Chef 187 Ichi Cup

[Dunstan Jomphe]

OzekiCooking School welcomes students from around the world to Seki, Gifu\u2014a historic town renown for samurai swords and cormorant fishing. Chef Shuji has over 30 years experience as a professional chef and offers hands-on workshops ranging from traditional washoku and convenient obento, to Zen cooking and traditional rice cultivation. Learn the art of Japanese cuisine by enrolling in one of Shuji\u2019s workshops or setting up your own private cooking class.

You may be surprised to hear that the most important ingredient of the three is the water. But, as I explain in detail in the video below, good food starts with good water. This is especially true when it comes to making dashi, as it is the foundation of so many dishes. Here in Seki, I use fresh mountain spring water to simmer the bonito flakes and kelp, resulting in a delicate savoury broth.

Today, even in Japan, homemade dashi is less popular, and powdered or liquid instant forms are predominantly used in restaurants and at home. At the Ozeki Cooking School, we prefer the real thing, as it has a more subtle flavour and is free of additives and excess sodium.

This week, we will be making ichi-ban dashi, which has the stronger flavour of the two. It is often used to make clear broth, miso soup, tempura dipping sauce, dashi-maki tamago (thick egg omelette), chawan-mushi (steamed egg custard), dashi-based sauces and marinades, and the list goes on. It also freezes well for about a week, so you can make it on the weekend and thaw for use on busy weeknights.

Next time, I will show you how to make ni-ban dashi by re-using the kelp and bonito flakes from the first brew of the dashi stock. The broth is cloudier and the resulting taste is less fishy, making it an excellent base for miso soup. We use it to cook vegetables, infusing them with the delicate umami flavour.

Born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, Chef Krstic found a love for cooking at an early age helping in the kitchen alongside his mother and grandfather. He quickly learned the importance of getting the most out of every ingredient and how to preserve it.

In 2005, Peja Krstic moved to Dallas, TX, to start working in restaurants such as Arcodoro & Pomodoro and Jaspers. He took on a position as sushi/sous chef at Fuse restaurant, which was praised for its tasty fusion of Japanese and Mexican cuisines. In 2012, Krstic opened The Standard Pour and worked as a corporate chef for La Reve Company overseeing the restaurants Sfuzzi, The Standard pour, and Villa O. After his corporate position at La Reve Company, Krstic took an opportunity at a tiny Vietnamese-inspired restaurant called Mot Hai Ba in 2015. Since then, the restaurant has received rave reviews, including 4 stars by Dallas Morning News and best Vietnamese for 2016 & 2017 by D magazine.

Today we follow Tim Archuleta, chef and owner of Ichi Sushi in Bernal Heights. Archuleta's passion for the craft of sushi was sparked during his years working under Kiyoshi Hayakawa at Tokyo Go Go. Now, 17 years later, it's safe to say this man knows his way around a fish. He opened Ichi, his first restaurant, with his wife Erin in fall of 2010. This is what Tim did on Saturday, July 7th.

7 a.m.: Archuleta arrives bright and early at Pier 45, so he can hand-pick the best fish for the day at ABS Seafood. He runs into Henry Ichinose, the owner, who gives him a walk-through, while talking price and ordering. Archuleta sees a gigantic, deep rose slab of ahi. "Ah. Fresca!" bubbles out of his mouth. "I'll take a quarter of it," he says. A man in full apron, boots, gloves, and a warm hat slices through the meaty, rose fish like butter.

7:15 a.m.: Next they move on to the local albacore. Tim unpacks it from ice and inspects it thoroughly. He opens up the gill flaps. "Fresca!" escapes him again. "Look at that red." Henry explains that not everyone gets to personally select their fish, like Archuleta does. But since they've done business together for 15 years, he trusts him to treat his fish right.

12:30 p.m.: Heading to the Richmond gives him a chance to order one of his favorites: Clement Dim Sum. He eats a melange of goodies in his car and catches up on NPR.

