May 19, 2026 • 45 mins
This style of restaurant service is dinner and a show – where cooking dinner is the show. Anney and Lauren flip over the cultures and history behind teppanyaki (often known as ‘hibachi’ in the U.S.).
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today we have an
episode for you about Teppanyaki.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes. Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes, it has been on my personal list for a
very long time because there are some really pedantic little
things that I have to clear up about terminology. And
it's also, I don't know, like they're fun. It's fun.
It's fun to eat food at weird restaurants that kind
(00:44):
of do dinner and a show for you.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So yeah, I love Teppanyaki. It's very celebratory for me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, it's not like, oh, man, like, what am I
going to eat on a Tuesday? Like, yeah, no, that's
a no.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, although I do have a friend who is like
that and I salute her lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah. No. But in my family, we grew up in
a small town and sometimes we would make the journey
to a Teppanyaki place, in this case, particularly Benning Hanna,
although we did get one that was more local to us,
(01:27):
not a Benni Hannah many years later. But we would
do the whole thing and it was really fun and
really lovely. Benning Hannah has that thing, not a sponsor,
by the way, they have that thing where they take
a picture at the end, so we just have like
a bunch of pictures.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
All of us.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Sweet it is, It's really sweet. I have fond memories
of it. I also drink responsibly. Kids. The most hungover
I've ever been, I was at a tepe in Yaki,
your restaurant, and let me tell you, there's no fear
that I've experienced, like the fear that I might throw
(02:07):
up real in front of me. Wows it was. I
did not, and actually, once I ate the food, I
felt amazing good.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I'm great compared to the previous statement. Yeah, yeah, they huh,
especially on an empty stomach, you know, always always drink responsibly. Yes,
I don't. I don't think I encountered tepanyaki until at
least college. I don't remember this being a thing when
(02:44):
I was like growing up, But I don't know for
for me personally, it's a tiny bit anxiety inducing, like
in a social in a social way, like I'm like,
I don't really have a script for how to act
in and just from my personal experience of chefs, I
(03:06):
it's sort of like talking to a chef while they're
working for me is almost like trying to talk to
an actor while they're putting on a play. Like I'm like,
that's not what you do. They don't want to talk
to you, they don't want to look at you. They'd
prefer you not be there, except they want you to
eat their food and give them money. Yeah, so in
(03:26):
that way, But I don't know, like I have anxiety
about like Linoleum, I don't know it's well.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And it's also a question of who you get seated with,
because usually get eight to ten.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So if you don't have a full party of eight
to ten.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yes, and there is a pretty infamous office episode about
that and getting seated poorly, you know, Dwight always CALLSS.
But yeah, I mean that's a concern when you're there,
and also it's kind of awkward to depending on where
you are seated, to talk to each other. Sure, because yeah,
(04:08):
it is kind of a show. Once the chef leaves,
it's a bit easier. But I have enjoyed it and
I do have fond memories memories of it. But I
also agree with you, Lauren that there's an anxiety around it.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, glad, I'm not the only one and or I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I no, I think people would agree. I think a
lot of people would agree. Well, I guess this brings
us to our question.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Sure, yeah, if you don't know what we're talking about,
you're probably very confused right now.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Indeed, So tepanyaki, what is it?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, tepaniaki can mean a couple of different things, but
what we are talking about today is a style of
restaurant service where the customers are seated at a sort
of bar around a large flat cook top on which
the chef cooks their meals in front of them, more
or less theatrically, with a like Japanese doing Western cuisine
(05:12):
sort of bent. The dishes can vary, but it's usually
a focus on like pricey proteins, which can depend on taste,
but like often mostly steak and shrimp, with other options
available up and down the scale. And then sides that
are nice when they're griddled, you know, like a fried
rice or noodles, probably some kind of edge like onions, cabbage,
(05:33):
summer squash, thin sliced carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, you know,
stuff that cooks up quick. Some of the prep work
will happen behind the scenes in the kitchen so that
the chef can concentrate on like cooking everything to temperature
quickly and with flair. And that flare can range from
basically just like watching an ultracompetent cooking demo, to like
(05:56):
knife tricks and like using spatulas to juggle bits of
food around, and like fire tricks with food safe propellants.
Seasoning on the food is often light, you know, really
just like salt, pepper, butter, garlic, sesame, soy sauce show you.
Sometimes stronger marinades or dipping sauces are offered, but the
(06:18):
focus is more on like nice fresh ingredients and the
show of cooking them. You might order from a server
who coordinates with the chef and the kitchen, and the
bar also offering drinks and like non grill dishes like dumplings,
fresh salads, sushi Tepanyaki does tend to be a celebratory
(06:39):
or maybe touristy sort of meal. You know, it is
not an intimate dinner, as we've been saying, like this
staff is there with you kind of the whole time.
It's often loud, with the sounds of like the hoods
running and like cooking implements clacking and the food sizzling,
and you have these in your face visuals, like sometimes
literally if a chef pops a piece of shrimp at you,
(07:04):
and you know, like you're you're right in front of
the cook top. You can smell everything. It's it's cooking.
It's very It can be a little bit of a
sensory overload. Sometimes it is. It is a steakhouse dinner
and a show where the dinner is the show. It
is like it is like a mid century fever dream.
It is just this bright bounty of food and and just.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
For you service. Yeah, there's something about the way they
go around the table and are like what do you want?
What do you want? What do you want? And then
you're watching them cook your specific thing and they're like,
here's your fried rice without mushrooms, whatever whatever it is. Yeah,
(07:49):
Like it does feel very catered to you and you're
watching it happen.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, yeah, all right. So the word tepanyaki is a
Japanese language compound of the words topan meaning a flat
metal cooke top, and yaki meaning a dry heat cooked food.
You know, like gridled, grilled, pan fried, broiled that kind
(08:17):
of that kind of thing. More broadly, to pan griddles
can be used to cook other foods in other dining situations,
and those foods are also called tepanyaki. In the United States,
the style of service is often called hibachi. Properly, a
hibachi is really a type of space heater, not not
(08:41):
a not a grill at all. More on that in
the history section. Though, modern topon griddles are solid, flat
metal surfaces heated from underneath, usually with gas flames. This
gives the chefs temperature control, and you also don't have
to worry about smoke from like wood or charcoal. It
more or less fine for indoor dining, and these are
(09:03):
traditionally a food service type of cooktop, like something you'd
find at a restaurant or from a street cart, like
not as much at home, although these days home tabletop
models made from like lightweight materials with electric cooking elements
are available to Apparently, tepanyaki dining is most popular around
Japan and Taiwan, concentrated in like luxury hotels, and then
(09:27):
in France and the United States concentrated in freestanding restaurants.
I do understand, Yeah, it's a little bit more fine
dining at those hotel restaurants. It's more like nice family
dining in the US.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Two people from France right in.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, yes, so curious about that, especially because we have
to talk a tiny bit about the sheer antics that
the chef can get up to in these situations. There's
a few that are kind of famous, especially in American
(10:08):
style tepanyaki restaurants, like like if you make a little
a little cone out of onion rings, like you stack
up a little cone and then you pour a bunch
of oil into the middle and lighten on fire, so
it's like a little onion volcano. That's a big one.
Throwing eggs or eggshells into the top of their like
(10:30):
tall chef's took, flipping bits of shrimp into the customer's mouths.
