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BILL BILLENSTEIN: Thank you all very much for joining us
in the Big Lebowski today for another guest chef's Google
LAX.
I'm Chef Bill Billenstein.
Today we are very excited to have Chef Yuichi
Natori from CHAYA Venice.
Chef Natori-san started his career many years ago in Japan,
at the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka,
traveled all around the globe learning
many, many different tricks and techniques.
He has been the chef at CHAYA Venice for approximately
the last 23 years.
So today, he's going to make some great favorites of his.
We've got the lobster enchiladas.
We've got the croissant bread pudding.
And a little bit of codfish that--I don't know if you guys
can smell that, but I'm very, very excited about that.
So please welcome Chef Natori-san.
YUICHI NATORI: All right, nice to meet you.
Thank you so much.
Yeah, I've been here 20 years.
So my cooking's getting better, but my English is not so good.
A little bit, so--
SARA BALDONI: But the language of love is food, right?
I'm Sara.
I do marketing for CHAYA restaurant.
So I'm not really, you know, in the kitchen nearly as much
as I'd like to be.
But I can talk about everything else.
So you want to start with the lobster enchiladas?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
We starting the lobster enchiladas.
So this is a lobster tail.
And its cut in like a one-inch square.
And with tomato and cilantro, jalapeno, and onion.
Cut in like so pico de gallo salsa.
But not mix it up.
So onion and tomato.
And the tortilla, so.
SARA BALDONI: Are they corn tortillas, Chef?
YUICHI NATORI: No, this is flour.
SARA BALDONI: Oh.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
This good for flour.
Not corn.
Much better.
SARA BALDONI: Corn's not good?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Because corn kill the flavor of the lobster.
So yeah, flower is much better.
So we're going to start cooking.
OK.
SARA BALDONI: The lobster enchiladas
are a huge favorite at CHAYA Venice.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, it's ten years more in the--
SARA BALDONI: Maine lobster?
It is Maine lobster, correct?
YUICHI NATORI: This one is a Pacific lobster.
But we using a Maine lobster, so.
So oil, put in the pan.
SARA BALDONI: During the summer, we actually did a fun lobster
promotion on Sundays, where it was a half-priced lobster
every Sunday.
That was all fresh Maine lobster, flown in.
YUICHI NATORI: I'm putting the salt and pepper
on the lobster-- just lobster.
SARA BALDONI: Little olive oil, Chef?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Little olive oil in the pan.
And we cook the lobster first, so cook it through.
SARA BALDONI: How do you know when it's done?
YUICHI NATORI: Color change to white.
OK.
SARA BALDONI: Can you guys smell that?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
SARA BALDONI: Delicious.
YUICHI NATORI: So lobster-- yeah, it's cooked through.
So put in the onion and the tomato.
But onion and tomato, put in here so not cook more.
Just a little bit.
SARA BALDONI: Just a little.
Just to incorporate the flavors.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Yeah, it's this way.
Then going to make a sauce.
It's cream, butter, mixed up, soak.
SARA BALDONI: It's cream and butter?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
And salt and pepper, it's already inside, so.
This is a cilantro pesto.
So this already make it so my restaurant.
But it's shallots, garlic, cilantro, Italian parsley,
and olive oil, salt and pepper, and mix a blender.
SARA BALDONI: That's so easy.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, so easy.
SARA BALDONI: Cilantro, olive oil, salt and pepper--
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, it's on the recipe, right?
So just put it in a blender and mix it.
SARA BALDONI: Emulsify.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
And wait now, heat it up.
And the way heat it up, so put in there and mix.
It's a cilantro cream sauce.
SARA BALDONI: That green color just shines through, too.
YUICHI NATORI: And heat it up pan.
SARA BALDONI: Has anyone tried the lobster enchiladas
at CHAYA Venice?
They're definitely one of the favorites.
And what I was saying earlier, so there's
three different CHAYAs in LA and one in San Francisco.
And each one kind of has its own signature items.
This is one of the signature items at Venice, definitely.
I think even if we tried to take it off the menu,
there might be pitchforks outside.
YUICHI NATORI: Everybody upset, no?
SARA BALDONI: Everyone loves it.
So just heat up the tortilla just a little?
YUICHI NATORI: Tortilla, yeah.
No oil, it's fine.
OK.
It's done.
So the lobster, the center of the tortilla.
And rolled up.
Then sauce on top.
SARA BALDONI: You make it look so easy, Chef.
You make it look so simple.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
We put in there.
So tomato-- usually, tomato on the top.
And so micro cilantro.
SARA BALDONI: Little micro cilantro for garnish.
