Left to right: Mantis shrimp, uni, medium-fatty tuna
And when a diner asked what his favorite restaurant in New York is, he barely missed a beat before blurting out, “Five Guys!” Talking about customizing cheeseburgers seemed sort of an odd thing to do while we ate perfect morsels of pike mackerel and giant clam, but it was also sort of awesome. Later, he dropped an immaculate hunk of fatty tuna on my plate and said, “Wagyu from the sea,” throwing back his head and releasing a big guffaw. At one point, he slapped a giant mantis shrimp onto the bar and left it to writhe and wriggle about, inducing oohs and ahhs from the audience and proving that-when it comes to Instagramming $150, 20-course omakase dinners-New Yorkers are as quick on the draw as Wyatt Earp. He’s got his own stage to play on, and it’s clear that he’s having fun with it. Now, standing behind the the counter of his own sleek West Village joint, flanked by his disciples meticulously hand-grating wasabi and scooping glistening spoonfuls of uni, you can’t stop the guy from smiling from ear to ear. “I was so happy that I wanted to throw my fist in the air,” he says. One of the film’s most heartwarming moments is watching Nakazawa recall the moment when he finally wins Jiro’s respect. With his bald head and slightly crooked front teeth, he’s unmistakably that lovably humble apprentice from Jiro Dreams of Sushi-the one who toils for months on end to master tamagoyaki, the slightly sweet omelette that, like many aspects of Japanese cooking, is simple to the naked eye, but incredibly difficult to get right. I experienced a very different flicker of recognition when taking a bar seat at Sushi Nakazawa this past weekend, a new Japanese restaurant helmed by Daisuke Nakazawa. Maybe you watched them have a breakdown over a collapsed soufflé, or verbally undress someone about over-saucing some pasta. They are stars in the Hollywood sense of the word-famous, mostly, because they were on a show about making people famous. These days, it’s not uncommon to walk into a restaurant and find a chef that you’ve seen on TV-maybe in a Quick-Fire Challenge on Top Chef, or judging the latest crop of would-be stars on Chopped.
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