It's you know, kind of like passing their utensils behind
their backs or all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Like the the heart and they make the heart out
of the fried rice and they use their like spatula
to make it beat.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, yes, yes, and I'd forgotten about that
one thing.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Oh, I could never forget. WHOA what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Don't eat styles of dining?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, probably not good for you.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Probably not temanyaki meals, of course, depend on what you
have in them. I can't really help you there.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yes, yes, well we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We do. I read a market report that said that
tapanyaki was as of twenty twenty four a twelve billion
dollar global business right with chain restaurants holding nearly sixty
percent of the total revenue there. According to a different report,
(11:43):
the manufacture and sale of tippon griddles is a market
worth some one point two billion dollars as of the
same year twenty twenty four, with North America making up
some quarter of that market, which I'm impressed by. And
there is increasing growth in the electric and even electronic
(12:05):
to pond griddles, Like you can set it on a
timer and walk away. I don't know why you'd do that,
but you can.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
That sounds like chaos to me, absolute madness. Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Other people have more trust in their personal heating devices
than I do. Apparently, any wow, anything that gets warmer
than like a Suvie machine, I'm just like, nope, buye.
I'm gonna be in the room for that one.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Thanks. Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
However, Okay, there are one hundred and twenty two Benny
Hannahs around the world, Beni Hanna being a popular chain
Tepanyaki place. Most of those Benny Hannahs are in the US,
but there are a smattering throughout the rest of the Americas, Europe,
the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, generally in
(13:00):
places that host a lot of American tourists.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yes, it is a very funny place to attempt to
get food during the nerd convention Dragon con here in Atlanta,
there is it Minnie Hanna near where the convention is happening,
And there's nothing like seeing a table of a mishmash
(13:26):
of cones. Yeah, getting shrimp toss at their face. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Absolutely, Yeah, No, you've got You've got some like Battlestar Galactica. Yes,
people next to like Sailor Scouts, and you're just like, oh, okay,
this is just normal. This is just normal right now.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yes, And everybody's kind of tired, so they're sort of
like laying down a little bit. Yeah, it's a mess.
I did it once, and I'll I won't do it again,
but I'm glad I did it that one time.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, I see that, I see that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
There is also a Guinness record. There's a Guinness record
for the most people cooking teppanyaki in one place at
one time. It was achieved in twenty twenty five in
Osaka with nine hundred and ninety eight cooks.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I'm jealous. I don't even know the outcome of it,
but I jealous.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Nonetheless, it seems delicious, right, yeah, it must have been.
We can only wonder yeah, or you know, oh my goodness,
if you were there, yes, if you were there.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
You must write it, no questions about it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Direly important.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yes, absolutely, well, we do have quite a history for you.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
We do. But first we've got a quick break for
a word. Warm our sponsors and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay. So, according to some oral renditions, Tepanyaki's history could
go as far back as Japan's feudal period, which is
admittedly a long period from around eleven hundred CE to
eighteen hundred CE. As the story goes, folks would gather
around a fire to grill foods, and the preparation of
(15:35):
these ingredients was allegedly very simple, and it was a
communal space to catch up and eat.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
What foods would have been involved would have varied from
modern teppanyaki. With the influence of Buddhism and various social concepts,
meat was anywhere from like discouraged to prohibited during like
different times the year and from different regions and other
restrictions from the five hundred CE really through the end
(16:07):
of the Aedo period in eighteen sixty eight, and cattle
in particular were considered work animals. It was like, why
would you eat beef. That's not what that's not what
that's for, you know. Right During the following Meiji period,
Japan was opening up to outside influences again, and European
(16:30):
influences were a huge part of that. A whole category
of food called yoshiku, meaning Western cuisine, started developing. Yoshiku
is Japanese takes on European ingredients and cooking, separate, separate
from actual Western cuisine, definitely separate from Japanese cuisine. But yeah,
(16:53):
this is where we got dishes that are still popular
to this day, like tungkatsu, which is like a breaded
fried por cutlet, curry rice which is more or less
what it sounds like, and a kooke, which are a
little like croquettes of various things. So tasty, good, good
bar snacks, yep, and meat and dairy. More meat but
(17:18):
also dairy were also a big part of yoshuku, partially
because the government was trying to build a literally stronger
military at the time, so they were just encouraging the
heck out of this trend. Beef became super posh throughout
the eighteen seventies and beyond, especially in dishes like hot pot.
(17:41):
At first, this was a very pricey trend, and like,
not everybody was on board. There was there was a
little bit of like that's still a work, what are
you talking about? But but yoshuku spread and came within
the reach of more average people after the turn of
the century. Meanwhile, to punt cooking in restaurants and foodstalls
(18:03):
or carts was also developing into what would recognize today
right around the turn of the century. That's when we
start seeing dishes like okinami yaki and and yaki soba
on the scene, okinomiyaki being like a big savory pancake
like eggy pancake, and yak soba being a lightly sauce
fried noodles so good. Also, simultaneously, farmers were starting to
(18:26):
work on developing breeds of cattle four beef production around Japan,
and especially in the prefecture around the city of Kobe.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yes, so the history of teppanyaki in its modern form
is fairly new. Sources place its origins as post World
War Two, when Japanese chefs developed a style of grilling
food over an iron grill with flames and techniques in
front of the consumer, and this often took place at
(18:56):
small restaurants or in homes in the early days. Towards
the end of the nineteen forties, restaurants in Osaka started
to offer meats and vegetables grilled in front of their customers.
Another theory is that this style of cooking may have
evolved in part due to the practice of Kobe fishmongers,
(19:18):
where they would cook the day's fresh catch in front
of customers, which I sounds nice to me, Oh my goodness, right. Yes.
The legend goes that a restaurant out of Kobe City
in Japan called Misono changed the game. They opened in
(19:38):
nineteen forty five and offered a type of entertainment style
cooking in front of patrons. The concept spread from there,
in part due to the American soldiers stationed there at
the end of the war. Kobe City was a port
city and at the time the Imperial Navy's base. As such,
(20:00):
they were recovering from World War two bombing, but also
it was where a lot of occupying American forces were stationed.
A lot of them were looking to satisfy beef cravings
because the US was one of the largest, if not
the largest, consumers of beef at the time. Restaurants like
(20:22):
Misono leaned into that, repurposing grills previously used for okanomaiyaki
for tepanyaki, like you want, you want some beef.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Sure, that's okay, You're gonna buy it.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Great, fantastic, fantastic, jumping ahead a little bit. Restaurants like
Benny Hanna helped introduce this idea to the United States
in the nineteen sixties. Benny Hanna was founded by Hiro
Aqi Aoki in Manhattan in nineteen sixty four. He went
by Rocky because it was easier for Americans to pronounce.
(21:01):
He named the restaurant after his family's successful Tokyo coffee
shop slash restaurant, which itself was named after a type
of safflower that was found growing in Tokyo. After World
War two firebombing. After a few rare reviews, the entertainment
style dining really took off. At first. It was sort
of nobody was going to it, but it got these
(21:23):
reviews and people were like, yeah, okay. And the location
in Manhattan played a role in the entertainment factor because
it was near Broadway, so Rocky really thought showmanship was
important to bring people in.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yes, they started expanding with new locations by the end
of the sixties, but their real boom came after their
IPO in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Rights A lot of these restaurants were labeled as Japanese steakhouses.