YUICHI NATORI: Garnish on top of [INAUDIBLE].
SARA BALDONI: Beautiful.
That took three minutes.
[APPLAUSE]
SARA BALDONI: So easy.
YUICHI NATORI: Thank you.
And the next, so.
SARA BALDONI: You guys are going to get to taste everything
that we make as well.
So get excited.
YUICHI NATORI: This is the black cod from Alaska.
Yeah.
SARA BALDONI: It's an Alaskan black cod.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
We marinate it in a sake, soy sauce, mirin.
And so--
SARA BALDONI: Just a mixture of sake, soy, and mirin.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
And marinate it in one night.
SARA BALDONI: Just one night?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, one night.
So more than one day, it's a little bit salty, the fish.
SARA BALDONI: What's your favorite kind of sake
to cook with?
YUICHI NATORI: Huh?
The cheapest.
SARA BALDONI: The cheapest one?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, for cooking.
Drinking is a good one.
But using to cook is the cheapest.
Not different flavor.
SARA BALDONI: Good to know.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Good one, sake, you have to drink.
SARA BALDONI: You have to drink that one.
YUICHI NATORI: So is one night, so marinate the black cod.
So it's put in the oven, 400 degrees oven.
Yeah.
About ten minutes.
SARA BALDONI: That's it?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
It'll make the color, it's a little bit--
SARA BALDONI: It browns a little bit?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, it browns a little bit.
It's done, so you--
SARA BALDONI: Oh, so that's how you know.
When the outside kind of browns a little bit.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
SARA BALDONI: So you just put it in the oven.
Do you put it in the oven in the pan-- in the skillet?
YUICHI NATORI: No, no.
Just the oven's fine.
But no oven here, so that's why it's already cooking.
SARA BALDONI: So imagine that part.
That was already pre-done.
YUICHI NATORI: It's a fish.
AUDIENCE: So it's 400?
That's
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, 400 degrees.
SARA BALDONI: It's 400 degrees for about ten minutes.
YUICHI NATORI: About ten minutes to fifteen minutes, yeah.
And this is hijiki.
You know hijiki?
SARA BALDONI: Hijiki seaweed?
YUICHI NATORI: Seaweed.
Yeah, you can get from a Japanese market.
SARA BALDONI: Like a Mitsuwa?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, Mitsuwa on Venice and Centinela.
Or I think that Whole Foods has it.
SARA BALDONI: I think there's-- you know that section of Whole
Foods where there's all the--
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, it's dry.
But it's in the dry.
SARA BALDONI: So it's already prepared like this?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, already prepared.
But it's in the dry.
So dry hijiki, put in warm water is 15 minutes.
SARA BALDONI: And it absorbs all of the water.
And then it's ready to eat.
YUICHI NATORI: So is clean up the water and add them.
So cook it with the carrots and onion.
And the sake, soy sauce, mirin.
Yeah.
The recipe says that, so.
Until to no watery, so that--
SARA BALDONI: So you kind of saute it together?
Yeah?
And evaporate all the water and then it
absorbs all the onion and the carrot?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, and the [INAUDIBLE].
SARA BALDONI: I'm learning with you guys, this is great.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, I put it in here
so if you want to taste it, so you can taste it.
And it's put in there, so mix up brown rice.
And cook the brown rice so it's good.
SARA BALDONI: It's delicious.
The hijiki brown rice is wonderful.
This dish is one of my ultimate favorites.
This is really a CHAYA staple.
So all four CHAYA locations actually offer this.
There's a couple items that will be offered at every location,
like the miso glazed back cod, our chicken Dijon which
is in a mustard Dijon sauce.
Our tuna tartar-- actually, Chef Tachibe, who
was going to be here-- little side note,
we are opening up our next location
in the international terminal, actually, at LAX.
They've done a huge project over there and it's beautiful.
So we're opening up a little CHAYA sushi over there.
It's a sushi concept.
And so they're doing some opening stuff.
It's going to be opening in the next couple weeks
here, which is very exciting.
But Chef Tachibe, who is our corporate executive chef
for all of the CHAYA restaurants,
his knife and chef coat are actually
in the Smithsonian Museum in New York
City for inventing tuna tartar.
Little known fact, but a very, very big one.
So it's something we're very excited about.
Then I make a fried rice.
Hijiki brown rice fried rice.
I saw at Trader Joe's.
It's the same thing.
SARA BALDONI: They have the same one at Trader Joe's.
So you guys can skip all of these steps.
YUICHI NATORI: If you want to--
SARA BALDONI: It won't taste nearly as good.
They do.
I have seen that, actually, at Trader Joe's.
