14 Seats, 16 Courses, 1 Chef: A Day With The Yakitori Master at Kono

[upbeat music]

It take 10 years to become the Yakitori Master.

I'm serving 28 kind of different parts of a chicken.

I can control butchery.

I can control flavor.

I can control fire.

It's kind of a show.

My cooking style is always, use tempo.

I'm doing cooking like I'm dancing.

[upbeat music]

Hi, my name is Atsushi Kono.

Here is my Yakitori restaurant, Kono.

Please come in.

[mellow percussive music]

Here is the dining room.

We have a 14-seat Yakitori counter.

This is binchotan grills around here.

We serving 16-course Yakitori omakase.

Yakitori is chicken skewers.

Omakase is chef's choice dishes.

I serving seasonal ingredient

so menus also sure to often change,

depends on market, depends on person.

Time is 11 o'clock

so I have to prep chicken broths.

So let's go in the kitchen.

[mellow music]

Morning meditation.

I just pray very simply, good days,

enjoy the customer, our meal and safety on my team.

So that's my wish every day.

So we have a bone here,

this bone almost like 100 pound bones, 60, 70 chicken bones.

I boil with scallion and daikon raddish.

So these bones are butchered yesterday.

So first of all, just clean, running water

to wash the bones and put in the pot.

These broths, we use two things.

One is serving welcome soup.

It's very pure, clear chicken broth.

It's very simple, baby scallion, we call menegi.

Spring season, I put cherry blossom flower.

Cherry blossom is aromatic.

It's very good smell and flavor.

This is not traditional way, this is my way.

I love serving first, pure chicken-flavored broth.

It's kind of like a tea.

It's kind of like a warmup.

So the other one is udon broth and dashi.

Dashi is kind of like a fish and seaweed broth.

Here is Japanese scallion, Tokyo negi,

it's just green parts.

so those vegetable makes extra umami

also, soup makes clear.

My concept is always top priority, the chicken flavor.

So that's why I don't wanna use lot of vegetables.

Just two things, I don't have to cut it.

So after the cook, we can use for the family meal, no waste.

Okay, let's boil it, the bones.

[Atsushi groaning]

Let's go.

I used to B-Boy, now I don't have to go gym

because I do every day, grab the 100-pound pot every day

so I can keep strong muscle and stay fresh.

I still dance sometimes.

[Interviewer] What do you like more,

being a chef or dancing?

Oh, I cannot pick but I try

to doing same time, cooking and dancing

because cooking is always tempo and lit.

So basically, my brain's always on the beats

and cooking and same time.

Oh it's gonna be six, seven hours boiled a day, depend

on haste, it's gonna be bubble and fat come up.

I can take only fat, I can use fat

for the udon, also grill, extra chicken flavor.

No waste anything.

Chicken broth is ready, time is noon.

Let's break down the chicken.

[mellow music]

Gloves.

[mellow music]

So this chicken just came yesterday.

Yeah, very fresh and the perfect condition right now.

I'm sorry, let's bring it upstairs, let's go.

[container thudding]

Before prep, I sharpen the knife.

This is Japanese sharpening stone.

This is my Honesuki knife, butcher knife.

This is sterling steel.

Also, very strong tips.

So my chicken from Pennsylvania, Amish, free-range.

Yakitori chef has to find the best chicken.

I came New York, one farm, they interested

in our business and then I started relationship

almost 15, 16 years ago.

Skin's beautiful, also, muscle, it's very big.

Good size for skewers.

No smell, nothing.

This chicken is more big thigh.

I love thigh.

I'm gonna break down today, tare chicken.

So first of all, the tail, we call bonjiri.

This is perfect, crispy, tender and juicy.

Also, I serve in beginning.

Smells like fat and char, it's perfect bite.

So next, take it out, chicken thighs, cut skin first

and open the leg.

This is best muscle chicken, oyster first.

So make sure cut nicely.

Don't cut too much.

I just touch it and support.

Here is the belly, we call harami.

It's great texture and juicy parts.

Skin's best parts, I love it.

I use for the skewer

and the appetizer like a fried chicken skin.

I call chicken skin chips.

And then, next, chicken breast part.

Breakdown is not easy, also, long process.

Basically, I break down first and I pass next section.

Next guy is cutting different parts.

This is need a real lot of training.

I have been do this almost 17 years, tenderloin parts.

Very slippery, I use the napkin

so I can take it out more easier.

Then next, the bone.

So here is sterner, with softer bone cartilidge.

It's one of the best parts.

We love a crunchy texture.

Here is neck part.

Neck part's also delicious.

Total cover, which is very skin, it's most fatty

and juicy skin, this is my favorite.

I call chicken bacon.

It's nice char, inside tender and fatty, it's smokey.

