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let's see, what's the egg now, right? Scrambled

1:10

egg, okay. I

1:15

think I got some shells in there. I'm

1:17

at Benihana's flagship restaurant in Manhattan living

1:19

a dream of mine, to be a

1:21

hibachi chef. And my teacher

1:24

is the executive chef of Benihana, Tony

1:26

Namoto. Tony's been cooking hibachi

1:28

for 40 years. Move

1:30

quickly so the egg doesn't burn. Got

1:32

it. You wanna keep the yellow egg

1:35

color. Right, all right. Let's make some noise here too.

1:39

I didn't get to try any tricks that day,

1:41

but of course the tricks are a big part

1:43

of hibachi. Bouncing the raw egg on the

1:45

spatula, flipping shrimp tails into your chef's

1:47

hat and the onion volcano. That's when

1:49

the chef builds a tower of onion

1:51

slices, fills them with oil and lights

1:53

the whole thing on fire. In

1:56

lieu of real tricks, I did my best

1:58

to imitate the more percussive Ellen. The upper

2:00

back in American soil. Is

2:05

a sad anything? second? Half

2:10

see, but then I got an overzealous us are

2:13

just red onions everywhere. Else

2:15

has to show our

2:17

eyes. When

2:20

I learned as a worthless F, Tony is

2:22

that when you go to a hibachi restaurant

2:24

was the chef cook. There is so much

2:26

more going on than I ever realized. There's

2:29

a system for everything and exact sickness to

2:31

say the ticket and exact number of sakes

2:33

of the salt shaker and you have to

2:35

get all that right without cutting itself. Which.

2:38

I fail to do. I finished my cooking

2:40

with one finger wrapped in a paper towel

2:43

Doors It was only a flesh wound. Sir

2:46

Sony give me some feedback was as you well

2:48

what I improve on. Ah,

2:51

you did pretty good job was

2:53

you need everything to improve. Are

2:58

causing the second and as you

3:00

can see your favourite of lot

3:02

of wife rosemary and makes the

3:04

soy sauce and very well, yeah,

3:06

but. Didn't

3:08

sound effects very well for be

3:10

so when it alone thus on

3:12

their cell knew that know I

3:14

keep teaching you. How to cook. This

3:30

is this for fall as not for

3:32

food is is for heaters and their

3:34

past months each week and are so

3:36

we obsess about boom and more about

3:39

people this week on the So a

3:41

window into the world of hibachi would

3:43

hear about Rocky A savvy so many

3:45

from Japan who created the Boxy yeah

3:47

you could always take a little bit

3:49

of truth and spin it into something

3:52

more fantastic and will hear why. Rothys

3:54

legacy the so complicated for the history

3:56

of ignorance, veterans and analysis exotic sizing

3:58

one's own background. Well,

4:11

as a matter of fact, I came

4:13

here in 1959 with a Japanese wrestling

4:15

team and I went to school here

4:18

in New York City. This

4:21

is Rocky Aoki. Just five

4:23

years after he came to the US, he

4:25

opened a unique Japanese restaurant in New York

4:27

City called Benihara. It

4:29

was 1964 and Habachi was born.

4:32

We cooked everything right on the table, right

4:35

in front of the customers. I

4:37

think today's restaurant, we

4:40

have to have a showmanship. The

4:45

fact that a Japanese restaurant could take off

4:47

the way Benihana did is pretty remarkable when

4:49

you consider the history. Rocky opened

4:52

his first location just 20 years after World

4:54

War Two when America was at war with

4:56

Japan. The US government had put

4:58

140,000 Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Prior

5:03

to the war and during the

5:06

war, the Japanese were subject of

5:08

the most horrendous kind of racist

5:10

caricaturing, racist depictions because

5:12

that's part of the war effort. This

5:15

is Professor Robert Ku. He teaches

5:17

Asian and Asian American studies at

5:19

Binghamton University. After

5:21

World War Two, the Cold War began and

5:24

the American government decided that maybe the

5:26

Japanese could help us. The

5:28

image of the Japanese changed drastically,

5:32

almost overnight, as the

5:34

good Asians are supposed to now the

5:36

bad Asians who are the communists, mainly

5:38

in China, North Korea and so forth.

