Anthony Bourdain A Cooks Tour Season 1 Episode 1: A Taste of Tokyo

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The #1 food writer and television presenter in the world, and star of Travel Channel and CNN, Anthony Bourdain reinvented the food travel genre. In his groundbreaking first television series, Bourdain travels around the world indulging his taste for local cuisine and eccentric characters. You never know what he’ll say, who he will meet, or what they will have for dinner.

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– Welcome to my world. Two escargot, pate brisee. Two green salads. Lamb chops, steak frites. Shouldn’t you be doing something? Two smoked filet and a pepper steak. Come on, make the dessert. Chocolate torte, please. – [Voiceover] As a cook, tastes and smells are my memories. Now I’m in search of new ones.

So I’m leaving New York City and hope to have a few epiphanies around the world, and I’m willing to go to some lengths to do that. I’m looking for extremes of emotion and experience. I’ll try anything, I’ll risk everything. I have nothing to lose. First thing you think when you hit central Tokyo,

You think Blade Runner. It’s very science fiction, it’s very atmospheric. You really know you’re somewhere else. This is far from home. I knew the kind of kaleidoscope full of color, light and flavor I would find here. I’m really looking forward to the psychedelic assault on the senses.

I’m very interested in eating my way through the full spectrum of Japanese cuisine. I think almost all modern chefs are impressed by Japanese presentation, the importance of contrasting textures, colors, portion size. Embodying all of these traits is Japan’s best known contribution to world cuisine, sushi. – Very violent dreams last night.

Full color, sound, increased heart rate. I woke up thinking of sushi. I’m particularly fortunate that my liaisons here are Michiko and Shinji. Michiko translates and has in every way paved the way for the ignorant but enthusiastic American. And Shinji, driving, translating, and thank god he’s a Yankee fan,

So I know I’m in good hands. – All right. – [Voiceover] We’re on our way to meet an Edomae sushi master, who is going to show us around Tokyo’s central fish market, Tsukiji. Edomae’s sushi is high end stuff, not just because it’s pricey, which it is, but because of the uncompromising quality,

Preparation, and presentation involved. – If you translate Edomae, what does it mean literally? – Edomae, Edo is the name of the period of ancient Japan. – Okay. So it really does mean old style? Classic version. – Yeah, classic version, yeah. Sushi is just like cutting fish. – Fresh.

– But Edomae’s, they need lots of preparation. – [Voiceover] Edomae preparation standards are not sushi on the go. Absolutely uncompromising on quality, regardless of expense. It’s purist sushi. – Very pleased to meet you. – Nice to meet you. – Anthony Bourdain. – [Voiceover] I’m fortunate enough during this visit

To Tsukiji to accompany Mr. Togawa, the chef owner of Karaku restaurant in Ginza district. – Gotta have my appropriate footwear, of course. – [Voiceover] This is sort of like Joe DiMaggio or Lou Gehrig showing you around Yankee Stadium. From the point that it practically leaps out of the sea

To the point where I pop it in my mouth, Mr. Togawa will be by my side. Prepare to lose your mind. – Just lift off. Your head will just unscrew and bounce off the ceiling. – [Voiceover] Tsukiji is acres and acres of fish, fish, fish. Restaurants, retail store owners, and other buyers are purchasing fish for the day. Over 2600 tons of fish is sold here daily. That’s a big (bleep) tuna sandwich. First thing you encounter when you visit Tsukiji is big. It’s really big, it’s really spread out, and the choreography has to be seen to be believed.

There is a system here. Everybody seems to know the moves except me. – Mr. Togawa, we’re going to follow him around as he does his shopping, and then we’re going back to his restaurant and he’s going to show us what he’s going to do with this stuff. – [Voiceover] There are few things that get chefs as excited as looking at a really pristine piece of seafood. – Abalone, about $40 a piece in the States. Liver? – I want sea eel. – He can show you sea eel. The different kinds of eel that we are going to eat.

– [Voiceover] Eel is an expensive delicacy in Japan. Prized not just for its flavor, but for its legendary, how shall I say, stamina-giving properties. Viagra of the sea. – He looks tasty to me. – [Voiceover] Having picked out his eels, Mr. Togawa is now ready to move on to his next purchase.

– See the octopus? Just incredible. I just want to start weeping. – [Voiceover] Generally in the life of a chef, you find yourself working comfortably within a certain range of flavors and textures, and then suddenly, you see all this. Immediately you want to rush back to your kitchen

To find a way to work with what you’ve just bought. This octopus is holding on for dear life. He’s got a death grip on the tank. As excited as I am, the Japanese that live here seem just as excited. – Here we go, say good bye.