With growing interest in Jaffese cuisine in the US in
the nineteen eighties, the number of teppanyaki restaurants grew and
helped introduce Americans unfamiliar to facets of Japanese cuisine. Before
(22:13):
you write in yes, in the US, we do typically
call these restaurants hibachi restaurants. Hibachi, as Lauren said, was
a device invented in Japan around eight hundred CE to
warm rooms or heat up water. At the time, it
was sort of a big bowl or pot lined with
clay that was filled with.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Wood or charcoal yeah, in a layer of ash for
insallation and like heat dispersal. A few centuries later, as
metals became more affordable and furnace technology improved, cast iron
linings came into use.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Eventually people got the idea that they could use these
to cook with and put metal grates over the top.
Sometimes people or restaurants built these into tables, but in
general they were pretty casual.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah yeah, and like usually not a full grate, more
like a frame or kind of like stands to elevate
your tea kettle or skewers of food up above the ash.
This was a thing by around the eighteen hundreds ish
and was real popular before central heating. You know, it
so nice, you know, like a heated table to sit
(23:24):
around where you can make tea and heat soup and
roast little snacks. However, if you are thinking of a
small charcoal grill with a grate on top. In Japanese cuisine,
that device is a sheet chitin. A sheet chitin is
more what you're gonna cook, like skewers of food like
(23:47):
kushiaki on top of those came up in the Ato period,
like those sixteen to mid eighteen hundreds these days, they
can also be full size grills. But for some reason,
when small shitchit in got imported into the United States
as like consumer household food grills in the nineteen fifties
(24:11):
and sixties, they came in with the name hibachi. No
one really knows why. Uh, maybe like the hiroro aki
tiaki transfer, Like someone thought Americans could not handle the
word shitchitin and hibachi was a similar enough concept and.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Easier to say.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Uh. At any rate, these Hibachi grills were real popular,
like into the nineteen seventies, Like people got them as
wedding gifts all the time. And it makes sense, right,
you know, like post war the soft diplomacy of cuisine
exchange was definitely being used by both Japan and the US,
(24:55):
and the popularity of this grill in particular makes sense
given like the communal die party scene of like the
fifties through the seventies. Anyway, I suspect that those quote
unquote Hibachi grills are why Americans started associating the concept
of Japanese grilled food with the word hibachi, to the
(25:19):
point that we still use that word today.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It does in a very turned around kind of way.
That being said, casual table side grill cooking with a shichiten,
in which the diner may or may not participate, is
still part of Japanese cuisine, but perhaps the most popular
form today. Yak niku, is actually influenced by Korean table
(25:51):
side grilling, which is a similar concept that arose independently
and came to Japan in the early nineteen hundreds during
Japanese Acia patient of Korea.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yep, how often we run into that kind of thing
in these episodes.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I honestly love all of these weird like iterations and
like recombinations and just the way that I mean, you know,
people will go like, oh, that's a clever device.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I want one of those. I want to do that
thing that you're doing with it, but like maybe in
a slightly more me kind of way. But I don't
know what to call it. What did you call it? Oh,
that's sure whatever. Yeah, absolutely, I'll get one from my mom. Terrific.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, well, speaking of I guess social media has also
helped with the growth of this style of cooking in
the United States.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I'm sure elsewhere, but I know specifically in the United States. Sure,
chefs have experimented with new ingredients, from tofu to wake
you whole thing. Oh gosh, I can only imagine listeners,
please write in like a fancy, a really fancy teppanyaki.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I In my journey making these notes, I looked at
menus from around the world and the like highest rated
ones in Japan. I don't know if I own clothing
that's appropriate to go to these places in but they
look so nice and they are so expensive, and.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The meat looked so good.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I don't usually even crave red meat that hard, but
I was like, oh no, the marbling, the marbling.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I felt that too. Researching this, I was they usually
do like thin slices of it, but they're still kind
of medium rare. See the marbling. I just thought, when
you do it right, yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I mean also, just fried rice, man like that. I've
seen too many photos of fried rice over the past
couple days, and I'm mad about it. I'm mad that
I'm not eating piles of it right now.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Furthermore, shout out to the twenty twenty two film Everything Everywhere,
All at Once for having It's like Ratitui inspired segment
about Rakakuni set in a Tepanyaki restaurant. I thought that
was very sweet.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yes, and now you've seen Ratatui, well, I mean I.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Got the reference before. I mean, like I know what
Rataitue's about.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yes, but I do think that was a really good
When you're talking about a chef being puppeteered by a
rat ki setting is a good one.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah. Yeah, because you really have to have skills, right.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You have to skills and it's performance entertained. Huh yeah yeah,
so yeah, shout out to that. That was an excellent
and I'm pretty sure they just put that in. I
think I read an interview that they just put that
in because their mom would frequently get the name wrong
(29:18):
of ratitude.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Because for sure, Rakacooney is one of the funny like
I that's a line. Like my my friend Gina and
I would just text each other the word Rakacoony like
for months afterwards, and we would both craw up.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
It's excellent and we can all relate. We can all
oh yeah, oh yeah, yes, wow. We would love to
hear from you listeners about any experiences, especially I want
to know what it looks like around the world.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's also so curious.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, and I mean, and there are plenty of I mean,
you know, we've been talking a lot about Shanes in
this episode, but but there are plenty of independent restaurants.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
We've got one here in Atlanta called Nakoto that is
very well loved. I've been to more than one birthday
party there.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yes, yes, I believe. Super producer Dylan and I went
to We went there for a sake tasting, and I
was trying to convince him to make a spreadsheet of
the accents or the impressions every post could do, because
(30:44):
I thought this is important information for us.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah. No, clearly not the hosts of the restaurant, to
be clear that those of of how stuff works as
stuff podcasting.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, yeah, he was into but it never happened. No
fault to him. I think it was just one of
those ideas You've had some sake and you're like, you
know what we need?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, a spreadsheet of impressions of impressions people can do
now I want to there's still time.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
There's still time, aren't you curious? Do you think it
would be good knowledge to have? Yeah, well we could
still do it. We could still.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, okay, all right, Well I guess, I guess that's
what we have to say about tepan' YACKI for now. Yuh.
We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
(31:53):
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Mail. Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Perfect. Okay. So this listener wrote in and asked to remain anonymous. Okay,
and you will see why. Anonymous wrote while enjoying this
glorious spring afternoon performing the unglorious task of dislodging weeds
and moss from the joints in the sidewalk adjacent to
(32:42):
our quiet street, the Gatorade episode queued up on my
trusty eighteen year old iPod. When Annie said that the
blue one was her go to and then followed up
with blue is good. I had to rush inside to
write to you. The phrase blue is good is a
deep cut in her family lore, guaranteed to make everyone laugh,
(33:06):
and always brought out when we're having a hard time
agreeing on what to have for dinner. The story goes
way back to my college days when my hippie parents
asked my baby brother what he wanted for his fifteenth birthday.
He said he wanted to have a family outing to
a Grateful Dead show and have the full psychedelic experience.
(33:30):
Wink wink. Fast forward to the day of the show
Beautiful Weather, and we were all feeling that love, seeing
all the pretty colors and making good care of each
other and having a fabulous time. During a slow part
of the set, I offered to go get everyone snow cones.