5:41

The image of the Japanese by the 1960s,

5:44

I would say, was somewhat positive.

5:47

Japan becomes almost a playground for

5:49

Americans with some means to go and

5:51

visit. The whole exotic

5:53

Japan, the Geisha and the

5:55

samurai takes on a different

5:58

level. When Rocky

6:00

Aoki opens up Benihana, there's

6:03

all this fascination about Japan. Rocky

6:06

passed away in 2008, so

6:08

we can't get the story of Benihana's creation from

6:10

him. But he told it to

6:12

just about anyone who would listen, including Chef Tony, who

6:15

you heard training me earlier. Rocky personally

6:17

recruited Tony back in the 70s. Soon

6:20

as I joined, he said, do

6:22

you know how I start this restaurant?

6:24

I said, I

6:27

heard a little bit about it. You

6:29

save some money selling

6:31

ice cream. He said, that's right. The

6:35

ice cream truck is one of my favorite parts of Rocky

6:37

Aoki's legacy and myth. Right?

6:39

I talk about self-mythologizing. This

6:42

is Logan Hill. He's a journalist who spent a lot of

6:44

time with Rocky back in 2007, while

6:46

profiling Rocky for New York Magazine. He

6:49

did get a sizable amount of money from his dad, but

6:51

the myth that you hear is this

6:53

guy came here with nothing, pure immigrant success

6:55

story, and he's like, I'm a wrestler. He

6:57

laminates the newspaper story of himself with a

6:59

picture of him and a crouched wrestling pose,

7:01

slaps it up on the side of the

7:04

Mr. Saucy truck, the ice cream truck, and

7:06

then starts playing Japanese music out of the

7:08

live speakers, putting little paper umbrellas and the

7:10

Mr. Saucy ice cream. Now he's got the

7:12

gimmick and he's got a sign on the

7:14

side of the truck that says, don't mess

7:16

with me, man, I'm a wrestler. The

7:19

myth behind that is that he used that money.

7:24

That was the only seed money to create

7:26

Benihana, which is totally not true, but it's a

7:28

great story. He did have the ice cream truck.

7:31

He could always take a little bit of truth

7:33

and spin it into something more fantastic. That

7:36

skill that Rocky had to take a little bit

7:38

of truth and spin it into something more fantastic

7:41

was at the core of Benihana's creation. Years

7:44

later in a Harvard Business School

7:46

case study of Benihana, Rocky said,

7:48

what I discovered is that Americans

7:51

enjoy eating and exotic surroundings, but

7:53

are deeply mistrustful of exotic foods.

7:56

So Rocky built out the restaurant with

7:58

Japanese wood and other decorations from. The. For

8:01

the food he turned to a style of cooking

8:03

known as Taplin Yaki For you cook meat and

8:05

a flat top griddle. Tapping yeah,

8:07

She was created in Japan after World War

8:09

Two, when the U was occupying the country.

8:12

It. Started in a restaurant that cater

8:14

to American soldiers. So in

8:16

Japan, it's perceived as western. But.

8:18

In America perceive as Japanese.

8:21

Give. Us the whole thing right and my grill you.

8:23

The. Three meets that I found that

8:25

everybody is most comfortable if you know,

8:28

Beef, chicken, shrimp, And.

8:30

A narrow your spice anything terribly heavily is

8:32

going to taste the whole lot like what

8:34

you get another restaurants but it's going to

8:36

seal thrilling arm. But I think that in

8:39

that bar when he made this guy savvy

8:41

calculations which was i don't want be threatening.