– [Voiceover] Seafood is taken very, very seriously here. – It’s got a strange and terrible beauty to it. – [Voiceover] Value is put on good food. – Very fresh. – [Voiceover] To us, food is worthless until somebody famous puts a sauce on it. It’s not that way here.

There is a respect for ingredients that goes against the grain of a lot of western cooking. One widely used ingredient is the much revered tuna. – So what are we looking for here? What is Mr. Togawa looking for? It’s explained this is the fattiest part, the most valued part.

– We call it toro. – It’s gorgeous. A big difference, toro and everything else. – [Voiceover] It’s the equivalent of a beautifully marbled steak. Fat is good, and the rippling of fat through the meat is what distinguishes that belly meat from the rest of the tuna.

– You get that same feeling of being at Tiffany or Cartier. You just look at this with lust. Just the subtle difference, it’s like rating gems. It’s fought over, bid over, talked about, and examined. You can see they are very different pieces with very different qualities.

When you’re a chef, you come down here and see this, you’re thinking what you can do with these various pieces. I can hardly wait to see what Mr. Togawa is going to do with this stuff. – What’s that bit in Apocalypse Now? “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

I love the smell of fish and soy and rice wine in the morning. It smells like victory. – [Voiceover] I’m always very wary of stepping into other chefs’ kitchens. – Hi. – It’s an obstruction. I’m instantly aware chemically, on a cellular level, when there are interlopers in my kitchen. – [Voiceover] Despite its resistance, the octopus still ends up in Mr. Togawa’s kitchen. At least he can take solace in the fact that ending your life here is a great honor. – I have some Portuguese friends who would just go insane over this. And some Italians.

– Now they are going to put salt. – [Voiceover] Salt is rubbed into the octopus to bring out the excess moisture as well as add flavor. There are so many good things he can do with this. I’m thinking he can chill it, make a salad of it grilled,

You can make a salad of it slowly stewed. I understand that Mr. Togawa is using his octopus for a special appetizer. Tenderize it. – [Voiceover] At the sushi bar, Togawa’s chefs are busy making magic with fresh fish from Tsukiji, including the eel. – Sounds fresh. Even with my eyes closed, it sounds fresh.

I’m thinking, nice knife technique. You do not see this level of knife skills in French kitchens. – [Voiceover] Despite the dazzling knife work, this eel is not ready to eat yet. – He boils 20 minutes. It’s sugar. A lot of sugar, and then some soy sauce. That’s sake, the rice wine.

– [Voiceover] Mr. Togawa begins working with the best of the good stuff, otoro. – This is the piece that we saw him pick out at the market. He’s breaking it into components. The boss always takes a proprietary interest in not only the most expensive stuff,

But also the stuff that gives him the most pleasure. At first you tell yourself it’s because I don’t trust anyone else to have something this beautiful and this expensive. Then you realize I’m doing it because I like it. – [Voiceover] Mr. Togawa now divides the tuna into smaller pieces for sushi.

The lesser grade fish goes into a marinade, and the really good stuff gets put aside for immediate use in its pristine, fresh form. – I’m experiencing a pleasurable form of dementia. Look at that, that’s sex, man. – [Voiceover] Finally the meal is ready. Michiko, Shinji, and I sit down to eat.

– [Michiko] Ganpai. Octopus. – [Voiceover] Our appetizer is slowly simmered octopus. It’s very tender, and served with just a dash of sweet plum sauce. – [Michiko] The skin is melting. – Spectacular. – [Voiceover] As we’re eating the appetizer, Mr. Togawa himself is preparing our main dish. Pieces of uncooked fish, vinegared rice,

And fresh wasabi are molded smoothly together. While this is the most commonly known form of sushi, in the exacting standards of the Edomae tradition, it takes a lifetime to master the economy and grace of movement necessary to make an artful presentation. An elite sushi chef like Mr. Togawa

Trains for more than 12 years. – Oh man. I was going to say I was ready to die right now, but no, I’ll be ready to die after this. Okay, what do we have here? – [Michiko] Flounder. – Shrimp or prawn? – [Shinji] Prawn. – Prawn, and… – [Michiko] Tuna. – Not just tuna, this is otoro. – [Voiceover] Also on the plate are marinated tuna and raw eel. – You can’t just explain, you know? How can I explain? – Oh, wow.

