This here is the culmination of his work
We saw him in the morning speaking with the fish brokers,
We saw his staff working together in the back,
We saw him prepping his fish for the service beforehand,
We watched him put it all together in front of us.
And now we are going to taste the combined efforts
and passions of everyone involved.
And it's magic.
We've eaten a lot of sushi, we love it.
We pretty much have sushi every single week,
and though we've had a large range of sushi,
from cheap to Michelin star,
We've always wanted to know, what makes good sushi, good.
Recently we had the very rare opportunity to shoot with who many people believe
is the best sushi chef in all of Tokyo.
He's had 3 Michelin stars for many years now
and his restaurant is pretty much booked for the rest of his life.
And not only did he make sushi for us but he also brought us along for the entire ride
Right from the first thing in the morning in Tsukiji Fish Market.
Tsukiji fish market is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the ENTIRE WORLD.
And also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind.
Now we've heard a lot of Tsukiji before and about how
people go to bidding awards for fish and tuna and we prepared to like fight
this crowd to get our shots and to deal with a lot of tours
and tourist, but we didn't realize we were going to a special
part of the market where tourist and cameras are forbidden.
We saw very good examples of this trusting relationship with the wholesalers
In which Saito asked one of them for a specific fish
and though they had it, they didn't have what they felt was up to Saito's quality
and they could very easily have sold it to Saito and made a quick buck
but because they have that trust with each other they knew not to sell Saito something
that wasn't good enough for his restaurant.
Okay, so let's actually talk about his sushi
One example of this is in Asian sushi
and when people describe good sushi restaurants,
they often call it the freshest sushi
and you get this visual of a big tuna flopping
around on the table while the sushi master skillfully slices
out a piece and gives it to you, voilà, it's fresh.
But freshness like this, doesn't necessarily mean greatness.
In Saito's case, when he buys a tuna, it actually ages in the brokers refrigerator
for up to 5 days, then Saito takes it back to his fridge
and he ages it for another 3 to 5 days
but if the tuna is tough he can age it for up to two weeks.
Aging a tuna is actually really important to make it taste great.
This is not a chef.
This is a magician.
The toughest part of the service is the very beginning, when you're watching him
cut all all the fish and your like "I want it now".
But you're not gonna have this until later on in the meal he's cutting it now to get to room temperature
to the right temperature for when you finally do eat it.
Later on.
Martina: It's torture!
Simon: But he's watching it
(Simon and Martina laugh)
First piece of the day.
(Martina gasps)
I'm so excited
I'm so excited to continue the rest of this meal
Now is the perfect season for Yellowtail
(tastes the goodness)
This isn't something you could really
put words toget- hold on (haha)
I'm sweatin' in the hands
I'm too- I'm actually too afraid to use chopsticks because I think it's gonna show
how my hands are shaking
Using my hands is a safer way to do this right now
(Simon gasps)
Here, we've just begun.
I think what's impressing me the most right now is
watching how he prepares and there is a fluidity
this is a choreography, he's not just slapping things together,
he's dancing in front of us right now.
These are flavors that are very difficult for me to explain right now.
Like, you taste some of the vinegar of the fish but you also
taste the rice.
Really when it comes to great sushi the flavor is in the rice
I'm about to try the marinated red tuna which we saw him cutting at the beginning.
and then putting inside a container to soak for a bit.
I'm pretty excited, just gonna go ahead and say that. I'm pretty excited
Martina: It's so soft
Simon: Woahhh
Martina: But it's so soft
It just beautifully falls apart in your mouth
This is so difficult because every piece I have like: "That's my favourite piece "
and the next piece it's like: "No that's my favourite piece"
and then like: "No that's my favourite piece"
"Is this my favourite piece?"
"Everything is my favourite piece"
I love everybody in this room right now.
[laughing]
I love everybody here!
This is not a chef.
This is a magician.
Whenever David Blaine performs a trick and everyone like jumps around and screams
I feel like that after every bite of this.
I feel like I look around like: "Did you just- did you just see this?"
"Did you just see what happened?"
Wha- What is the meaning- of this?
Martina: It's okay
Martina: Shhhh it's okay
MMMMmm~
MMMmm~
NO!
NO~
Nope.
MMMmm~
I don't understand
This kinda feels like if you're in a boxing match
Like, I walked into this video with a set idea of things I wanted to say
But everything you eat is just so disorientenly good
That I'm just mumbling and I'm not making- I had everything written out
Like I need cue cards or something. I need help here I feel like I've been punched in the face
And I have no idea why I'm pointing anymore
And I just keep on getting these delicious pieces in the mouth
That didn't sound right, but-
Woah, I'm so confused in a really good way
What this is,
it's not just about taste.
It's about feeling.
Every piece you taste, you forget
About everything that happened for the rest of the day
You forget about the sh*t you had at your job.
Your forget about how crowded the subway was.
You forget about the traffic jam.
You eat this and the only thing you can think is,
"Holy sh*t this is amazing"
and you- all of your worries melt away.
I like you.
(Saito laughs)
You're a good guy
Saito: (laughs) Yeah~
Simon: Oh yeah~ ( laughs)
We're actually actually filming this part a couple weeks after eating
at Sushi Saito because I think one of the things that makes it such
a great experience is when you remember it
When you're there, you're overwhelmed by it all.
But then a day later you think to yourself " Holy SH*T that was a great meal"
And then a month later you're like damn! That was some really really good sushi!"
And I think the magic of Sushi Saito is the way that it sticks with you and your memory afterwards
There's something magical about watching this man move. He- he really does move like a dancer.
And the concentration and the passion that he puts into every piece it's- it's just unbelievable
When he lays it down in front of you, he stares it down as he slowly backs away from the piece,
While he's making the next person's piece and that's something that I've just never seen before in another chef.