Anthony Bourdain A Cooks Tour Season 1 Episode 1: A Taste of Tokyo

(soft music) - Welcome to my world. Two snails, pâté brisee. Two green salads. Lamb chops, fries. Shouldn't you be doing something? Two smoked steaks and one pepper steak. Come on, make dessert. Chocolate cake, please. - As a cook,

taste

s and smells are my memories. Now I'm looking for new ones. So I'm leaving New York City and hoping to have some epiphanies around the world, and I'm willing to do whatever I can to achieve that. I look for extremes of emotion and experience. I'll try anything, I'll risk everything. I have nothing to lose. The first thing you think of when you arrive in central Tokyo is Blade Runner.

It's very science fiction, it's very atmospheric. You really know you are somewhere else. This is far from home. I knew the kind of kaleidoscope full of color, light and flavor I would find here. I'm really looking forward to the psychedelic assault on the senses. I am very interested in covering the entire spectrum of Japanese cuisine. I think almost all modern chefs are impressed by Japanese presentation, the importance of contrasting textures, colors and portion sizes. The embodiment of all these traits is Japan's best-known contribution to world cuisine: sushi. - Very violent dreams last night. Full color, sound, increased heart rate.

I woke up thinking about sushi. I'm particularly lucky that my links here are Michiko and Shinji. Michiko translates and has paved the way in every way for the ignorant but enthusiastic American. And Shinji, driving, translating and thank God he's a Yankees fan, so I know I'm in good hands. - Alright. - We are on our way to meet a sushi master from Edomae, who will show us Tokyo's central fish market, Tsukiji. Edomae sushi is a high-end product, not only because it is expensive, which it is, but because of the uncompromising quality, preparation and presentation it entails. - If you translate Edomae, what does it mean literally? - Edomae, Edo is the name of the period of ancient Japan. - Well.

So does it really mean old style? Classic version. - Yes, classic version, yes. Sushi is like cutting fish. - Cool. - But the Edomae need a lot of preparation. - Edomae preparation standards are not takeaway sushi. Absolutely no compromises on quality, regardless of cost. It's purist sushi. - Very pleased to meet you. - Nice to meet you. - Antonio Bourdain. - I am lucky enough to accompany Mr. Togawa, the chef-owner of the Karaku restaurant in the Ginza district, during this visit to Tsukiji. - I must have my appropriate footwear, of course. - This is kind of like Joe DiMaggio or Lou Gehrig showing you Yankee Stadium.

From the point where it practically jumps out of the sea to the point where I put it in my mouth, Mr. Togawa will be by my side. Get ready to lose your mind. - Just take off. Your head will simply unscrew and bounce off the ceiling. - Tsukiji is acres and acres of fish, fish, fish. (vendor shouts) Restaurants, retail store owners and other buyers are purchasing fish for the day. More than 2,600 tons of fish are sold here per day. That's a big tuna sandwich (bleep). The first thing you find when you visit Tsukiji is something big.

It's really big, it's very spread out and the choreography has to be seen to be believed. There is a system here. Everyone seems to know the moves except me. -Mr. Togawa, we will follow him while he does his shopping, and then we will return to his restaurant and he will show us what he is going to do with these things. (bells, vendors singing) - There are few things that excite chefs as much as looking at a truly pristine piece of seafood. - Abalone, about $40 a piece in the United States. Liver? - I want sea eel. - He can show you sea eel.

The different types of eel that we are going to eat. - Eel is an expensive delicacy in Japan. Appreciated not only for its flavor, but also for its legendary, how to say, properties that provide resistance. Viagra from the sea. - I think it's tasty. -Having chosen his eels, Mr. Togawa is now ready to move on to his next purchase. - Do you see the octopus? Simply incredible. I just want to start crying. - Generally in the life of a chef, you find yourself working comfortably within a certain range of flavors and textures, and suddenly, you see all this.

You'll immediately want to run back to your kitchen to find a way to work with what you just bought. This octopus is hanging on for dear life. He has a death grip on the tank. As excited as I am, the Japanese who live here seem equally excited. - Here we go, we say goodbye. - Seafood is taken very, very seriously here. - It has a strange and terrible beauty. - Value is placed on good food. - Very fresh. - For us, food is worthless until someone famous puts a sauce on it. It's not like that here.