YUICHI NATORI: Maybe I think they stole it, so.
SARA BALDONI: They stole it from CHAYA.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, ingredients, I saw, the same.
SARA BALDONI: It's pretty much the same.
Skip a step.
Don't even have to go to Mitsuwa.
Yeah.
Do you guys have any questions so far?
AUDIENCE: Is black cod easy to find?
SARA BALDONI: Is black cod easy to find?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, a little bit harder.
But maybe you can go to Santa Monica fish.
They have it, yeah.
SARA BALDONI: It's one of my favorite fishes.
It just absorbs all of the flavor of the marinade.
And it's just so flaky and delicious.
I hope you guys enjoy it.
YUICHI NATORI: And this is eel sauce.
SARA BALDONI: Eel sauce?
So it's unagi sauce, that comes on a lot of the sushis.
A little sweet?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, you can get it from-- yeah, sweet.
Also, you can get at Japanese market, yeah.
It's already fried, so--
SARA BALDONI: That's it?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, it's fried.
SARA BALDONI: Slightly fried.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Fried rice.
Then the fish.
And the sauteed shiitake mushroom.
Put it in the garnish.
And the asparagus, steamed.
SARA BALDONI: So was there any sauteing or anything
to be done to the fish, or is it all baked previously?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, baked.
So now put in the sauce and then just a little bit chives.
And then--
SARA BALDONI: Oh, chives.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, micro [INAUDIBLE], that's all.
This is a black--
SARA BALDONI: It's so pretty.
YUICHI NATORI: Thank you.
SARA BALDONI: So Chef Natori-san, you
have been at CHAYA Venice for 23 years now?
YUICHI NATORI: 20.
20 years.
SARA BALDONI: 20 years.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
SARA BALDONI: Very nice.
CHAYA Venice opened 23 years ago.
The original CHAYA actually opened in Beverly Hills.
I don't know if-- have you guys been to that one,
right off Robertson?
Yeah?
That one just celebrated 30 years in Los Angeles.
So we had a huge party.
We had a huge festival, nonetheless.
It was really exciting.
You went.
You brought your family.
YUICHI NATORI: Because I already make it there.
No over here, so that's why.
This is very easy.
So just recipe.
Just cut with the finger in the croissant
and then make a-- mix in cream.
SARA BALDONI: That's it?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, that's it.
Doing this one.
So becoming this.
SARA BALDONI: So you just kind of break up--
tear up the croissant, you add your chocolate,
your pudding cream-- now, is pudding cream--
what makes pudding cream different from--
YUICHI NATORI: So make a pudding cream.
Yeah, pudding cream.
SARA BALDONI: So pudding cream is just the egg yolk,
the granulated sugar, and the manufactured cream all mixed
together.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
And so put in the pan with--
SARA BALDONI: With the vanilla?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, croissant and pudding cream.
SARA BALDONI: And then you just bake it?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Just put in the oven.
Bake in this minutes.
SARA BALDONI: 35 minutes at 340 degrees.
YUICHI NATORI: 35 minutes at 340 degrees.
SARA BALDONI: Now, there's actually a face.
There's something that we like to call the CHAYA chocolate
croissant bread pudding face, because-- have any of you
had it, the bread pudding at CHAYA?
Yeah?
Is it good?
Right?
I'm thinking about starting a hashtag for it,
because every time I've introduced
any of my friends or family members to this bread pudding,
they all make the same face.
It's something similar to, oh my God, which is a good thing.
It really has become a staple over the past 30 years, nearly.
And it's a lot of fun.
And apparently, it's super simple to make.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Don't forget--
SARA BALDONI: So I'm a little bit worried.
YUICHI NATORI: --chocolate is--
SARA BALDONI: The chocolate is essential.
YUICHI NATORI: --last one.
SARA BALDONI: It's the secret ingredient?
And that goes last?
YUICHI NATORI: No, not put it in yet.
So before oven, so chocolate.
SARA BALDONI: OK, before.
And then it all bakes together?
YUICHI NATORI: After bake together, then
chocolate put on the top and the--
SARA BALDONI: On top?
YUICHI NATORI: So melting like this.
SARA BALDONI: Oh, so you add it right
when you take it out of the oven, when it's warm.
We have a question?
AUDIENCE: How do you create [INAUDIBLE]?
SARA BALDONI: Yeah, is manufactured cream
the same as kind of a heavy cream,
or a heavy whipping cream?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, heavy cream.
SARA BALDONI: Exactly.
Good question.
So then?
YUICHI NATORI: You can put in some ice cream on top.
YUICHI NATORI: And it melts down.
You know.
I'm going to start using that dulce de leche ice
cream on top of that.
