My omakase is a reflection
of part of who I am as a person.
My identity as a Korean-American making sushi
was really only in my own head.
There is an initial insecurity, but it's a craft.
Hi, welcome.
This is watarigani, swimmer crab,
from Miyagi Prefecture.
Ganjang gejang is a traditional Korean delicacy.
It's a soy-marinated, preserved, raw crab.
The main blue pigment is in its legs.
So we have the female, which has many spots,
versus the male, which is a little more dull
on the top of its shell.
During the season, male watarigani is three times
sweeter than the female,
so what we're gonna be doing
is we're gonna be using the meat of the male
and, of course, the female has beautiful,
very luscious, fatty roe.
We're gonna do a little marriage between
the husband and wife.
It's eaten on a very special occasion,
at a fine dining restaurant,
and always served as a celebration.
Gejang nigiri is not traditional Japanese sushi at all.
Two of my favorite cuisines
is Korean and Japanese.
I've always wanted to find a way
that it can be connected together.
To me, they are two of the most interesting
and beautiful cuisines.
Chamisul Original, never Fresh, Original.
Based on how strong, or how potent
you make your marinade, will determine how many days
they should be preserved.
I do know what's inside of this,
but I promised my mom I won't tell anyone, so
that's my secret.
Smells a lot like marinated garlic, soy sauce, and citrus.
You're gonna get this hint of sweetness that's quite nice.
Okay.
First thing,
I'm gonna remove the roe.
It has a very similar pigment as uni actually.
Like a Bafun Hokkaido uni.
And the flavor is actually very similar,
but I'd say the roe of the swimmer crab
is a lot more briney.
The way that you eat this,
or the way you remove its meat,
shows you a lot about if you've had this before
or you haven't.
You gotta start from the base of the legs,
you gotta squeeze the center,
and you can see the meat come out,
naturally.
And then you would actually,
take a bite,
and it'd be just a mouth-gasm.
I love all forms of gejang,
but this ganjang gejang I'd say is one of those meals that
I wouldn't mind having for the last meal of my life.
This is the aorika, sword fin squid.
This is from Kumamoto, Japan.
It is something that is hard to find
very fresh in the States.
What I'm doing right now is removing the fin of the squid.
Piece of skin off.
The reason why it's called sword fin squid
is because when you remove its spine,
it's literally shaped like a sword,
like a long, clear sword.
This is what I fight my enemies with.
The aorika is extremely,
one of the top of the food chain squids.
Oh I see a little --
Oh I think this is the nodoguro baby.
It's a baby nodoguro.
The aorika is quite challenging because it's quite thick,
it's quite firm, and it takes a lot of scoring,
or shaving, or slicing to even create one piece of sushi.
I would say, you know, the texture is something
that most people look forward to with this.
After your first bite, there is a bit of creaminess.
This is the shark-skin flounder
from Hokkaido, Japan.
You can hear the sound.
If I didn't tell you it wasn't a flounder,
you'd probably think it was some sort of jackfish.
What makes it so unique is the fact that
this flounder is so fatty.
You can see its liver here.
Oh that's so sad it's broken,
but you can see the fattiness of the liver.
You know, most flounders are extremely lean,
but you can see this is just, pretty much,
almost like ankimo.
Ebi oboro is a sweet shrimp crumble.
It's something that was invented
during the Edo period,
which is around the 1800s.
A time in Japan when things were flourishing.
The economy was booming.
Sushi was invented because the people
were too busy making money or working.
So, they needed people
to create food for them on the go.
At the time, sushi had a lot more intense flavors then.
You had to have things that sort of balance
the intensity or the vinegar flavor of sushi.
This is my father.
Graced us with his presence.
My father first opened up Kura when I was about 14.
You know the actual real, the toughest work,
is actually holding this,
so he actually has the hardest job.
- I'm the inspector.
Is it looking good,
not good, I just check quality.
- The reason why my father got into Japanese food
was because he just thought it was bad ass.
Looking good?
- It's coming along pretty good.
- When he opened, it was all classically trained
Japanese chefs.
It's like mochi.
It's my drive and my hunger for this reconnection
with what I felt when I was 14
working with my father with his chefs here.
It really drove me to go and train in Japan
and take that step of experiencing
and immersing myself in the culture.
To me it's like, because I'm more of a new generation,
it's sort of paying homage to the originating techniques
of Edomae-style sushi.
As you can tell, it's quite dry and coarse.
No big lumpy parts.
I think it's very important to share this
and keep this tradition going.
Ebi oboro pairs really well with a lot of hikarimono.
Ebi oboro is really perfectly matched with kasugodai and
kohada, which is shiny fish.
Japanese sardine.
The main difference
between training in Japan and training in Noma.
Japan was more about preserving the cultural tradition.
Noma, it's not only about preserving
what's in their terroir
but also to be more pushing the boundary
with innovation.
I took over as head chef of my father's restaurant
when I was 28 years old.
Me and my father, as the years have gone,
he's become more of a friend,
and someone that I can even just be buddies with,
but also someone that I've learned so much from.
Not only about sushi or running a restaurant,
but also about being a good man, a good father.
And I was so encouraged to go to Japan
and when I shared to them how insecure I might have been,
about being a Korean making Japanese food
using traditional Japanese techniques,
it was not even an idea to them.
They were so open and so generous with their knowledge.
Husband and wife, ganjang gejang,
male meat with female roe.
Ishigakigai, white cockle clam.
The major key factors that really drove me to this point
and still drives me to this day
is curiosity,
and wanting to be better than my previous generation,
and I'm super competitive.
Aorika, sword fin squid.
I love to study the old-school techniques
and even my father's generation
of what was trendy at the time.
The idea of omakase is to trust the chef.
Kohada with ebi oboro.
I'm me and that's who I show,
and that's what I'll give you.
So I think authenticity is to be yourself,
and that's the most honest thing
and the best thing you can do.