"I started out because I loved the sushi bar culture: sitting at the bar, in front of the chef, cheersing with sake, but now it's different for me. Sushi is something that you have to do a million times to get absolutely perfect. It is more about patience and doing something over and over again until you perfect it." He goes on about Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a 2011 documentary on the Japanese sushi chef considered by many to be the world's greatest. Even at his 85 years, Jiro works tirelessly to improve the craft he's been mastering all his life. When the movie came out, people buzzed over his work ethic and commitment to perfection. "When I asked my sensei [sushi chef Kiyoshi Hayakawa, who now works at Koo on 5th and Irving] what he thought of the movie, he just said, "it's nothing new to me. I'm Japanese!" and walked off." Tim explains. "Every day you learn something new. Every day you strive to be better than the day before. That is why I love sushi." [**Side note: As briefly touched on earlier, part of Tim's drive to perfection is a commitment to responsible fishing standards. Ichi offers only sustainably caught and sustainably farm-raised fish. "We have to farm fish," he stresses. "And we have to a lot more than we currently are with 7 billion people in the world. To me, it's job security. If there are no fish we'll have a problem. Chicken sushi is not that good," he laughs.]

5:00 p.m.: Tim goes over menu specials when the servers arrive. His wife, Erin, helps out with some Ichi printing and admin when she's not getting work done for youth writing center and pirate store 826 Valencia, where she serves as director of strategy.

Nicknamed The Szechuan Sage, he wore a yellow outfit and rose into Kitchen Stadium holding a large Chinese chef's knife in his hand. He was the only Iron Chef to have held his position throughout the life of the show. He was the son of Chen Kenmin, a Chinese chef from Sichuan province.[1]

Chen was born in Tokyo in 1956. His father was Chen Kenmin, a Chinese-born chef and restaurateur, who is regarded as the father of Sichuan cuisine (四川料理) in Japan. Chen's signature dish, "prawns in chili Sauce" (Ebi Chili) (干烧明虾), was an adaptation of a dish that his father had introduced to Japan. As a result, Chen was often compared to his father on the series, with some saying that Iron Chef helped the son exceed the skills of his father.[2]

Chen originally accepted his position on Iron Chef out of the need for a challenge, although the format of the show intrigued him. Even though he was the longest-serving Iron Chef and the only original Iron Chef, having been an Iron Chef for the series' six-year run, Chen had on several occasions considered leaving his position; among his reasons was the desire to tend to his restaurants, which had become booked every night since the show's start, as well as a bout of depression following the death of his mother.[citation needed] Ultimately, it was fellow Iron Chef Hiroyuki Sakai who convinced Chen to stay, with their agreement that should one leave the show, so would the other.

Because of his long tenure, Chen fought more battles than any of the other Iron Chefs, at 92battles. He won 67, lost 22, and tied 3.[3] He also enjoyed a run of 14 consecutive victories, the longest of any Iron Chef. His most memorable dish was chili prawns.

Despite his excellent record on the show, Chen often appeared endearingly surprised and relieved at victory. Arguably, his win over Japanese-Italian-French "fusion"-style chef Juinichi Itoh in the yogurt battle exemplifies this. He was also remarkable for his frequent tasting of food, frequently dipping his ladle into steaming concoctions for sampling, only to place the same ladle back in the food. The commentators to the show referred to this practice in humor as Chen's "eating".

As with other Iron Chefs, Chen "feuded" with a warring faction that acknowledged the worthiness of his culinary caliber who were determined to take him down. In his case, he battled with the chefs of Heichinrou restaurant in Yokohama, defeating two of their members before finally losing to their head chef in an overtime battle.

Outside of Iron Chef, Chen was also an active restauranteur. He operated the Shisen Hanten (四川飯店, lit. "Sichuan restaurant") group of restaurants located in Akasaka, Ikebukuro and Roppongi in Tokyo, as well as Tokushima city in Tokushima Prefecture; Kure, Hiroshima; Matsuyama, Ehime; and Hakata-ku, Fukuoka. The restaurant was inherited from his father and he was the third to run it after his mother took over.

Kamiya, a chef of around 20 years who grew up and worked in Japan and worked in New York City before moving to North Carolina, is currently the chef at Menkoi Ramen House, located in the Bordeaux Shopping Center.

He originally planned to take over Menkoi, but negotiations to purchase the restaurant fell through, Kamiya said. Around that time, his wife sent him an email, letting him know that the Yoshi Express spot at 350 N. Eastern Blvd. had just become available. After a tour later that day, he signed the lease. Kamiya plans on updating the interior, adding a counter that overlooks the open kitchen and shifting the focus more toward eat-in dining.

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