(33:51):
What flavor does everyone want? I don't remember what everyone
else said, but Mom, bless her, was way off her
own happy place. Mom, what flavor do you want? She
stopped swaying and opened her eyes and said blue blue
is not a flavor. Mom, blue blue was good, and
(34:15):
we all started laughing so hard we had to sit
down for a few minutes. But I did, in fact
go get her a blue snow cone, and when I
presented it to her, her eyes got all big and
she moaned, blue is good anymore? Laughter ensued. Classic family story,
(34:38):
still good for a giggle after all these years. Included
for pet tax, my truly delightful Goldfish, Bill, Charlie, Percy,
Ron and Jenny. They are all different no twins. They
were five for a dollar feeter fish, and I think
it was the best dollar I ever spent. It's nearly
impossible to get them to pose her a photo, but
(35:01):
this one is not too blurry. The second pick is
from a three week long annual phenomenon in late winter.
While usually gray skies prevail, the rare, unobstructive sunrise shines
in at just the right angle before the leaves on
the Before the leaves on the trees butt out across
(35:21):
the whole house and onto the aquarium, which is in
the darkest part of the house to minimize algae growth.
This sliver of sunlight projects a brief glimmer of rainbows
and fish shadows on the kitchen wall. It's become one
of the markers of the turning of the year, like
the first daffodil or the first snow. Oh that's wonderful.
(35:45):
That's such a wonderful marker that is Oh, oh, I
love that.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
And also, yeah, blue is good.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Blue is good, and I love look. Blue might not
be a flavor, but blue.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
We know what you mean by blue. Yeah, I mean
we've talked about blue raspberry on the show before.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yes, absolutely, But this sounds like you sound like you
have a wonderful family dynamic. Yes, some real fun times
and good memories. So thank you so much for sharing this.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yes, oh, and your fish are so cute.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yes, I wanted, Lauren, I was hoping you would describe
the fish because.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Oh, okay, uh, yeah, well they are. I mean, they're
they're real handsome little goldfish buddies. They they've got really
quite magnificent tails, like a really good, deeply curved kind
of long tail going. And they are so active as
(36:52):
chich lids will be. They are just doing their stuff
and they're so excited about it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I I love how.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Busy some some aquarium tenants are, you know. Uh, and
goldfish are definitely among that. Like they have got stuff
to do, they've got a schedule. They remind you about it.
They're very sweet. It looks like wal Art. It's it's
beautiful the shadow that they are casting with the with
(37:21):
the aquarium plants.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And yeah, that's great. They really look pretty. They look
pretty magnificent. So thank you, thank you for sending us
this pet tax. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, and there and your algae management is on point beautiful. Yes, yeah,
I take it from someone who spent a lot of
time scrubbing algae and trying to buy more animals that
eat algae. Yes, yes, very important, Oh, Carolyn wrote, First off,
(38:02):
I'm actually writing this after listening to the Silver Palette
episode and have a probably silly question. At the beginning,
you mentioned one of the founders turned down a job
at the CIA. Did you mean the government agency or
the culinary school? I could google, but this is more fun.
Onto the real note. I loved the gummy candy episode
(38:22):
because it made me think of an absolute gem of
a candy store in my town called Quincy's. The owners
stocked it with retro and vintage suites, a trefle counter,
international and allergen friendly goodies, jellybeans, and a decadent variety
of bulk candies on the wall. I don't know how
they do it, but the gummy candy variety is always
(38:44):
rostering with seasonal choices in addition to the usual. A
bonus that's missing from major stores is the relationship with
the staff. The owner knows my favorites, and once, while
switching out one of my favorites for a new choice,
she reserved the couple of scoops left over for me
at my next visit. They were three D strawberries with
the texture of a jellow jiggler and taste like real
(39:05):
kool aid, and there is no equal. They also carry
something I think would make a fun future episode, unnatural
soda flavors. Think butter, bacon, buffalo wing, corn, et cetera.
I've had the corn, and well, it tastes like corn
and corn syrup. It's as described if you want to
(39:28):
check the shop out there at Quincy's Candy Shop on Insta. Okay,
first off, about Silver Palette and Julie Rosso and I
I double checked with my sources and uh, yeah, it's
the Central Intelligence Agency personnel really does. Yeah. I got
(39:59):
that detail from an article in the New York Times
from nineteen ninety three went when Rosso published her first
solo cookbook to less than stellar reviews. The article is
called once the Toast now a target, Silver Palette star
goes solo. I know, right, wow, And yeah, as with
(40:22):
anything with Julie Rosso, I have no idea how seriously
to take that detail. I cannot like, I cannot tell
you look look y'all, like I look up information on
the internet for a living, and yes, it's gotten harder
recently because of a number of frustrating factors, but.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I could not.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Find anything about her early life. The way in which
this woman managed to keep the details of her childhood
out of the public eye is wild, absolutely wild. Good
for her. I'm so impressed. But also it does track
with her personality, so I'm like, yeah, sure, mm hmm. Anyway,
(41:15):
Quincy's Quincy sounds so delightful. Gosh, I feel like I
remember these specific strawberries that you're talking about, and I
can't entirely place it, but oh good, gummies.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Are so good.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
I know you're you're you're wincing, Annie, but.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
But I wasn't even aware.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
But yeah, well, you know what I love about this
though so many people.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Have written in about uh making the case for gummies
to me, And one of the things I love about
this specific email is that you had a local store
where somebody knew your taste, yeah, and like set aside, yeah,
(42:06):
your favorites when they were going away. But also how
you have this very specific explanation or descriptor of the
one that you loved.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
I adore that, like, honestly, that kind of specificity around
of food that you love, that maybe no one else
has ever heard of that.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
That might not exist anymore. Yeah, that makes my heart
sing with joy. Honestly, I adore that so much.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Oh, oh beautiful. Oh and these soda flavors you have tried.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I haven't have. I actually literally tried any of them.
I currently have in my possession a bottle of Ranch
Flavor soda that Ben Bolin gave to me, I believe,
upon the occasion of doing that episode about Ranch with
Us back in the day. So this is now like
(43:13):
an aged bottle of soda. I don't know if.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I'm sure it aged.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
Well, I'm sure yeah, But yeah, all of those are
so entertaining to me.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
For a while.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I don't know if Jon's Soda still does it or not.
I think they do. But Joanes Soda for a while
would do like a annual holiday pack around like Thanksgiving
to Christmas with you know, yeah, like flavors like like
Brussels sprouts and stuffing and like normally they're like a
really good soda company with like a super aces like
root beer and cream soda kind of situation. But then
(43:52):
right like once a year they were like, let's make
something disgusting.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I love that, though, them experiment and yeah, but you
know a certain type of people at least are like
that probably won't be good. But I want to try
get it.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
I want to get it. Yeah yeah, and heck we're
talking about it now.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
So that's right, that's yeah. Wow. Thank you so much
to both of these listeners for writing in. If you
would like to write to us, you can. Our email
is hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Instagram and blue Sky at saber pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
(44:53):
hope that lots more good things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Saber production of iHeartRadio. I'm Annie Reese.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And I'm Lauren vogel Baum, and today we have an
episode for you about Teppanyaki.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes. Was there any particular reason this was on your mind? Lauren?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes, it has been on my personal list for a
very long time because there are some really pedantic little
things that I have to clear up about terminology. And
it's also, I don't know, like they're fun. It's fun.