8:45

Within six months of opening, Benihana was

8:48

turning a profit. Within eight years, Rocky

8:50

had locations across the country and he

8:52

was determined a celebrity himself. He always

8:54

understood the power of a good them

8:57

it. He got into hot air balloons

8:59

and speed boat race but every was

9:01

driving always had the Benihana logo splashed

9:03

all over it. He said a record

9:06

for the longest hot air balloon rides

9:08

got knocked unconscious journal Landis. The records

9:10

stood for thirty four years later in

9:12

his life he commissioned a manga, a

9:14

Japanese style comic. Book to tell his own

9:17

story. Or

9:19

him telling me once I get of most

9:21

Japanese businessmen very straight list. they were all

9:24

black suits their very simple I'm a colorful

9:26

guy man I'm a com ela salary I

9:28

like to be able to be colorful in

9:30

every way out to be different and in

9:32

the some and is Margot biography he talks

9:34

about the decision to Juri for it was

9:37

hair a another the whole scene in the

9:39

modern are illustrated with photos of him was

9:41

very origin story yeah his hair became very

9:43

curled and it's literally because he's getting confused.

9:45

With other reasons and it's branding.

9:48

So. It's ah, oh who am I. I'm

9:50

a Japanese guy with Derek of right like You're not going

9:52

to forget me when I'm on late night talk shows. And

9:55

he was on late night talk shows, but

9:57

he saw himself as a businessman first. For

10:00

most. Logan. Says it was a

10:02

line rocky used over and over. Money.

10:04

Isn't everything. Just. Ninety Nine

10:06

Percent. And he did make

10:08

smart decisions. He recognized that because he was

10:11

cooking the food at table the kissing a

10:13

his restaurant's to be smaller was went. more

10:15

seats for customers, more potential profit. Plus the

10:17

meals are quick, easy and an hour forty

10:20

five minutes and it you're paying twenty five

10:22

or thirty bucks an entree. Not.

10:24

Many restaurants can get you to spend so

10:26

much and so little time. He

10:28

liked to joke about all the smart decisions is

10:31

made along the way and one was knowing like

10:33

get sick and is really inexpensive may serve a

10:35

whole lot of just basically grilled chicken not so

10:37

different from like a fajita writes some with a

10:40

server like a lot of money because they can

10:42

add the civil rights of the the whole thing

10:44

grave sites the state of Madison which is the

10:46

civil is what he was selling. Benihana.

10:49

Became a party place. special occasion restaurants

10:52

in a place you go for an

10:54

experience. By. The mid eighties Benihana

10:56

was a household name in America

10:58

and Smell and is responsible for

11:00

the most successful Over the Falls

11:03

in a matter of open world.

11:05

Wanted weren't Oriental to talk to

11:07

him Now how com for you

11:09

without any on a frozen oriental

11:11

restaurant? Classics Oriental Best Rocky in

11:13

a Nineteen Eighty Five Tv commercial

11:15

for Benihana line of microwave meals.

11:18

Rocky. Died of cancer in two thousand eight.

11:20

Within. His family he left behind a

11:22

total mess. He was married three times

11:25

and was not a faithful husband. Has

11:27

six kids including the Dj Steve Aoki.

11:29

Towards the end Iraq is like a

11:31

huge fight broke out over his money.

11:33

Rocky ended up suing some of his

11:36

kids. After. Years of litigation,

11:38

it was settled. Despite.

11:40

Those issues? Benihana today is going

11:42

strong. Their seventy locations across North

11:44

to South America, and hibachi in

11:46

general is everywhere now. Their mom

11:48

and pop hibachi restaurants all over

11:51

the Us and the chefs are

11:53

no longer exclusively Japanese or even

11:55

Asian American. coming

11:57

up for me the mexican american hibachi sept

12:00

I think Rocky would have liked. I

12:03

sometimes have a spatula on my fork on fire

12:05

when I'm doing the whole spatula work. And

12:07

at the same time, I'll light my chef coat on

12:09

fire as an extra show. Wait,

12:12

wait. You light your coat on fire

12:14

while you're wearing it? Yeah. Clearly, this

12:16

guy loves his job. But later on,

12:19

I'll talk with a former hibachi chef

12:21

who feels very differently about the work.