There is a respect for ingredients that runs counter to much of Western cuisine. A widely used ingredient is the highly revered tuna. - So what are we looking for here? What is Mr. Togawa looking for? It is explained that this is the fattest part, the most valued. - We call him a bull. - It is spectacular. A big difference, bull and everything else. - It is the equivalent of a beautifully marbled steak. The fat is good, and the rippling of the fat through the meat is what distinguishes pancetta from other tuna. - You have the same feeling of being in Tiffany or Cartier.

You just look at this with lust. Just the subtle difference, it's like grading gems. There is fighting, bidding, talking and examining. You can see that they are very different pieces and with very different qualities. When you're a chef, you come here and you see this, and you think about what you can do with these different pieces. I can't wait to see what Mr. Togawa is going to do with this stuff. -What is that part of Apocalypse Now? "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." I love the smell of fish, soy wine and rice in the morning.

It smells like victory. - I am always very cautious when it comes to getting into other chefs' kitchens. - Hello. - It's an obstruction. I am instantly chemically aware, on a cellular level, when there are intruders in my kitchen. (speaks Japanese) - Despite his resistance, the octopus still ends up in Mr. Togawa's kitchen. At least you can take solace in the fact that ending your life here is a great honor. - I have some Portuguese friends who would go crazy with this. And some Italians. - Now they are going to add salt. - Salt is rubbed on the octopus to remove excess moisture and add flavor.

There are so many good things you can do with this. I'm thinking you can chill it, make a grilled salad, or you can make a slow stewed salad. I understand that Mr. Togawa is using his octopus as a special appetizer. Soften it. - At the sushi bar, Togawa chefs are busy making magic with fresh Tsukiji fish, including eel. - Sounds cool. Even with your eyes closed, it sounds fresh. I'm thinking, good knife technique. You don't see this level of knife skill in French kitchens. - Despite the dazzling knife work, this eel is not yet ready to eat. - Boil for 20 minutes.

It's sugar. Lots of sugar and then a little soy sauce. That's sake, rice wine. - Mr. Togawa starts working with the best of the good, otoro. - This is the piece that we saw him choose in the market. He is breaking it into components. The boss always has a proprietary interest not only in the most expensive things, but also in the things that give him the most pleasure. At first you tell yourself it's because I don't trust anyone else to have something so beautiful and so expensive. Then you realize that I do it because I like it. - Mr.

Togawa now divides the tuna into smaller pieces for sushi. The lower quality fish is marinated and the really good stuff is set aside for immediate use in its pristine, fresh form. - I am experiencing a pleasant form of dementia. Look at that, that's sex, man. - Finally the food is ready. Michiko, Shinji and I sat down to eat. - Ganpai. Octopus. - Our appetizer is slow-cooked octopus. It is very tender and served with just a drizzle of sweet plum sauce. - The skin is melting. - Spectacular. - While we eat the appetizer, Mr. Togawa himself is preparing our main course.

Pieces of raw fish, vinegared rice and fresh wasabi are gently molded. While this is the best-known form of sushi, by the exacting standards of the Edomae tradition, it takes a lifetime to master the economy and grace of movement required to make an artful presentation. An elite sushi chef like Mr. Togawa trains for more than 12 years. - Oh man. I was going to say I was ready to die right now, but no, I'll be ready to die after this. (laughs) Well, what do we have here? - Flounder. - Shrimp or prawns? - Prawn. - Prawns and... - Tuna. - Not just tuna, this is otoro. - Also on the plate is marinated tuna and raw eel. - You can't just explain it, you know?

How can I explain? - Oh, wow. This, I know what that is. - Sea eel. - That's the sea eel. You are mute. It's almost like you're devaluing the thing by talking about it. (speaking Japanese) - I have a glazed expression on my face. It's just pure pleasure. - Thank you so much. - Now would you like to do the apprenticeship here? Three years? - I would not do that. (speaking Japanese)-Although he rejected Mr. Togawa's generous offer, he still had a very important lesson on the menu. - I'm ready to die now. (laughs) I will have led a full, rich and satisfied life by now. (Japanese speaking) - The Japanese consider sake to be something sacred, so serving it shows their affection, their friendship, their hospitality.

It is very important in Japanese culture. And you also serve it again. It's your turn to serve it again. - Thank you thank you very much. - The religious analogy keeps appearing. There is something like a church, at least for me. There is a feeling of solemnity here. No nonsense, no distractions. There is nothing false in it. - Food Church, it is the only church I know. - Ganpai, cheers. - Very cold iced sake. It gives you that kind of headache from ice cream. - First you feel it on your tongue and then it goes up to your brain. - Thank you. - Thank you for one of the most incredible gastronomic experiences of my life.

