Earlier, we introduced the tuna ledger of Jiro Ono, the god of sushi, and then talked about the past life and present life of "Edo-mae" cuisine, plus a comprehensive inventory of the ingredients of "Edo-mae", I believe that readers who have read it should have a systematic understanding of the Japanese food genre to which OnoJiro belongs, "Edo-mae" cuisine.
These preparations are all for this article, that is, the Japanese craftsmen behind the three masters of "Edo-mae" who have been talking about for a long time.
As I have already introduced in the previous article, the three masters of "Edo-mae" cuisine, namely Jiro Ono, who sells sushi, Jiro Nobuyashi, The eel master Kanemoto Kenjiro of Goshiro Nodawa, and Tetsuya Satoya, who was a sanju fried tempura, this article is about the little-known jianghu past outside of their cooking.
The so-called style is power, and it is no longer appropriate to use it on them. These three are somewhat different from the outside world's imagination, they have very different personalities and styles from each other, but they have invariably adhered to their respective "Edo-mae" fields for a lifetime, and in ordinary times, these people also have a lot of contacts.
Compared with their craftsmanship, I think the details of their lives are the most impressive places, after all, no matter how they are praised as "gods" by the outside world, they still have to live a human life, and as the editor slowly understands, it is really fun to find their things.
"Edo-mae" three masters, Abu / Photography
The food-eating Jiro also has "scared" guests
It took me a long time to decide to summarize Ono jiro in such illogical terms, because he was so personal.
This summary contains two characteristics of Erlang:
One is his life outside of sushi, his biggest hobby is to eat elsewhere, very addictive, and with children; the other is that he has different attitudes towards different guests, some guests he is quite disgusted with, but there is also a kind of guest, even if he is arrogant, Erlang will not be angry, this is what I predicted to write earlier, the story of Erlang and the "Immortal Lord".
Let's start with his appetite.
Jiro Ono, who pinches sushi
Eating Jiro
Instead of spending time at his own sushi restaurant seven days a week, Jiro is on Sunday or Saturday nights on holidays, and some statutory holidays, and he tends to choose to go somewhere else, what to do? He himself says that during these times, he would look around for good food.
He doesn't go to all places, for example, he won't go to a sushi restaurant in Tokyo, because his peers are light, think of Jiro appearing in other sushi restaurants in Ginza, and he is still being watched, if I were the owner of a sushi restaurant, I guess I would also feel disgusted with Jiro.
But out of Tokyo, as long as Jiro heard that which sushi was good, he would definitely taste it, but later became famous, and going to other cities to eat sushi would also be recognized, and as a result, he changed to other types of restaurants.
These restaurants include eels and tempuras of the other two of the three masters of "Edo-mae", and Western food is no exception, such as the Joel Robuchon in Ebisu who has been complained about before.
Joël Robuchon Yebisu Store
Can you imagine Jiro eating French snails like snails in Joel Robuchon's shop? I can't imagine it anyway, but if you meet Jiro in this store one weekend, don't be surprised, because people do go.
However, your tempura shop Mikawa is a mountain house in Otome Tetsuya's tempura shop, and the probability of meeting Jiro is higher, because Erlang has to eat once a month on average, and the reason for this is either that he likes to eat fried food, or Tetsuya is more talkative and fun, a few years ago, Jiro was also fascinated by burnt pottery, as if it had something to do with Tetsuya.
Jiro likes to eat all kinds of food outside so much, and he has his own very serious explanation, that is, as a chef, in order to maintain the sensitivity of the sense of taste, it is also necessary to eat more high-quality food.
We had also complained about a famous shop in Kyoto, Mishimatei, in Michelin before, and we ate it for about a year, and it was a great honor that this shop was also a special presence for Jiro.
One of the things he relishes about eating is the experience of his two sons, when they were little children, taking them to Mishimatei to eat wagyu beef.
Mishimatei storefront, Abu /Photography
That time, Erlang's eldest son, who did not like meat very much, also ate a lot of beef, and told Erlang that he did not expect that meat could be so delicious, as a result, Erlang let the children eat freely, how much they could eat, as a result, the meal three people ate 100,000 yen, that is, more than 6,000 yuan.