12:23

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16:14

back to The Forkful, I'm Dan Paschman. I

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hope by now you know that we just

16:18

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16:20

and Ham. Sola and Ham are chefs, YouTube

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stars and a married couple. You've heard the

16:24

mirror on The Forkful before. In Deep Dish,

16:26

Sola and Ham do deep dives into the

16:28

surprising stories behind foods. Then they head home

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to see what those stories inspired them to

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cook up. Sometimes in the heat

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of telling these stories, they get a little sidetracked.

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Our biggest pushback when we had a restaurant

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And lettuce. Oh my gosh. So much

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money on lettuce. We've got two episodes

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of Deep Dish up right now. One is about

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the history of Korea as told through a rice

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in Mississippi getting called to the scene of a

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car wreck and finding two dead bodies and a

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trunk full of tamales. Both episodes are

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up now right here in The Forkful feed. Check them

17:14

out. I think you're gonna love them. Thanks.

17:18

Okay, back to the show. This

17:26

is the sound of chef Ricky Bobby in

17:28

action. Ricky's been cooking hibachi for 20 years.

17:31

He worked at Benihana early in his career, but most

17:33

of his time has been spent at the kind of

17:36

local hibachi places you now see all over the country.

17:38

This right here is kind of like my

17:41

little signature triple volcano, which is one volcano

17:43

on top of another. Ricky's

17:45

one of the best. He travels across

17:47

the south and Midwest working six months or

17:49

a year at a time at different hibachi

17:51

restaurants and training the chefs there in the

17:53

process. Ricky Promises owners that if

17:56

they hire him, they'll increase their process by

17:58

20%. The

18:00

popular figure in the Facebook groups

18:02

were Hibachi Chef share tips and post

18:04

videos are the latest tricks the Alabama

18:07

Juices. Busy

18:12

lives in Huntsville, Alabama now. I spoke with

18:14

him as he finished up the lunch rush

18:16

at a local hibachi restaurant. First off, I

18:19

wanted to understand his strategy with the table.

18:22

What? I'll come up with a grip ramp and

18:24

away I do my style. I oh Morty Common

18:27

and up to the grill. Like I've

18:29

known you for the past twenty years and

18:31

so I go up to me I said

18:33

okay I'm doing my name is Ricky Bobby

18:35

Knob You sifted through surfaces day you know

18:37

how we doing today and if anybody celebrating

18:39

birthdays and he divorces you know in Attica

18:41

anybody passed away hits the know just trying

18:44

to break the break the table with a

18:46

little humor. Jokes. Are a

18:48

big part of Ricky performance. Then there's the

18:50

tricks with Ricky practices and days off to

18:52

stay sharp. He says every chef begins the

18:55

night with a few warmups. Some special or

18:57

twirls are nice moves. Ricky.

18:59

Grew up in South Texas is early twenties.

19:01

He was a prep cook on a cruise

19:03

ship. A senior staff there like to

19:05

sense of humor offered him the chance to

19:07

train to be a Hibachi Cs, but it

19:10

took Ricky eight months of official training plus

19:12

another year on the job before he started

19:14

getting good. So. You

19:16

are getting more and more into a box you're

19:18

getting better at is. What?

19:20

Did you like about it? Does.

19:23

Stage. I got addicted to the

19:25

Stage. And. Is because I on top

19:27

of on top of cooking your also putting on a

19:29

show. Yeah and you have to talk,

19:31

yet to be smiling, yeah to be presented and

19:33

people who want to get to know me you

19:36

know when get to know me Where what? Please

19:38

have a tribal were in as France. How the

19:40

hell did you get into Japan? Japanese style cooking

19:42

your in Spanish? You're Latino. I started to use

19:44

that you know as my stage. A

19:47

decade into his hibachi career, Ricky

19:49

was making his live traveling around

19:51

restaurant, restaurant sort of hibachi consultants.