My tartar sauce, it's perfect fit.

So thigh parts, I can make four different kind of skewers.

So I just crack the bone

and those bone go in soup I use for tomorrow.

So chicken oyster, knees,

most people don't know chicken has a knee.

But this best parts of the thigh.

If you love the crunch parts, definitely, this is perfect.

So inner thigh, this is tender parts.

These techniques

from over 50 years, 60 years, the Yakitori culture.

I learn from maybe, three Yakitori master.

End of day, we can make around 20 kind

of different types of skewers.

So this is fresh chicken hearts 'cause I order separately

because I use a lot,

but same farm, same chicken.

It's like a sausage.

I wanna show you.

[bag rustling]

So this is fat, actually, main artery.

It's fatty, soft and tender and juicy parts.

I call hatsumoto.

Someone say, Oh, chef, this is like a beefly reba.

Main artery, I use one skewer

for eight to 10 chicken artery.

So that's why I can ready

for only two, three skews one day.

It's very limited and special skewers, it's very rare.

This is like a morning routine.

Let's just keep dancing right there.

Those are bamboo skewers.

So one is a round skewer, we call marugushi.

This is not too strong but it's very sharp.

This one, teppogushi, angle skewers.

Angle one is very strong bamboo,

it's gonna be no burn.

So make sure when you use skewers, the skewer exactly

into the middle, makes balance.

I always grilling four, five skewers same time.

So if each skewer is different balance,

grilling so difficult.

So every skewer's same weight, same size, same way.

Next, chicken oyster.

So chicken skin cut.

I gonna wrap it for the chicken oyster.

These are my original combination.

Each chef, each Yakitori restaurant, different way.

Knee use round skewers.

Also, this technique is...

Maybe each chef, it's different way.

I like chicken fat, so wrap it.

You can imagine after the grill, so biting

and that fat is come out.

So I wanna make explosion, the umami parts.

Always, my target date, two weeks

and change the menu.

Yakitori selection is every day, different.

So depend on what I can ready for the night.

Okay, my team help break down the skewers.

It's 2:00 PM, I'm going

to make chicken monaka pate, let's go.

[upbeat music]

This is liver and thigh.

Also, these are our seasonings,

truffle sauce, miso, butter, pepper and garlic.

This is my signature dishes.

It's called chicken pate monaka, [indistinct]

with rice cracker.

[metal clanging]

Make sauce first, black pepper, garlic, white miso.

This is miso from Kyoto, Japan.

A specific called Saikyo miso

which is a white miso,

and it's really sweet umami miso.

Then truffle sauce, truffle from Italy.

Every week, my truffle guys come in and bring fresh one.

So black truffle is more expensive,

a pound almost six to 700.

[whisk whirring]

I use knee a lot, keep bouncing.

[whisk clicking]

Okay, sauce is ready.

You know, you can imagine it smells like truffle

and butter smells here.

So good, the preparation of Yakitori price is

they don't serve a pate, it's just simple skewers.

This recipe is almost over 10 years.

[blender buzzing]

Three, two, one.

If you don't know what it is,

you now recognize chicken liver inside the pate.

That's why this pate for everyone.

[paper rustling]

Pour this.

I make this three times a week.

[paper rustling]

Make sure froth and it's very important cooks evenly.

Level it up, and it'll come up.

[pan thudding]

Sorry.

[pad thudding]

Top more even now.

[paper rustling]

Paper keeps moist.

This pate, put it in the oven 40 minutes.

[door clicking]

Temperature is 320 degrees.

So 3:00 PM, time for lunch.

[mellow music]

This is my little office.

Our lunch was great and now change the clothes.

This is traditional Japanese chef's coat.

So Konos' logo's here.

Right now, we're doing this appetizer.

So always, I have something new idea.

Always put a memo.

So then sharing my team.

[chuckles] We have little chicken.

This is fun.

Right here, we do Yakitori stick here.

This is like a chicken puzzle, something.

All my life, it's a chicken.

All day, so, I love chicken, I love passion.

Right now, 3:45, let's go light a grill.

[upbeat music]

Okay, so this is a Japanese kishu binchotan certificate.

So this is the official sign, is this.

Here is a binchotan charcoal.

It's sounds very good.

[charcoal clicking]

A real one, high pitch and fake one's a low pitch.

We got charcoal delivery every week from Japan.

[flame roaring]

This is a very basic barbecue charcoal starter

and I put it inside like a small binchotan.

This charcoal from last night.

I can recycle end of day and then covering.

It's gonna takes half hour on the range.

I use three kind of different binchotan.

One is from Japan, one in Indonesia,

the other one also from Japan too.

This charcoal's very hot

almost like a high temperature, 1,000 degree.

I can use normally two, three hours, keep burning.

Smell is best like binchotan smell.