The price of 2,000 yuan per capita is very normal to go to Mishimatei to eat now, but Erlang takes his children to eat, which is a matter of decades ago, and this price is really not cheap. But Jiro felt it was worth it, and he explained to take the children outside to eat:
This is the best "taste bud training" for a child for a lifetime.
"Fairy Lord"
I felt that it was necessary to write about Jiro and his "Immortal Lord" because this incident could indeed expose Jiro's true heart as a sushi craftsman.
On the surface, Erlang is a sushi seller, famous only because he has been selling for a long time, but if you understand his attitude towards different guests, maybe you will not think so, because Erlang is very picky about guests, for guests he does not like, even after eating more than you, you must not be surprised.
So what kind of guests does he dislike?
"The kind of person who says, 'Lao Tzu has money, he's not afraid of your expensive,' I really can't stand it." That's what Jiro said to his good friend and 20-year-old diner, Shinzo.
In Erlang's mind, sushi is originally a civilian food, he also does not like to eat sushi especially pay attention to the form of guests, if you pinch a sushi, your best attitude towards it, is to eat it immediately, otherwise Erlang may not be happy.
Don't look at the fact that Jiro once gave Obama a pinch of sushi, but judging by his expression above, he definitely does not think that this is a very great thing, and the guests who can really make him obsessed are often old customers who have eaten in his shop for decades and are very familiar with each other, and the nickname he gave these people is also respectful, that is, " Immortal Lord".
Sushi is eaten by Jiro Ono's regular and foodie Yoshihiro Yamamoto, Abu /screenshot
Jiro once mentioned a fairy lord who had been his regular customer since he opened the shop, and was even several years older than him.
In the previous article introducing the ingredients of "Edo-mae", it is not said that there is a kind of fish called caves, Jiro's shop uses Nojima's caves, usually, he will only cook the caves, not grilled, because it is easy to break, even if the average guest asks, Jiro will refuse to do so, but the fairy lord is an exception.
Even when there was no suitable fresh hole to bake, when the fairy lord said to Jiro, "I don't care, you bake me!" Erlang's only reaction was to take out the overnight cave prepared for the working meal from the refrigerator and bake it for him, cut it into strips, and respectfully said to the immortal lord, This is a good wine.
Why would Jiro do this, he said, so that the guests who have eaten from the opening of the shop to the present are like gods, "really can't disobey the will of God."
Jiro also has a fairy lord who is one round younger than him and has also eaten for decades, and this fairy lord's hobby is bird tail clams.
Bird-tailed clams
Jiro doesn't like guests to criticize his food, but this fairy lord who likes birdtail clams is an exception, compared to the taste of decades ago, after he orders birdtail clams now, he usually complains to Erlang:
"Now the bird's tail clam..."
Erlang naturally understood the spirit, because he also believed that the quality of today's bird tail clams was no longer the same as that of decades ago, and the complaint of this immortal lord was just to say his heart. But to say so that the "sushi god" understands, not everyone can do it, because it takes years to eat it.
Jiro's god-level guests are not only the above two, he also mentioned a knowledgeable regular customer, gave him an answer to why the delicious Akashi snapper, there are two protrusions on the skeleton, and said that his doubts, in the middle of the Edo period, there was a book that had been written and said the title.
It's a god-like exchange.
Erlang shop, there are only 10 bar counters + 13 table seats
As a world-famous store, Erlang's store has 23 seats and can receive at least 1,000 people a month, but people engaged in ordering services in the industry know that every month is really open to the world, but 10 reserved seats.
How can there be only 10? Because many of the seats were reserved by Jiro for his old diners from the beginning.
We agree with This attitude of Erlang, and we do the same.
For our travel customization old guests, as long as there is a need to customize the itinerary again, even if it is busy, we will find a way to solve it. This is by no means advertising, for example, in the eleventh peak season of this year, in order to ensure the quality of the manuscript, we can not accept the itinerary within a month, but as for regular customers, we will do our best.