I will always be grateful. - Me too. -Leaving Mr. Togawa's restaurant, I feel like my fast-paced, fast-food New York culture has missed the boat. - For us, restaurants are like gas stations. You arrive, fill up the tank and move on, preferably as quickly as possible. The idea of ​​volume was much more important than quality. "Did you have a good meal?" "Yes, they gave me all the shrimp you could eat!" That's not... That's really nonsense. You know, in bulk. It explains a lot about our culture. - Speaking of volume, look at these guys. It just so happens that I had the unique opportunity to visit a sumo wrestling stable, the gym and the team house. (bell rings) - Here I come, and I don't know anything about sumo.

Exude ignorance. - Watching sumo wrestlers train is like being led into a secret society. Sumo is serious business in Japan. Something that outsiders are simply not allowed to see. They're not kidding in there. These guys are really attacking each other. Some of them are thrown out of the ring and come rolling towards me. I don't want one of these guys to fall on me, no way. They'll break me like an old cookie. The feeling of being surrounded by so much bulk, I mean, what do these guys eat? I'm interested in what I heard is sumo food.

Chanko, his name is. I'm thinking, well, how un-Japanese this sounds. - It should refer to bulk foods, rich in starch. I had the idea that they were sitting around eating pasta and beef, huge chunks of fatty pork. - I am very lucky to be introduced to Mr. Tomatsuna, from Tomatsuna Stable. Tomatsuna is a former champion. Today he is an oyakata, which is the head of the sumo stable. All the fighters live on the premises. What they eat, when they eat, all of this is rigorously dictated by the oyakata, who completely controls their lives. He

cooks

for them, takes care of their training, their health, in an attempt to make them the best. -He is an old lion and I think he saw me as an insignificant curiosity.

However, I am determined to discover the secret sumo diet. - Fighters have tremendous power. The food you select should reflect the need for this power. (speaks Japanese) -He says that people tend to think that a sumo wrestler is just fat. That is not true. They actually need energy balance and weight balance. -Do all fighters learn to cook as part of their training? - That's how it is. - They behaved the same way five years ago, if you came into my kitchen and wanted to talk to my

cooks

. Fiercely protective. - It's cooking in a single pot.

Many kids who live together cook in the same pot. Food isn't just about making these guys grow. We are not here making fat. - I was clearly wrong about this. He is looking for a balance between protein and bodybuilding foods. - Unfortunately, that's all I can find in this kitchen. Let's take a trip to a chanko restaurant to experience the sumo diet firsthand. After a full day watching sumo wrestlers train, I'm definitely ready to eat like one. - We're going to eat chanko and I'm hungry. Are you hungry? - I'm hungry. - Excellent. - Chanko is Sumo food and the restaurant's specialtyChanko Edosawa.

It is immediately obvious that the secret to eating like a sumo is not in the fat, but in the quantity. It's a nabe, like a big soup, a big pot of boiling broth in the center of the table. Everyone contributes something. You add things in stages. - Originally chanko was made with chicken broth, but now they cook anything. - Beef, chicken, meatballs, seafood, mushrooms, green vegetables, tofu, onions, radishes, egg, rice. You can use it all, and we are. - And of course it's like a nabe style, which is boiled to provide a hot meal for the rikishi, who are the fighters.

You can see that the

taste

of the soup gradually changes. - I really had no idea what to expect. One of the first surprises is that chanko is fun. Sort of like a living dish, in the sense that as the conversation progresses and the topic changes, the character of the dish can change as well. It may start off quite light, but you can add stronger ingredients and of course as it cooks it gets stronger too. - I like that. It's spicy. It's really good, it's very filling and I really like the style of cooking and the style of eating.

I mean, this is fun, it's casual. We all sit, we all put things in, we all take things out, we all serve each other. I think Michiko and Shinji especially enjoy it. His entire countenance has changed during the course of this meal. - I feel honored to have been served. For friendship, for serving the chanko. - It's fun. I like this. - For a closed, almost cult-like sumo society, its food is perhaps the most accessible to the average American. I can see the chanko taking off in the United States. (laughs) (growls, coughs) - I know how it feels and I'm on the right track. - From the precision and moderation of Edomae sushi, to the volume and volume of chanko, in a 24-hour period.

Eating my way around the world. I think it would be intimidating if it weren't so exciting. I think it will take about a week to give up this food.