I think it’d be fair to say that Iron Chef had quite a bit of influence on our decision to travel to Japan. After seeing some of the amazing (and strange) creations on the show, the idea of eating some of this food ourselves was rather appealing.
Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai owns the La Rochelle restaurants, one of which is in Fukuoka. When planning our trip I’d emailed them in an attempt to book a table for the night of our wedding anniversary, but never heard back. I hoped that since we only wanted to dine on a weeknight that we might still be able to get in, and booked a hotel in Fukuoka for that night anyway.
Yesterday after checking in we asked the concierge (yes, we’ve stepped up a notch in hotels, they now come with concierges instead of vending machines – more about that next time) if she could try and book us a table. After what seemed a rather lengthy phone call she told us we had a table, and gave us a Japanese map to pass on to our taxi driver (since he took three or four looks at it during the trip, I’m glad we’d decided not to try and get there ourselves).
While it would have been too much to hope for for Sakai to be at the restuarant that night, it was still an amazing experience. Turns out that my fears of not getting a table were unfounded, there were only two other couples dining, but this meant we all had the full attention of the six staff on the floor.
Our waiter Taka explained that the chef enjoyed cooking meals for foreigners that showcased local ingredients in a French style. We very happily agreed to give the chef free rein over what we ate, and were treated to twelve amazing courses. The decadence level rose progressively through the night, from abalone and scallops to foie gras and truffles to crayfish to Crêpe Suzette prepared at our table (you can’t help but be impressed when the maitre d wheels in a cart with a burner on it, uses a variety of utensils to slice off orange peel in a single long spiral then juice and segment the orange, and finally flambe the crêpes in grand marnier all with super precision).
Three and a half hours after we arrived, we bid au revoir to La Rochelle, with far too much food under our belts. We may attempt to dine at one of the other Iron Chef restaurants when in Tokyo, though we may have to settle for a lunch sitting – I don’t think our budget can handle much more than that.
I’m jealous.