How and why teppanyaki?the Japanese art of grilling food at high temperatures on a flat, iron plate?is such a crowd puller
Seven-year-old Vama sits with confidence by the teppanyaki grill at Kylin Premier, a popular Asian diner in Delhi. With great amusement, she watches chef Yasuhiko Otaka, a visiting master chef from Japan, juggle and toss an egg into the rice being cooked for her and then lay out the black cod filet that Vama?s dad has ordered for her. When the platters are placed in front of her, she picks up her chopsticks with practiced ease and makes a visibly satisfactory meal of the fancy fish, Otaka had brought in his hand baggage all the way from Tokyo.
It?s a scenario that surprises no one, not just me as I watch the antics at Kylin. Almost a decade after it made its hesitating appearance on the country?s dining scene, Japanese is after all the new Chinese in India. It is being served everywhere from Amritsar to Delhi, Mumbai to Bangalore, Chennai to Chandigarh and Kolkata?at corporate lunches, pot-luck dinners, wedding receptions and kitty parties, where sushi (including veg maki rolls stuffed with avocado, carrots, crispy asparagus) does thriving business.
But if sushi has got truly democratised, what are the other Japanese formats that are getting popular with the classes and the masses alike in the country? Teppanyaki or the technique of grilling food at high temperatures on a flat, iron plate (teppan), would be right up there. From Hibachi in Chandigarh to Spices at JW Marriott in Mumbai, popular with the film stars, not to mention the faithful TK?s at the Hyatt in Delhi, teppanyaki attracts a steady clientele and not just because of the ?flair? element involved?where chefs will often turn showmen and juggle a bit with their knives and ingredients before getting on to the business of (live) cooking.
Globally, this style of cooking that first caught the fancy of diners in the 1980s, with restaurants putting up long tables around the central area where food is cooked right in front of you, is back in fashion again. Recent foodie buzz, for instance, suggests that Manhattan will see a huge restaurant opening later this year. New York sushi king chef Masa Takayama is expected to open Tetsu, a high-end teppanyaki place, after announcing a similar place inside his Las Vegas Japanese restaurant called barMASA. Tetsu in Vegas focuses only on high-end ingredients like Waghyu beef, toro and Mediterranean turbot and this is the format supposed to be repeated in NYC too.
In India, where the market for luxury ingredients is bigger than ever, teppanyaki grills at least in Delhi and Mumbai are following the same format. At Kylin?a mid-market restaurant, firmly pitched at the mall-going crowd?the visiting Japanese chef personally carried 50 kg of high-end meats (Waghyu) and fish (the Black Cod). These were grilled to perfection and offered with a variety of sauces, according to individual preferences, including the fish in a bechamel-based sauce!
The last is one of the reasons for teppanyaki?s success with the Indian palate. Like with sushi, where fusion, contemporarised and indeed ?Americanised? flavours work best with the clientele (look at the huge popularity of Mayo-laden California rolls for instance), flavours can be easily mixed and matched even when it comes to food grilled on a hot teppan. So whether it is teriyaki, simple soya or b?chamel that you prefer to season your steak or fish with, the chef can accommodate easily enough.
Of course the ?fusion-confusion? debate is a never-ending one. And purists may react in horror at any meddling with the pristine cuisine, long held up as the embodiment of everything subtle and refined. But fact is that even in Japan, trends have been changing, and Japanese tastes are changing towards thicker broths and sauces and higher flavoured foods. Plus, fusion restaurants are doing well even in that country.
The Japanese turning to more flavourful foods has been ascribed to poorly performing economy?where food serves as a distraction and entertainment! In India, such a psychological mapping of food preferences may not hold true. What is true, however, is our increasing predisposition to look at food as entertainment as well as a badge to confirm our status as a globalised, sophisticated citizen of the world. It is this desire that may prompt us to sit at a chic teppanyaki table, watch the chef juggle, and then cook us a meal with ?first rate? ingredients?flavoured to our individualistic liking.
The writer is a food critic