Tetsuya Hayaot, Abu /Photography
The leisurely tempura master Tetsuya
Jiro finished speaking, and then came to Sayru Otome.
In the impression of ono jiro, who has been in a relationship for more than 20 years, Tetsuya is talkative, has a good brain, can analyze dishes from a scientific point of view, and has also studied ceramics; he also said that Tetsuya is "leisurely wandering", and when the work is over, he will immediately go out to find fun, even if he does not drink alcohol, he will wander around.
But in fact, Tetsuya is still very hard, such as the scientific treatment of cooking. As soon as there is an accident in tempura, he will look back and see where the problem is, and this is his homework, so that he is a full-fledged science man.
So he likes to watch shows related to scientific knowledge and sometimes make cameos.
Once Tetsuya made a cameo appearance on a show on the theme of "What happens when you explode tempura under climatic conditions on the top of Mount Everest?" Outside of this show, Tetsuya actually spent a long time simulating the possible situation of fried tempura under preset conditions, and then found that it was completely different from what he expected, and of course, he also grew his fried tempura technique.
Tetsuya is good at observing words and colors, in fact, he began to deliver newspapers when he was 5 years old, working like an adult, surrounded by adults, and over time he will pay special attention to the eyes of others.
Tetsuya Hayaot fried Tempura for Ono Jiro
As for Tetsuya's "leisurely wandering", Ono Jiro is still a little inaccurate, he is not looking for fun after work, but has been having fun before work.
Tetsuya himself said that he would enter the restaurant until about 5 p.m. every day, and most of the time he would go to Ono Jiro to eat. In this way, he is a regular visitor to Onojiro and does not have to worry about not having a seat. After eating Jiro's sushi, he either went to the teahouse to drink tea or to the exhibition of the artists he knew well, and then returned to his shop.
When he arrived at the store, he was in another state, that is, - recognize! true! work! make!
Tetsuya Hayaot at work
As Jiro Ono said, Tetsuya is not an ordinary tempura master. On the other side of the science man, he also has the temperament of a literary man.
At the beginning of his study at the Tempura shop, Tetsuya's goal for himself was to have a store of his own before the age of 30 and buy a house before the age of 40, and he actually thought that by the age of 50, he would "build a literary salon for all kinds of art creators around him to gather and communicate."
I have to say that our customized guests eat it in The three stores of Jiro, Tetsuya, and kanemoto Kenjiro to be introduced below, and the most general evaluation is Tetsuya's tempura, which feels that the cost performance is not high. This is probably somewhat related to Tetsuya's style, and the eel of Kanemoto is more affordable, which can be seen earlier in our Michelin spit one.
Kenjiro Kanemoto, Abu / Photography
Carrying the "Five Generations" signboard, heavy eel master
Kanemoto Kenjiro, the fifth-generation head of Noda Rock, is not as leisurely as Tetsuya, not only working earlier than him, but also leaving work later than him. Kanemoto usually wakes up at 4 a.m., goes downstairs to the store at 4:30 p.m., and stays busy until 8:30 p.m.
In addition to handling eels, kanemoto will also make a trip to Tsukiji Market (which has now been relocated to Toyosu) at 7 a.m. After returning from Tsukiji, Kanemoto will take a break, followed by a morning meeting at 11 o'clock, followed by a busy lunch.
After lunch, Kanemoto himself went on the scene to take charge of the barbecue, and would be busy until the evening, and then depending on the situation of the grilling table - if the heat could be maintained, he would leave it to the young man to do it, and once he found that the situation was not right, he would immediately take over again, let the assistant see how the teacher fu did it, and then exchange places with each other.
Noda Rock closed at 8 o'clock, and when everyone finished tidying up the store together a little, Kanemoto went upstairs at 8:30 to rest.