It's fun to eat food at weird restaurants that kind
(00:44):
of do dinner and a show for you.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So yeah, I love Teppanyaki. It's very celebratory for me.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, it's not like, oh, man, like, what am I
going to eat on a Tuesday? Like, yeah, no, that's
a no.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah, although I do have a friend who is like
that and I salute her lifestyle.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Yeah. No. But in my family, we grew up in
a small town and sometimes we would make the journey
to a Teppanyaki place, in this case, particularly Benning Hanna,
although we did get one that was more local to us,
(01:27):
not a Benni Hannah many years later. But we would
do the whole thing and it was really fun and
really lovely. Benning Hannah has that thing, not a sponsor,
by the way, they have that thing where they take
a picture at the end, so we just have like
a bunch of pictures.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
All of us.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Sweet it is, It's really sweet. I have fond memories
of it. I also drink responsibly. Kids. The most hungover
I've ever been, I was at a tepe in Yaki,
your restaurant, and let me tell you, there's no fear
that I've experienced, like the fear that I might throw
(02:07):
up real in front of me. Wows it was. I
did not, and actually, once I ate the food, I
felt amazing good.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
I'm great compared to the previous statement. Yeah, yeah, they huh,
especially on an empty stomach, you know, always always drink responsibly. Yes,
I don't. I don't think I encountered tepanyaki until at
least college. I don't remember this being a thing when
(02:44):
I was like growing up, But I don't know for
for me personally, it's a tiny bit anxiety inducing, like
in a social in a social way, like I'm like,
I don't really have a script for how to act
in and just from my personal experience of chefs, I
(03:06):
it's sort of like talking to a chef while they're
working for me is almost like trying to talk to
an actor while they're putting on a play. Like I'm like,
that's not what you do. They don't want to talk
to you, they don't want to look at you. They'd
prefer you not be there, except they want you to
eat their food and give them money. Yeah, so in
(03:26):
that way, But I don't know, like I have anxiety
about like Linoleum, I don't know it's well.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
And it's also a question of who you get seated with,
because usually get eight to ten.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So if you don't have a full party of eight
to ten.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yes, and there is a pretty infamous office episode about
that and getting seated poorly, you know, Dwight always CALLSS.
But yeah, I mean that's a concern when you're there,
and also it's kind of awkward to depending on where
you are seated, to talk to each other. Sure, because yeah,
(04:08):
it is kind of a show. Once the chef leaves,
it's a bit easier. But I have enjoyed it and
I do have fond memories memories of it. But I
also agree with you, Lauren that there's an anxiety around it.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, glad, I'm not the only one and or I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I no, I think people would agree. I think a
lot of people would agree. Well, I guess this brings
us to our question.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Sure, yeah, if you don't know what we're talking about,
you're probably very confused right now.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Indeed, So tepanyaki, what is it?
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Well, tepaniaki can mean a couple of different things, but
what we are talking about today is a style of
restaurant service where the customers are seated at a sort
of bar around a large flat cook top on which
the chef cooks their meals in front of them, more
or less theatrically, with a like Japanese doing Western cuisine
(05:12):
sort of bent. The dishes can vary, but it's usually
a focus on like pricey proteins, which can depend on taste,
but like often mostly steak and shrimp, with other options
available up and down the scale. And then sides that
are nice when they're griddled, you know, like a fried
rice or noodles, probably some kind of edge like onions, cabbage,
(05:33):
summer squash, thin sliced carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, you know,
stuff that cooks up quick. Some of the prep work
will happen behind the scenes in the kitchen so that
the chef can concentrate on like cooking everything to temperature
quickly and with flair. And that flare can range from
basically just like watching an ultracompetent cooking demo, to like
(05:56):
knife tricks and like using spatulas to juggle bits of
food around, and like fire tricks with food safe propellants.
Seasoning on the food is often light, you know, really
just like salt, pepper, butter, garlic, sesame, soy sauce show you.
Sometimes stronger marinades or dipping sauces are offered, but the
(06:18):
focus is more on like nice fresh ingredients and the
show of cooking them. You might order from a server
who coordinates with the chef and the kitchen, and the
bar also offering drinks and like non grill dishes like dumplings,
fresh salads, sushi Tepanyaki does tend to be a celebratory
(06:39):
or maybe touristy sort of meal. You know, it is
not an intimate dinner, as we've been saying, like this
staff is there with you kind of the whole time.
It's often loud, with the sounds of like the hoods
running and like cooking implements clacking and the food sizzling,
and you have these in your face visuals, like sometimes
literally if a chef pops a piece of shrimp at you,
(07:04):
and you know, like you're you're right in front of
the cook top. You can smell everything. It's it's cooking.
It's very It can be a little bit of a
sensory overload. Sometimes it is. It is a steakhouse dinner
and a show where the dinner is the show. It
is like it is like a mid century fever dream.
It is just this bright bounty of food and and just.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
For you service. Yeah, there's something about the way they
go around the table and are like what do you want?
What do you want? What do you want? And then
you're watching them cook your specific thing and they're like,
here's your fried rice without mushrooms, whatever whatever it is. Yeah,
(07:49):
Like it does feel very catered to you and you're
watching it happen.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, yeah, all right. So the word tepanyaki is a
Japanese language compound of the words topan meaning a flat
metal cooke top, and yaki meaning a dry heat cooked food.
You know, like gridled, grilled, pan fried, broiled that kind
(08:17):
of that kind of thing. More broadly, to pan griddles
can be used to cook other foods in other dining situations,
and those foods are also called tepanyaki. In the United States,
the style of service is often called hibachi. Properly, a
hibachi is really a type of space heater, not not
(08:41):
a not a grill at all. More on that in
the history section. Though, modern topon griddles are solid, flat
metal surfaces heated from underneath, usually with gas flames. This
gives the chefs temperature control, and you also don't have
to worry about smoke from like wood or charcoal. It
more or less fine for indoor dining, and these are
(09:03):
traditionally a food service type of cooktop, like something you'd
find at a restaurant or from a street cart, like
not as much at home, although these days home tabletop
models made from like lightweight materials with electric cooking elements
are available to Apparently, tepanyaki dining is most popular around
Japan and Taiwan, concentrated in like luxury hotels, and then
(09:27):
in France and the United States concentrated in freestanding restaurants.
I do understand, Yeah, it's a little bit more fine
dining at those hotel restaurants. It's more like nice family
dining in the US.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Two people from France right in.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Oh, yes, so curious about that, especially because we have
to talk a tiny bit about the sheer antics that
the chef can get up to in these situations. There's
a few that are kind of famous, especially in American
(10:08):
style tepanyaki restaurants, like like if you make a little
a little cone out of onion rings, like you stack
up a little cone and then you pour a bunch
of oil into the middle and lighten on fire, so
it's like a little onion volcano. That's a big one.
Throwing eggs or eggshells into the top of their like
(10:30):
tall chef's took, flipping bits of shrimp into the customer's mouths.
It's you know, kind of like passing their utensils behind
their backs or all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Like the the heart and they make the heart out
of the fried rice and they use their like spatula
to make it beat.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, yes, yes, and I'd forgotten about that
one thing.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Oh, I could never forget. WHOA what about the nutrition.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Don't eat styles of dining?