SARA BALDONI: Dulce de leche?
YUICHI NATORI: Mm.
SARA BALDONI: Really good.
So you kind of just put it in a ramekin or a little skillet,
depending on what you want to do.
YUICHI NATORI: Anything, yeah.
SARA BALDONI: It's so simple.
I don't think I could do it, though.
YUICHI NATORI: Well, come our restaurant.
SARA BALDONI: Top it with a little powdered sugar.
And that's it.
YUICHI NATORI: That's it.
SARA BALDONI: And that's everything.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
SARA BALDONI: Wow.
[APPLAUSE]
That's so fun.
Does anyone have any questions?
Ooh, another question.
AUDIENCE: If we don't have a convection oven,
does that change the time that it takes to bake?
SARA BALDONI: Like a convection versus a regular oven?
YUICHI NATORI: Regular oven is fine, yeah.
SARA BALDONI: Will it affect the time?
Do you have to do it a little longer without a convection?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, just check it up,
you know, after 30 minutes.
Check it up so it's down or not down.
In the enchiladas, [INAUDIBLE] Parmesan cheese?
SARA BALDONI: Well, there was no Parmesan cheese
in the enchilada, no.
The only cheese was in the cream sauce.
YUICHI NATORI: Oh, sorry.
Put in the-- so, yeah, cream.
I forget, so, yeah.
Put Parmesan cheese in there.
SARA BALDONI: In the sauce.
YUICHI NATORI: In the sauce.
AUDIENCE: If we can't find black cod, is there another fish
that--
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, using cod.
Cod.
SARA BALDONI: So cod will have the same texture and--
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
Put in and marinate it.
So it tastes like same, so.
Or try salmon.
Yeah, salmon is also so tastes good.
SARA BALDONI: With the same marinade?
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, same marinade.
SARA BALDONI: Good replacement.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah.
In Japan, so salmon use in there.
So just marinate it, yeah.
SARA BALDONI: Cool.
YUICHI NATORI: Now, so--
SARA BALDONI: Yeah, so now we'll go get you guys
some food, the moment you've all been waiting for.
Tachibe is the original corporate chef as well,
so he's been with us for 30 years, since brasserie opened.
Yeah.
It's a big family.
Enchiladas.
AUDIENCE: So I guess you guys aren't open for lunch?
SARA BALDONI: We are open for lunch, actually.
CHAYA Venice is definitely open for lunch.
We've got some help back there.
So we figured we could stop by for a couple minutes.
Yeah, you think the kitchen will be OK without you, Natori-san?
YUICHI NATORI: I think so.
SARA BALDONI: Fingers crossed.
YUICHI NATORI: Yeah, it's OK.
So just opened up an hour or so.
SARA BALDONI: It just opened up, yeah-- oh yeah, at 11:30.
YUICHI NATORI: Sauce pan.
SARA BALDONI: Oh, yeah.
One thing that's really exciting that we're doing,
actually, at Brasserie, is in celebration
of our 30th anniversary, I said we had a big party.
We had a huge festival.
We had fire dancers.
We had taiko drummers.
We had two live bands.
It was ridiculous.
All you can eat, all you can drink.
It was a lot of fun.
But we're also bringing over our original CHAYA.
Now, CHAYA is a family owned, operated, run business.
And it goes back nearly 400 years.
It started in Japan, the first one.
Hikage-chaya is still in operation.
And our chef from that location is actually
going to be joining us.
We're flying him out for a special chef collaboration
dinner, which is really, really cool.
He's a Michelin star chef for the Hikage-chaya in Japan.
And he's coming over for two nights only,
on October 18th and 19th, which is really cool.
It's a kaiseki style.
I don't know if--is anyone familiar with kaiseki style?
It's very traditional kind of Japanese small plates--
really, really kind of hyper seasonal.
It was really difficult, because we
kept trying to get a menu for what we were going to serve.
And he was like, you know, it's two months away
and we don't know what's seasonal.
Everything is so local, so seasonal over in Japan.
We talk about farm to table here,
but it's a whole different spectrum over there.
So it's like a multi-course, very kind of small plates,
everything-- there's so much care that goes into it.
So it's a lot of fun.
Look at this.
Oh my god.
So yeah, we're going to be having
a chef collaboration with Chef Tachibe
and Chef Kazuka-san from Japan October 18 and 19,
which is incredible.
It's very limited.
So I believe it's going to be seven courses.
Wine and sake pairings are also available.
Only 20 seatings per timeframe.
So it's only about 160 people total throughout the two
nights.
It's going to be an incredible evening.
There is enough food for everyone.
Wow.