studied traditional kaiseki cuisine, how he expresses it...

This week's guest is Sam Clonts, the executive Kaiseki chef at Uchu in Manhattan’s Lower East side. He earned a Michelin star at 25, five months after the opening of the restaurant. Uchu is uniquely and deeply Japanese, despite the fact that Sam trained as a chef almost entirely in...