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Yeah, probably not good for you.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Probably not temanyaki meals, of course, depend on what you
have in them. I can't really help you there.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yes, yes, well we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
We do. I read a market report that said that
tapanyaki was as of twenty twenty four a twelve billion
dollar global business right with chain restaurants holding nearly sixty
percent of the total revenue there. According to a different report,
(11:43):
the manufacture and sale of tippon griddles is a market
worth some one point two billion dollars as of the
same year twenty twenty four, with North America making up
some quarter of that market, which I'm impressed by. And
there is increasing growth in the electric and even electronic
(12:05):
to pond griddles, Like you can set it on a
timer and walk away. I don't know why you'd do that,
but you can.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
That sounds like chaos to me, absolute madness. Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Other people have more trust in their personal heating devices
than I do. Apparently, any wow, anything that gets warmer
than like a Suvie machine, I'm just like, nope, buye.
I'm gonna be in the room for that one.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Thanks. Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
However, Okay, there are one hundred and twenty two Benny
Hannahs around the world, Beni Hanna being a popular chain
Tepanyaki place. Most of those Benny Hannahs are in the US,
but there are a smattering throughout the rest of the Americas, Europe,
the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific, generally in
(13:00):
places that host a lot of American tourists.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yes, it is a very funny place to attempt to
get food during the nerd convention Dragon con here in Atlanta,
there is it Minnie Hanna near where the convention is happening,
And there's nothing like seeing a table of a mishmash
(13:26):
of cones. Yeah, getting shrimp toss at their face. I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Absolutely, Yeah, No, you've got You've got some like Battlestar Galactica. Yes,
people next to like Sailor Scouts, and you're just like, oh, okay,
this is just normal. This is just normal right now.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yes, And everybody's kind of tired, so they're sort of
like laying down a little bit. Yeah, it's a mess.
I did it once, and I'll I won't do it again,
but I'm glad I did it that one time.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Yeah, I see that, I see that.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
There is also a Guinness record. There's a Guinness record
for the most people cooking teppanyaki in one place at
one time. It was achieved in twenty twenty five in
Osaka with nine hundred and ninety eight cooks.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I'm jealous. I don't even know the outcome of it,
but I jealous.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Nonetheless, it seems delicious, right, yeah, it must have been.
We can only wonder yeah, or you know, oh my goodness,
if you were there, yes, if you were there.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
You must write it, no questions about it.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Direly important.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yes, absolutely, well, we do have quite a history for you.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
We do. But first we've got a quick break for
a word. Warm our sponsors and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Okay. So, according to some oral renditions, Tepanyaki's history could
go as far back as Japan's feudal period, which is
admittedly a long period from around eleven hundred CE to
eighteen hundred CE. As the story goes, folks would gather
around a fire to grill foods, and the preparation of
(15:35):
these ingredients was allegedly very simple, and it was a
communal space to catch up and eat.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
What foods would have been involved would have varied from
modern teppanyaki. With the influence of Buddhism and various social concepts,
meat was anywhere from like discouraged to prohibited during like
different times the year and from different regions and other
restrictions from the five hundred CE really through the end
(16:07):
of the Aedo period in eighteen sixty eight, and cattle
in particular were considered work animals. It was like, why
would you eat beef. That's not what that's not what
that's for, you know. Right During the following Meiji period,
Japan was opening up to outside influences again, and European
(16:30):
influences were a huge part of that. A whole category
of food called yoshiku, meaning Western cuisine, started developing. Yoshiku
is Japanese takes on European ingredients and cooking, separate, separate
from actual Western cuisine, definitely separate from Japanese cuisine. But yeah,
(16:53):
this is where we got dishes that are still popular
to this day, like tungkatsu, which is like a breaded
fried por cutlet, curry rice which is more or less
what it sounds like, and a kooke, which are a
little like croquettes of various things. So tasty, good, good
bar snacks, yep, and meat and dairy. More meat but
(17:18):
also dairy were also a big part of yoshuku, partially
because the government was trying to build a literally stronger
military at the time, so they were just encouraging the
heck out of this trend. Beef became super posh throughout
the eighteen seventies and beyond, especially in dishes like hot pot.
(17:41):
At first, this was a very pricey trend, and like,
not everybody was on board. There was there was a
little bit of like that's still a work, what are
you talking about? But but yoshuku spread and came within
the reach of more average people after the turn of
the century. Meanwhile, to punt cooking in restaurants and foodstalls
(18:03):
or carts was also developing into what would recognize today
right around the turn of the century. That's when we
start seeing dishes like okinami yaki and and yaki soba
on the scene, okinomiyaki being like a big savory pancake
like eggy pancake, and yak soba being a lightly sauce
fried noodles so good. Also, simultaneously, farmers were starting to
(18:26):
work on developing breeds of cattle four beef production around Japan,
and especially in the prefecture around the city of Kobe.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yes, so the history of teppanyaki in its modern form
is fairly new. Sources place its origins as post World
War Two, when Japanese chefs developed a style of grilling
food over an iron grill with flames and techniques in
front of the consumer, and this often took place at
(18:56):
small restaurants or in homes in the early days. Towards
the end of the nineteen forties, restaurants in Osaka started
to offer meats and vegetables grilled in front of their customers.
Another theory is that this style of cooking may have
evolved in part due to the practice of Kobe fishmongers,
(19:18):
where they would cook the day's fresh catch in front
of customers, which I sounds nice to me, Oh my goodness, right. Yes.
The legend goes that a restaurant out of Kobe City
in Japan called Misono changed the game. They opened in
(19:38):
nineteen forty five and offered a type of entertainment style
cooking in front of patrons. The concept spread from there,
in part due to the American soldiers stationed there at
the end of the war. Kobe City was a port
city and at the time the Imperial Navy's base. As such,
(20:00):
they were recovering from World War two bombing, but also
it was where a lot of occupying American forces were stationed.
A lot of them were looking to satisfy beef cravings
because the US was one of the largest, if not
the largest, consumers of beef at the time. Restaurants like
(20:22):
Misono leaned into that, repurposing grills previously used for okanomaiyaki
for tepanyaki, like you want, you want some beef.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Sure, that's okay, You're gonna buy it.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Great, fantastic, fantastic, jumping ahead a little bit. Restaurants like
Benny Hanna helped introduce this idea to the United States
in the nineteen sixties. Benny Hanna was founded by Hiro
Aqi Aoki in Manhattan in nineteen sixty four. He went
by Rocky because it was easier for Americans to pronounce.
(21:01):
He named the restaurant after his family's successful Tokyo coffee
shop slash restaurant, which itself was named after a type
of safflower that was found growing in Tokyo. After World
War two firebombing. After a few rare reviews, the entertainment
style dining really took off. At first. It was sort
of nobody was going to it, but it got these
(21:23):
reviews and people were like, yeah, okay. And the location
in Manhattan played a role in the entertainment factor because
it was near Broadway, so Rocky really thought showmanship was
important to bring people in.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yes, they started expanding with new locations by the end
of the sixties, but their real boom came after their
IPO in nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Rights A lot of these restaurants were labeled as Japanese steakhouses.
