Was the Hibachi Experience Invented for Americans?
One of the sushi chefs I work with at a japanese restaurant said hibachi grills first appeared in America, constructed for Americans, not in Japan.
Can anyone speak for or against this?
Wikipedia only has this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibachi
It would be funny if the actual chop, dice, flip the shrimp into your pocket thing was designed for Americans. Usually, it's many Americans first experience with Japanese food...
-Cheers
By Captain Beefhart
on Aug 6, 2006 08:49 PM
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Hibachi is wrong - the flat griddle cooking is teppanyaki. Hibachi mainly means the central charcoal burning heating stove in a hole in the middle of my grandmother's house. Also means a charcoal burning cooking grill - but it never did mean a griddle until someone here decided to call teppanyaki, hibachi.
But then, why should I (or anyone else) bother to correct such Americanisms - the majority of teppanyaki places in the US are not run by Japanese any more - around here (Boston area) they are all Chinese owned and run.
One guy started teppanyaki in the US - Rocky Yunosuke, a playboy millionaire. He started Benihana in NYC in the 60's, and grew it into an empire - he sold it out as he ended up needing money for his unconstrained spending (he was into power boat racing) and gambling debts. I read one story where it was his dad that actually started teppanyaki in Japan first at the original Benihana restaurant in Tokyo, but I don't know if that's true. Almost certainly, the knife-throwing entertainment piece of it was Rocky's invention. His father made his millions in post-war Japan selling food catering to American GI's.
Calling this Japanese food is a stretch.
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IIRC, Aoki Yunosuke was the father. The son, Aoki Hiroaki, was to become "Rocky Aoki", and gave us Benihana.
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The US chain is called Benihana of Tokyo. The restaurant in the Ginza district of Tokyo was called Benihana of New York when I lived there in the early `90's. That should say something about how its origin is perceived in Japan.
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When I was a young girl living in Japan back in the late fifties, my parents would sometimes take us to a tiny (but wonderful) tepan restaurant in Tokyo called Misono's. The beef was wonderful, and the service was gracious and restrained, as was typical in Japan in those days -- a far cry from the flashy Benihana and its ilk.
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