19:53

He's worked in restaurants all over

19:55

the south. Memphis. Lose

19:58

your content in Florida. Louisiana,

20:01

all over Texas. And where

20:03

do most hibachi chefs, especially the ones who

20:05

are traveling around, where do they live? Usually,

20:09

you can work out a deal. You can work

20:11

out a deal with some of the owners. Some

20:13

of the owners will provide housing. So you have

20:15

a house with like three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and

20:17

you have like 10 people living in that house.

20:20

And who are those people living in that apartment? Are they all

20:22

hibachi chefs? Hibachi chefs, cooks,

20:24

back in the house cooks, servers,

20:27

managers, they're all there. These

20:31

days, Ricky's retired from the traveling hibachi

20:33

circuit. But he still keeps his skills

20:35

sharp, working at local places around Huntsville

20:37

on the weekends. He loves

20:39

coming up with new tricks. He says hibachi chefs

20:41

are always competing with each other, trying to one-up

20:43

each other. Customers expect more

20:45

and more daring maneuvers. That's why

20:47

Ricky prefers to work at the mom and pops. Benihana

20:50

has to be a little more cautious with

20:52

tricks because they're a big corporation, a target

20:54

for lawsuits. Tony Nimoto, the Benihana

20:56

chef who trained me at the start of this show,

20:59

he's still bummed that the chain made him stop

21:01

juggling knives. But the local

21:03

joints around the country, they're a different story. And

21:06

Ricky, he likes to push the envelope. He

21:08

says whenever he feels like he's losing his table's

21:10

attention, he has a simple solution, light

21:13

something on fire. I

21:15

do a lot of tricks on my hat as

21:17

well. The flaming bowls, the flaming bowls in my

21:19

hat. What's the flaming

21:21

bowl? The flaming bowl, the bowl

21:23

is basically a little bowl. I'm pretty sure you've seen

21:25

some chefs use a bowl to mix up the eggs.

21:27

Yeah, like a little metal bowl. The

21:30

little metal bowl. And the little bowl, what you

21:32

do better, you can do two things. You can

21:34

put a little piece of oil

21:36

lamp wick inside of it to light up.

21:40

Or if you're brave enough, you can

21:42

put a little bit of drops of Everclear inside of it

21:44

and you light it up. So you start

21:46

kind of like flipping around your spatula and then from there,

21:48

throw it up on top of your hat. So the hat

21:50

goes up in flames and lands on top of your hat

21:53

while the flame is still burning up there. Wait,

21:55

so you light the fire

21:57

in the bowl with the bowl right side up? Yeah,

21:59

correct. And then you flip it up and have

22:01

it land on your head like upside

22:04

down so the fire is extinguished on your

22:06

head? No, it doesn't get extinguished. It stays

22:08

down lit. So

22:10

you flip it so the bowl lands on

22:12

your head right side up and the flame

22:14

is still coming out of the bowl on

22:16

top of your hat. Correct. And nowadays, a lot

22:18

of my friends where they're doing it is like they're

22:20

getting their spatulas on fire. I

22:22

sometimes, I have my spatula on my fork on

22:25

fire when I'm doing the whole spatula work. And

22:27

at the same time, I'll light my chef coat

22:29

on fire like a cross, you know,

22:31

as an extra show. Wait, wait. You

22:33

light your coat on fire while you're wearing

22:36

it? Yeah. Sometimes I light it like I

22:38

was some sort of like, I don't know,

22:40

like some sort of X-Men. Like

22:42

a big X across my chest and I'll sit on

22:44

fire for a little bit and then it just comes

22:46

off. Ricky, that sounds very dangerous.