With growing interest in Jaffese cuisine in the US in
the nineteen eighties, the number of teppanyaki restaurants grew and
helped introduce Americans unfamiliar to facets of Japanese cuisine. Before
(22:13):
you write in yes, in the US, we do typically
call these restaurants hibachi restaurants. Hibachi, as Lauren said, was
a device invented in Japan around eight hundred CE to
warm rooms or heat up water. At the time, it
was sort of a big bowl or pot lined with
clay that was filled with.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Wood or charcoal yeah, in a layer of ash for
insallation and like heat dispersal. A few centuries later, as
metals became more affordable and furnace technology improved, cast iron
linings came into use.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Eventually people got the idea that they could use these
to cook with and put metal grates over the top.
Sometimes people or restaurants built these into tables, but in
general they were pretty casual.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Yeah yeah, and like usually not a full grate, more
like a frame or kind of like stands to elevate
your tea kettle or skewers of food up above the ash.
This was a thing by around the eighteen hundreds ish
and was real popular before central heating. You know, it
so nice, you know, like a heated table to sit
(23:24):
around where you can make tea and heat soup and
roast little snacks. However, if you are thinking of a
small charcoal grill with a grate on top. In Japanese cuisine,
that device is a sheet chitin. A sheet chitin is
more what you're gonna cook, like skewers of food like
(23:47):
kushiaki on top of those came up in the Ato period,
like those sixteen to mid eighteen hundreds these days, they
can also be full size grills. But for some reason,
when small shitchit in got imported into the United States
as like consumer household food grills in the nineteen fifties
(24:11):
and sixties, they came in with the name hibachi. No
one really knows why. Uh, maybe like the hiroro aki
tiaki transfer, Like someone thought Americans could not handle the
word shitchitin and hibachi was a similar enough concept and.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Easier to say.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Uh. At any rate, these Hibachi grills were real popular,
like into the nineteen seventies, Like people got them as
wedding gifts all the time. And it makes sense, right,
you know, like post war the soft diplomacy of cuisine
exchange was definitely being used by both Japan and the US,
(24:55):
and the popularity of this grill in particular makes sense
given like the communal die party scene of like the
fifties through the seventies. Anyway, I suspect that those quote
unquote Hibachi grills are why Americans started associating the concept
of Japanese grilled food with the word hibachi, to the
(25:19):
point that we still use that word today.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Yeah, it does.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It does in a very turned around kind of way.
That being said, casual table side grill cooking with a shichiten,
in which the diner may or may not participate, is
still part of Japanese cuisine, but perhaps the most popular
form today. Yak niku, is actually influenced by Korean table
(25:51):
side grilling, which is a similar concept that arose independently
and came to Japan in the early nineteen hundreds during
Japanese Acia patient of Korea.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Yep, how often we run into that kind of thing
in these episodes.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
I honestly love all of these weird like iterations and
like recombinations and just the way that I mean, you know,
people will go like, oh, that's a clever device.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
That's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
I want one of those. I want to do that
thing that you're doing with it, but like maybe in
a slightly more me kind of way. But I don't
know what to call it. What did you call it? Oh,
that's sure whatever. Yeah, absolutely, I'll get one from my mom. Terrific.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yeah, well, speaking of I guess social media has also
helped with the growth of this style of cooking in
the United States.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
I'm sure elsewhere, but I know specifically in the United States. Sure,
chefs have experimented with new ingredients, from tofu to wake
you whole thing. Oh gosh, I can only imagine listeners,
please write in like a fancy, a really fancy teppanyaki.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
I In my journey making these notes, I looked at
menus from around the world and the like highest rated
ones in Japan. I don't know if I own clothing
that's appropriate to go to these places in but they
look so nice and they are so expensive, and.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
The meat looked so good.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
I don't usually even crave red meat that hard, but
I was like, oh no, the marbling, the marbling.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
I felt that too. Researching this, I was they usually
do like thin slices of it, but they're still kind
of medium rare. See the marbling. I just thought, when
you do it right, yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
I mean also, just fried rice, man like that. I've
seen too many photos of fried rice over the past
couple days, and I'm mad about it. I'm mad that
I'm not eating piles of it right now.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Furthermore, shout out to the twenty twenty two film Everything Everywhere,
All at Once for having It's like Ratitui inspired segment
about Rakakuni set in a Tepanyaki restaurant. I thought that
was very sweet.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Yes, and now you've seen Ratatui, well, I mean I.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Got the reference before. I mean, like I know what
Rataitue's about.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yes, but I do think that was a really good
When you're talking about a chef being puppeteered by a
rat ki setting is a good one.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Yeah. Yeah, because you really have to have skills, right.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
You have to skills and it's performance entertained. Huh yeah yeah,
so yeah, shout out to that. That was an excellent
and I'm pretty sure they just put that in. I
think I read an interview that they just put that
in because their mom would frequently get the name wrong
(29:18):
of ratitude.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Because for sure, Rakacooney is one of the funny like
I that's a line. Like my my friend Gina and
I would just text each other the word Rakacoony like
for months afterwards, and we would both craw up.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
It's excellent and we can all relate. We can all
oh yeah, oh yeah, yes, wow. We would love to
hear from you listeners about any experiences, especially I want
to know what it looks like around the world.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's also so curious.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yeah, and I mean, and there are plenty of I mean,
you know, we've been talking a lot about Shanes in
this episode, but but there are plenty of independent restaurants.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
We've got one here in Atlanta called Nakoto that is
very well loved. I've been to more than one birthday
party there.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yes, yes, I believe. Super producer Dylan and I went
to We went there for a sake tasting, and I
was trying to convince him to make a spreadsheet of
the accents or the impressions every post could do, because
(30:44):
I thought this is important information for us.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah. No, clearly not the hosts of the restaurant, to
be clear that those of of how stuff works as
stuff podcasting.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
Yeah, yeah, he was into but it never happened. No
fault to him. I think it was just one of
those ideas You've had some sake and you're like, you
know what we need?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, a spreadsheet of impressions of impressions people can do
now I want to there's still time.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
There's still time, aren't you curious? Do you think it
would be good knowledge to have? Yeah, well we could
still do it. We could still.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Yeah, okay, all right, Well I guess, I guess that's
what we have to say about tepan' YACKI for now. Yuh.
We do already have some listener mail for you, though,
and we are going to get into that as soon
(31:53):
as we get back from one more quick break for
a word from our sponsors, and we're back.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
Mail. Yes.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Perfect. Okay. So this listener wrote in and asked to remain anonymous. Okay,
and you will see why. Anonymous wrote while enjoying this
glorious spring afternoon performing the unglorious task of dislodging weeds
and moss from the joints in the sidewalk adjacent to
(32:42):
our quiet street, the Gatorade episode queued up on my
trusty eighteen year old iPod. When Annie said that the
blue one was her go to and then followed up
with blue is good. I had to rush inside to
write to you. The phrase blue is good is a
deep cut in her family lore, guaranteed to make everyone laugh,
(33:06):
and always brought out when we're having a hard time
agreeing on what to have for dinner. The story goes
way back to my college days when my hippie parents
asked my baby brother what he wanted for his fifteenth birthday.
He said he wanted to have a family outing to
a Grateful Dead show and have the full psychedelic experience.
(33:30):
Wink wink. Fast forward to the day of the show
Beautiful Weather, and we were all feeling that love, seeing
all the pretty colors and making good care of each
other and having a fabulous time. During a slow part
of the set, I offered to go get everyone snow cones.