I transfer the chicken.

This is my favorite flavor.

Depend over at Yakitori restaurant, some places use gas

or electric, some use binchotans.

This is not ready yet.

So I wanna prepare the tartar sauce for the service.

So it's just a clean up pot.

So let's bring over there.

So this pot for actually, original pickle

but also good for the sauce too.

So keep temperature and strong material.

Each Yakitori restaurant

have their sauce recipe is different.

This is basic ingredients, soy sauce, light sake

and sugar and chicken fat.

My tartar already seven years old age.

Yang tare is sometimes too sweet, too salty and light.

So little-by-little aging, it's coming very mild.

It's I think, good balance with chicken skewers.

Every day, I dip smoke chicken and back and forth.

So basically, original [indistinct] sauce.

Every day I add a new sauce.

And then, a mix little-by-little

and never change the original flavors.

So nobody touch this.

Fire's almost ready, so let me go get that.

600 To 700 degrees, it's already hot, you feel.

Let's move it to the grill.

[coal rustling]

So this is for the beginning.

During the service, I just keep refilling the new charcoal

and then keep burning the binchotan.

Always, I put a cover, this cover.

Always, charcoal is up, like popping

because moist inside the charcoal.

We just covering for safety.

That's why I burn all the face all the time.

This is so dangerous.

This is two weeks ago.

That's why other chef hate this room.

People are like, Oh, whoa, that all the time.

I have to keep doing this.

Also, depend on the season, lot of humidity day.

Oh my god, it's popping a lot

because charcoal took the moist

and when it start burning, boom.

But, we have to control slow, start fire

and little-by-little, refilling new charcoal and slow burn.

So I wanna introduce this.

It's called uchiwa, it's a fan

for the temperature control, also smoke.

And if you need more fire, I just keep fanning

and small, start fire.

This is kind of a special vent.

Smoke going upside and downside, it's both way.

I fan it before service that is 15 minutes.

Charcoal is every day, different condition

or some skewer from a hot temperature.

Some skewer cook, low temperature.

So I have to decide it last minute.

This charcoal prepare is most important thing

for the service.

If no charcoal's ready, so I cannot solve anything.

That's why I really focusing this.

But sometime, no burn.

That's so scary me, because customers here,

charcoal is not ready, we cannot solve anything.

And customers waiting.

You can imagine, it's like, Oh my God,

I cannot do this, anything.

I go down like this [laughs].

I really nervous every day.

Yes, good, let's go.

So right now, 4:15, charcoal's ready.

So I prepared a shrimp soup and the last check.

[upbeat music]

It's coming, I wanna check the taste.

Yeah, it's a lot of chicken flavor.

So soup, I think is ready.

So shrink first.

I don't wanna make crowded

that's why I put like a little napkin

and then slowly shrink.

I always check this color like a golden yellow.

This is right color.

So I wanna put a little bit seasoning.

Seasoning is very simple.

Only just salt.

Taste good.

So soup is ready.

This is for the additional today's specialty.

So always, different selection.

Chicken gizzard always very crunchy

and chewy and some people, they don't like it.

So that's why I don't wanna put in the omakase selection.

So that's why I put it in the box.

If you love it, you can choose here.

So I check the display before service,

make sure everything right and good quality.

So everything ready.

Time for the service.

[upbeat music]

Okay, so my Yakitori warriors are ready to battle [laughs].

Right now, it's 5:25, guests arrived, ready to cook.

[upbeat music]

I'm feeling so nervous

and I'm feeling so concerned, everything.

But let's just do it.

Greeting, [speaks Japanese], welcome.

As the Yakitori chef, I grilling everything myself.

Before grills, I put the sake for the aroma.

I cooking chicken, 10% outside.

Then little-by-little, cook with tartar sauce.

It's like a little-by-little caramelized

outside the chicken,

least six times, dip in the Yakitori sauce.

And the other one, chicken fat.

Chicken fat makes fire bigger,

Help crispy skin, more juicy.

This is just finished, a little soy sauce flavor.

I manage the pace and timing of our courses.

Left-side grill is high temperature.

Right-side is low temperature.

Each skewer cooking different temperature.

Some skewers start hot, some skewers start low.

I'm cooking for 14 people same time.

So one time, I grilling 10 to 20 skewers.

We have to keep eye, the customer.

We have to sometimes talk conversation, same time, grilling.

I like my job.

I love cooking Yakitori.

I love cooking front of customer.

[upbeat music]

Thank you for joining me.

I hope you enjoy my Yakitori technique.

We have a next seating, so you have to leave.

See you next time.

[upbeat music]

Oh, yeah, I like that.

[producer laughing]

Okay, yeah, sorry.

[crew laughing]

[Producer] That's a wrap.

That's wrap.