22:49

It is dangerous, but it's fun. But what you

22:51

gotta do nowadays, you gotta push yourself out to

22:53

the limit. So you're not just a

22:55

would-be stand-up comedian. You're also a bit of a daredevil.

22:58

Very. Yeah, daredevil. I mean, who doesn't want to

23:00

play with fire and throw food at people and

23:02

play with knives? Who doesn't want to do that?

23:14

Ricky clearly loves every part of hibachi.

23:17

But not all the chefs feel that way. I'm

23:19

a redneck from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This

23:23

is Perry Saito. He basically grew up

23:25

in the hibachi restaurants around Myrtle Beach.

23:27

His dad came from Japan in the

23:29

70s to work as a hibachi chef

23:31

and met his mom, a white American,

23:33

at the restaurant. That's where

23:35

they worked for years. When Perry was 19,

23:38

his first son was born. And Perry

23:40

needed a good-paying job fast. So

23:42

he turned to hibachi. He

23:44

thought it would be a stepping stone to his dream of

23:46

being a professional chef, but he struggled

23:49

with the performance part of the job. They'd

23:51

be like, oh, where are you from? You don't have an

23:53

accent. I'd be like, oh, my mom's

23:56

American. My dad's Japanese. That's why I look like

23:58

this. I would

24:00

always get a really big laugh. And I remember the

24:02

first time I said that a table was kind of

24:04

like, it was kind of just

24:06

on the spot. I was like, yeah, I'm Japanese, that's why I

24:08

look like this. And everybody laughed really

24:10

hard. And I was like, damn, why did everybody laugh so

24:12

hard at that, you know what I mean? Like,

24:15

it wasn't that funny, you know, but. And

24:18

what was the makeup of the table that

24:20

laughed so hard? I was all

24:22

white, man, all white. And

24:26

why do you think they laughed so hard at that line? I

24:29

think because, I don't

24:31

know, you know, I guess they

24:35

saw an Asian dude making fun of himself.

24:38

I'm definitely not a politically correct person

24:40

by any means, but it definitely made

24:43

me think a little bit like, hmm, you know, what are these people

24:45

thinking about me while I'm doing this, you know what I mean? Perry

24:51

kept asking himself that question. She looked around

24:53

the dining room and he saw more chefs

24:55

choking like he had. The

24:57

other chefs were a mix of Asian and

24:59

Latino immigrants who often made cracks about the

25:02

food being cat or dog. They'd meow as

25:04

they sliced up the chicken. One

25:06

chef in particular liked to use a fake Asian

25:08

accent in front of the customers. One

25:11

guy loved to sing, that was his whole gimmick. And

25:13

he would sing like, you know, Lady Gaga songs and

25:15

he would sing it. He didn't even have an accent,

25:17

but he would sing it in this, you know, this

25:19

terrible accent. And anytime you got behind

25:22

that guy, you know, because the tables sit back to

25:24

back to each other, you know, anytime you got behind

25:26

that guy, man, it was torture. It would

25:28

get to the point where I would almost give

25:30

into it. And I probably did more times I'd

25:32

like to admit, you know, and just, you know,

25:34

okay, I'll play this little guy and then just

25:37

be goofy. So

25:41

Perry was trying to go with the flow. At

25:44

times, even he pretended to have an Asian

25:46

accent when he talked with customers. And

25:48

he says there was pressure from bosses to play

25:50

up these kinds of stereotypes. One

25:53

restaurant owner, a Japanese woman, approached him

25:55

after a shift. I

25:57

walked to the back and I get to the back and she's

25:59

like, you. You

26:02

don't look like you're Japanese. And I'm like, what

26:04

does that mean? What do

26:06

you mean I don't look like I'm Japanese? She

26:08

goes, you don't care yourself like a Japanese man.