Kanemoto said: "If you don't grill such a thing as eel every day, you can't grill the color you want, so how can you expect it to be delicious?" Therefore, when young people can do it, they must try to let them do it, otherwise when they are forty or fifty years old, I am afraid that they will not be able to bake a decent color. ”
"Maybe they can only imitate, but they can't bake the color of authentic roasted eels." However, laymen can't really tell the difference with the naked eye, and only senior chefs with a solid kung fu foundation know how to distinguish between good and bad. ”
Judging from Kanemoto's words, if you want to eat the authentic Kabuya eel in Edo-mae, you still have to go to Noda Rock once. As for the subtle differences in body odor, it is best to eat as many times as possible.
Just looking at the daily working hours of the gold book above, it is inevitable that people will have the impression of workaholism.
Noda Iwaki Ryoko
Kanemoto is indeed quite heavy, and he was taught by his parents since he was a child, "You have the reputation of 'Noda Rock' on your shoulders, don't do anything humiliating." Even if it was drinking, he was reminded by his father: "Drink and run away, don't be in this area!" ”
Even so, it doesn't mean that Jin ben doesn't have any time to play. For example, every year he would ask the old team to play in Asakusa once a year.
What to play in Asakusa? Let's take a look at what a bit of a sorry Kanemoto said.
He said that there are fewer and fewer banquet venues for geisha performances in Asakusa, and the geisha circle will be difficult to revive once it has fallen. He was a man who knew the inside story of geisha circles, because when he was young, he helped deliver out of the store and went to entertainment venues.
As for the experience of going to entertainment venues to have fun, Kanemoto believes that the proportion of how much money is spent depends on the experience gained when he was young, as long as he grasps the principle and does not fall into it. But whether it really did not fall into it, I am afraid that only Kanemoto himself knew.
Kanemoto also visits taverns in his spare time, which he says are also where his father used to go, and it shows how much the family lineage has influenced him.
Eel rice from Noda Rock
Jiro also goes to Kanemoto's eel shop when he has time, and does not hesitate to praise his eels - "It's too delicious to say!" But Kanemoto didn't have a lot to talk to Jiro like Tetsuya, and when Jiro went to his shop, he just said hello and then went into the back kitchen to get busy.
Compared to Jiro and Tetsuya's patronage, Kanemoto didn't even have time to go to Jiro's shop to eat sushi, which he said himself, but he added that this was because his shop closed late every day and didn't have the opportunity to eat sushi, but his children did eat it a few times at noon.
Tetsuya mentions the side that Kanemoto surprised him.
Tetsuya said that when he met Kanemoto, most of kanemoto was with his daughter. Every time he had more opportunities to chat with Kim's daughter, he felt strange that when Kanemoto and his daughter were together, he was reluctant to open his mouth. He occasionally goes to Kanemoto's eel shop.
Tetsuya's impression of Kanemoto was stuck in the "traditional chef who is serious and does not smile", but later, when he sat down with Kanemoto and Jiro to talk, he found that Kanemoto was actually very talkative and his expression was very fluent, which frightened him a lot.
The three great craftsmen of "Edo-mae"
And what makes Tetsuya even more unexpected is that people are not only the five generations of eel teachers, when they don't grill eels, he still has to go to college to take classes to cut?
It was also during the rare conversation with Jiro and Tetsuya that Kanemoto said a very classic sentence, which I think should be the best interpretation of the spirit of the worker, he said:
"Even in our old days, everyone decided from the moment they were employed that job was their vocation. Because it is God who rewards you with food, it is called 'Duty'. We're going to try to fit in with that job and try to internalize it as part of us. ”
As for Ono Jiro's motivation, he has such a sentence, at least it is very impressive to the editor:
"In March of the 26th year of Showa (1951), I came to Tokyo alone from the countryside carrying a suitcase. Saying that it was a suitcase was just a tattered cardboard box in that era. That's all I have. Losing will only throw away a little bit of stuff, so my heart is very strong, and I am not afraid to fight against anyone. "—— Jiro Ono.
Resources:
By Jiro Ono, Kenjiro Kanemoto, Tetsuya Hayotomi, Shoshu Komatsu, translated by Yamei Zhang, "The Technique and Heart of a Giant", Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, August 2016.
Shinzo Satomi, Photography by Yohei Maruyama and translated by Lu Lingzhi, The God of Sushi, Nova Press, March 2016.