(33:51):
What flavor does everyone want? I don't remember what everyone
else said, but Mom, bless her, was way off her
own happy place. Mom, what flavor do you want? She
stopped swaying and opened her eyes and said blue blue
is not a flavor. Mom, blue blue was good, and
(34:15):
we all started laughing so hard we had to sit
down for a few minutes. But I did, in fact
go get her a blue snow cone, and when I
presented it to her, her eyes got all big and
she moaned, blue is good anymore? Laughter ensued. Classic family story,
(34:38):
still good for a giggle after all these years. Included
for pet tax, my truly delightful Goldfish, Bill, Charlie, Percy,
Ron and Jenny. They are all different no twins. They
were five for a dollar feeter fish, and I think
it was the best dollar I ever spent. It's nearly
impossible to get them to pose her a photo, but
(35:01):
this one is not too blurry. The second pick is
from a three week long annual phenomenon in late winter.
While usually gray skies prevail, the rare, unobstructive sunrise shines
in at just the right angle before the leaves on
the Before the leaves on the trees butt out across
(35:21):
the whole house and onto the aquarium, which is in
the darkest part of the house to minimize algae growth.
This sliver of sunlight projects a brief glimmer of rainbows
and fish shadows on the kitchen wall. It's become one
of the markers of the turning of the year, like
the first daffodil or the first snow. Oh that's wonderful.
(35:45):
That's such a wonderful marker that is Oh, oh, I
love that.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
And also, yeah, blue is good.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Blue is good, and I love look. Blue might not
be a flavor, but blue.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
We know what you mean by blue. Yeah, I mean
we've talked about blue raspberry on the show before.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
Yes, absolutely, But this sounds like you sound like you
have a wonderful family dynamic. Yes, some real fun times
and good memories. So thank you so much for sharing this.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yes, oh, and your fish are so cute.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yes, I wanted, Lauren, I was hoping you would describe
the fish because.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Oh, okay, uh, yeah, well they are. I mean, they're
they're real handsome little goldfish buddies. They they've got really
quite magnificent tails, like a really good, deeply curved kind
of long tail going. And they are so active as
(36:52):
chich lids will be. They are just doing their stuff
and they're so excited about it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I I love how.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Busy some some aquarium tenants are, you know. Uh, and
goldfish are definitely among that. Like they have got stuff
to do, they've got a schedule. They remind you about it.
They're very sweet. It looks like wal Art. It's it's
beautiful the shadow that they are casting with the with
(37:21):
the aquarium plants.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And yeah, that's great. They really look pretty. They look
pretty magnificent. So thank you, thank you for sending us
this pet tax. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, and there and your algae management is on point beautiful. Yes, yeah,
I take it from someone who spent a lot of
time scrubbing algae and trying to buy more animals that
eat algae. Yes, yes, very important, Oh, Carolyn wrote, First off,
(38:02):
I'm actually writing this after listening to the Silver Palette
episode and have a probably silly question. At the beginning,
you mentioned one of the founders turned down a job
at the CIA. Did you mean the government agency or
the culinary school? I could google, but this is more fun.
Onto the real note. I loved the gummy candy episode
(38:22):
because it made me think of an absolute gem of
a candy store in my town called Quincy's. The owners
stocked it with retro and vintage suites, a trefle counter,
international and allergen friendly goodies, jellybeans, and a decadent variety
of bulk candies on the wall. I don't know how
they do it, but the gummy candy variety is always
(38:44):
rostering with seasonal choices in addition to the usual. A
bonus that's missing from major stores is the relationship with
the staff. The owner knows my favorites, and once, while
switching out one of my favorites for a new choice,
she reserved the couple of scoops left over for me
at my next visit. They were three D strawberries with
the texture of a jellow jiggler and taste like real
(39:05):
kool aid, and there is no equal. They also carry
something I think would make a fun future episode, unnatural
soda flavors. Think butter, bacon, buffalo wing, corn, et cetera.
I've had the corn, and well, it tastes like corn
and corn syrup. It's as described if you want to
(39:28):
check the shop out there at Quincy's Candy Shop on Insta. Okay,
first off, about Silver Palette and Julie Rosso and I
I double checked with my sources and uh, yeah, it's
the Central Intelligence Agency personnel really does. Yeah. I got
(39:59):
that detail from an article in the New York Times
from nineteen ninety three went when Rosso published her first
solo cookbook to less than stellar reviews. The article is
called once the Toast now a target, Silver Palette star
goes solo. I know, right, wow, And yeah, as with
(40:22):
anything with Julie Rosso, I have no idea how seriously
to take that detail. I cannot like, I cannot tell
you look look y'all, like I look up information on
the internet for a living, and yes, it's gotten harder
recently because of a number of frustrating factors, but.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I could not.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Find anything about her early life. The way in which
this woman managed to keep the details of her childhood
out of the public eye is wild, absolutely wild. Good
for her. I'm so impressed. But also it does track
with her personality, so I'm like, yeah, sure, mm hmm. Anyway,
(41:15):
Quincy's Quincy sounds so delightful. Gosh, I feel like I
remember these specific strawberries that you're talking about, and I
can't entirely place it, but oh good, gummies.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Are so good.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
I know you're you're you're wincing, Annie, but.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
But I wasn't even aware.
Speaker 3 (41:38):
But yeah, well, you know what I love about this
though so many people.
Speaker 1 (41:43):
Have written in about uh making the case for gummies
to me, And one of the things I love about
this specific email is that you had a local store
where somebody knew your taste, yeah, and like set aside, yeah,
(42:06):
your favorites when they were going away. But also how
you have this very specific explanation or descriptor of the
one that you loved.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
I adore that, like, honestly, that kind of specificity around
of food that you love, that maybe no one else
has ever heard of that.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
That might not exist anymore. Yeah, that makes my heart
sing with joy. Honestly, I adore that so much.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Oh, oh beautiful. Oh and these soda flavors you have tried.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
I haven't have. I actually literally tried any of them.
I currently have in my possession a bottle of Ranch
Flavor soda that Ben Bolin gave to me, I believe,
upon the occasion of doing that episode about Ranch with
Us back in the day. So this is now like
(43:13):
an aged bottle of soda. I don't know if.
Speaker 1 (43:16):
I'm sure it aged.
Speaker 5 (43:17):
Well, I'm sure yeah, But yeah, all of those are
so entertaining to me.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
For a while.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
I don't know if Jon's Soda still does it or not.
I think they do. But Joanes Soda for a while
would do like a annual holiday pack around like Thanksgiving
to Christmas with you know, yeah, like flavors like like
Brussels sprouts and stuffing and like normally they're like a
really good soda company with like a super aces like
root beer and cream soda kind of situation. But then
(43:52):
right like once a year they were like, let's make
something disgusting.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I love that, though, them experiment and yeah, but you
know a certain type of people at least are like
that probably won't be good. But I want to try
get it.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
I want to get it. Yeah yeah, and heck we're
talking about it now.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
So that's right, that's yeah. Wow. Thank you so much
to both of these listeners for writing in. If you
would like to write to us, you can. Our email
is hello at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
We're also on social media. You can find us on
Instagram and blue Sky at saber pod, and we do
hope to hear from you. Savor is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from heart Radio, you can visit the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows. Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagan
and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we
(44:53):
hope that lots more good things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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