26:11

And so this is a Japanese woman. She says,

26:13

you need to be more Japanese and show

26:16

your culture better and have more

26:18

pride in your culture. And I'm like thinking to myself,

26:20

like, you want me to have more pride by acting

26:23

like I'm something that I'm not? I

26:25

don't even know what that means. You want me to act like you? Is

26:27

that what you want me to do? You want me to talk like you?

26:29

I don't know. So that was

26:32

always hard for me. It was

26:34

also hard because there were strong economic incentives

26:36

for Perry to play that part. The

26:39

chefs who hammed up their accents and

26:41

cracked Asian jokes made bigger tips. Perry

26:44

wasn't into that. And customers

26:46

noticed. More and more, when

26:48

people came back in, Perry started

26:50

hearing this. What's the kind

26:52

of big guy, you know, tall guy's name, he's

26:55

got a shaved head and,

26:57

you know, he's real quiet. He doesn't do a whole

26:59

lot. And they're like, oh yeah, Perry. Yeah, can we

27:02

request to not have Perry? I

27:06

think a lot of it comes from that

27:09

expectation set by the customer that comes in.

27:11

He's looking for that, you know, fresh off

27:13

the boat, Asian man with an accent who's

27:15

got funny little quips and makes onion volcanoes

27:17

and, you know, whatever. Well,

27:20

I think, I

27:24

think you make a really good point, Perry, about

27:27

the expectations of customers. It's easy to point

27:29

fingers at the chefs or to point fingers

27:31

at the restaurants for encouraging the chefs. Right.

27:33

But if customers are walking in and expecting that

27:35

and if they're requesting the chefs who act that

27:37

way and giving bigger tips to the chefs who

27:40

act that way, that's not to excuse

27:42

it. But,

27:44

you know, I think it makes it more

27:46

complicated. For sure. And it

27:49

puts the pressure on, you know, whoever

27:51

that chef is, you know, to decide

27:53

whether he's going to, you know, really,

27:56

at the end of the day, give the people what they want. And

27:58

I don't... The own over the

28:00

problem though you know I don't know if it

28:03

is or for dessert but it to me is

28:05

definitely a sudden that people are taking a lot

28:07

of with. For

28:09

the history of Asian restaurants in

28:12

United States, exotic sizing one's own

28:14

background was an important part of

28:16

selling their products. Here.

28:18

Again is Robert Coup, the professor of Asian and

28:21

Asian American Studies that we heard earlier in the

28:23

show. You. Know he good. A

28:25

Chinese restaurant you gotta have to drag. and

28:27

yeah, have a gong, right? You got to

28:29

have the trappings because restaurants. In

28:31

America what may be everywhere is

28:34

in some some sense a substitute

28:36

for the act which travel to

28:38

that place to third place. I

28:40

touristic experienced. What?

28:43

Did say like to use his give the

28:45

audience what it once. I think

28:47

Rocky Lt. knew that. By.

28:49

Combining just the ambiance

28:51

of exotic Japan, Paired

28:54

with food that is

28:56

somewhat. Japanese. East

28:58

because it has things like bean sprouts and

29:00

soy sauce and rice. But. It's. Not

29:02

as sort of. Freaky.

29:05

As. A raw piece

29:07

of fish might be so he combine the two

29:09

in a very i think i'm smart way. And

29:12

what made him more complicated is

29:14

that the performers were themselves Asians.

29:17

Who have to sort of exotic size

29:19

their own isn't know for the customers

29:21

and I think this self conscious. Performance:

29:25

Happened consistent with the. Understanding

29:28

that Americans already had of

29:30

orientals. Professor.

29:32

Coup points out the this issue

29:34

extends beyond Hibachi Cs. Asian American

29:36

actors who were born here and

29:38

have no accent are often pushed

29:40

into roles playing Asian people with

29:42

access. And this

29:44

play. Acting this ethnic play acting

29:46

over time. What is the effects

29:48

of that. Flattened effective it is

29:51

that it seeps agents in America as

29:53

perpetually foreign. if

29:58

you're of european ancestry you

30:01

can easily be considered

30:03

an American without any kind of affection.

30:06

But if you happen to be brown or yellow,

30:09

then suddenly your first impulse is to say,

30:12

you must be an alien, you must be an immigrant

30:15

when that person could be fourth, fifth generation

30:17

American. For

30:20

instance, if you look at the food

30:22

analogies, the hot dog and the hamburger and

30:24

the pizza, all those foods

30:26

originated in Europe. But very

30:28

quickly, it gets incorporated into this

30:30

diet of Americans, and no one ever questions

30:33

whether a hot dog is American. But

30:35

in fact, the Chinese food, the wonton

30:37

soup, for instance, has been in America

30:40

longer than the hot dog. And

30:42

yet, the wonton soup

30:44

is seen as perpetually foreign, even

30:47

though it's been around for over 150 years, even

30:50

though Chinese in America has been here since 150

30:52

years. So

30:54

this struggle to be seen

30:56

as American, as legitimately American, is

30:59

a challenge that Asian Americans

31:01

continually face. As

31:06

for Perry, the hibachi chef and self-described

31:08

redneck from South Carolina, after

31:10

growing up in a hibachi family and doing

31:13

the job himself, he left it 10 years

31:15

ago. Now he's opened his own food truck

31:17

in Charlotte called Katsu Kart Sandow Shop. How

31:20

do you feel about hibachi today? I

31:23

still love it. I love eating it. I take my kids to it. My

31:25

kids love it. I'll

31:27

probably eat it, you know, a couple times a

31:29

year now. You know, that's always going to be

31:31

a part of my life. You know, whether

31:34

or not the stereotypes or whatever are going to

31:36

keep playing up, I don't know. You

31:38

know, I still love it. But

31:40

I definitely couldn't see myself ever going back and

31:42

doing it again. Thank

31:50

you. Professor

32:00

Robert Ku, Chef Ricky Bobby, and

32:02

Chef Tony Namoto. Hey,

32:05

have you heard that I am taking

32:07

the Sporkful on a huge U.S. tour?

32:10

When my cookbook comes out, I'm doing

32:12

a series of live podcast tapings and

32:14

book signings, hitting New York, Chicago, the

32:16

Twin Cities, Atlanta, Miami, D.C., and many

32:18

more. Go to sporkful.com/tour to see if

32:20

I'm visiting your city and get your

32:22

tickets today. Next

32:24

week on the show, I go to a restaurant

32:26

undercover. New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells. While

32:29

you wait for that one, check out our new podcast,

32:31

Deep Dish with Sola and Ham. The first two episodes

32:34

are out right now here in the Sporkful feed.

32:37

This show is originally produced by me along with... And

32:39

Sandy. And... Gofen Pusibuele. It

32:41

was edited by... Tiana Palmer. And

32:43

mixed by Jared O'Connell. With additional

32:46

production by Harry Wood. Special

32:48

thanks to James Boo, Tommy Rupchan, Brianna

32:50

Yamashita, Tony and Winnie Chin, and Madeleine

32:52

Lang. As well as to

32:54

Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar in Huntsville,

32:56

Alabama. The Sporkful team

32:58

now includes Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara and

33:01

Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label

33:03

Music. The Sporkful is a production of

33:05

Stitcher, our executive producer to Colin Anderson

33:07

and Nora Richie. Until next time, I'm

33:09

Dan Passion. And I'm Nora from Taylor,

33:11

Texas, reminding you to eat more,

33:13

eat better, and eat

33:15

more better. Music help

33:20

from Black Label Music. Sergeant

33:26

and mrs. Smith, you're going to love this

33:28

house. Is that a tub in

33:30

the kitchen. There's no field manual

33:32

for finding the right home. but when you

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do, USAA homeowners insurance can help

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protect it the right way. restrictions,

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apply.