This, I know what that is. – [Shinji] Sea eel. – That’s the sea eel. You’re struck dumb. It’s almost like you’re cheapening the thing by talking about it. – I have a glazed expression on my face. It’s just pure pleasure. – Thank you very much. – Now would you like to do the apprenticeship here? Three years? – I wouldn’t do that. – [Voiceover] Although I was refusing Mr. Togawa’s generous offer, he still had one very important lesson on the menu. – I’m ready to die now. I will have lead a full and rich and satisfied life at this point. – Japanese people consider the sake as a sacred thing, so pouring the sake shows his affection, his friendship, his hospitality. It’s very important in Japanese culture. And also you pour it back. It’s your turn to pour it back. – Thank you, thank you very much. – [Voiceover] The religious analogy keeps coming up.

There’s something church-like, at least for me. There’s a sense of solemnity here. There’s no nonsense, there’s no distraction. Nothing fake about it. – Church of food, it’s the only church I know. – Ganpai, cheers. – [Voiceover] Very cold iced sake. You get that ice cream headache sort of thing.

– You feel it on your tongue first, then it works its way up into your brain. – Thank you. – Thank you for one of the most incredible dining experiences of my life. I will be always grateful. – Me too. – [Voiceover] Leaving Mr. Togawa’s restaurant,

I’m feeling that my New York fast-food fast-paced culture has missed the boat. – For us, restaurants are like gas stations. You pull in, you fill up, and you move on, preferably as quickly as possible. The idea of volume was much more important than quality. “Did you have a good meal?”

“Yeah, they gave me all the shrimp you could eat!” That’s not a… That’s really silly. You know, bulk. It explains a lot about our culture. – [Voiceover] Speaking of bulk, check these guys out. It happens that I have come into a one time opportunity to visit a sumo wrestling stable,

The gym and home of the team. – Here I come, and I know nothing about sumo. I exude ignorance. – [Voiceover] Watching the sumo wrestlers train, this is like being lead into a secret society. Sumo is serious business in Japan. Something outsiders just aren’t allowed to see. They’re not kidding in there. These guys are really going at each other.

Some of them get tossed out of the ring and come rolling right at me. I don’t want one of these guys landing on me, no way. They’ll break me like a day old biscuit. The feeling of being surrounded by that much bulk, I mean, what do these guys eat?

I’m interested in what I heard is sumo food. Chanko, it’s called. I’m thinking, well, how un-Japanese this sounds. – Must mean bulk food, high on starch. I had this idea of, they’re sitting around eating pasta and beef, massive hunks of fatty pork. – [Voiceover] I’m very lucky to be introduced

To Mr. Tomatsuna, of Tomatsuna Stable. Tomatsuna is a former champion himself. Today he is an oyakata, which is the boss of the sumo stable. All of the wrestlers live on premises. What they eat, when they eat, these are all rigorously dictated by the oyakata, who completely controls their lives.

He cooks for them, looks after their training, their health, in a quest to make them the best. – He’s an old lion, and he pretty much saw me as an insignificant curiosity, I think. Nevertheless I’m determined to find out the secret diet of the sumo. – The wrestlers have a tremendous power.

The food that he selects must reflect the need for this power. – He says people tend to think that a sumo wrestler is just fat. That is not true. Actually they need the balance of energy, and the balance of weight. – Do all the wrestlers learn to cook as part of their training? – [Michiko] That’s right.

– They behaved much in the same way, five years ago, if you’d walk into my kitchen and want to talk to my cooks. Fiercely protective. – [Voiceover] It’s one-pot cooking. A lot of guys living together cook in one pot. The food is not about just getting these guys big.

We’re not here building blubber. – I was clearly wrong in this. He’s looking for balance of protein and bodybuilding food. – [Voiceover] Unfortunately that’s all I’m able to find out at this kitchen, anyway. Let’s go to take a trip to a chanko restaurant to experience the sumo diet firsthand.

After a full day of watching sumo wrestlers train, I’m definitely ready to eat like one. – We’re gonna have a chanko meal, and I’m hungry. You hungry? – I’m starving. – Excellent. – [Voiceover] Chanko is the food of the Sumo, and the specialty of Chanko Edosawa restaurant.

Immediately it becomes obvious the secret to eating like a sumo isn’t in the fat, but in the quantity. It’s a nabe, like a big soup, a big boiling pot of broth in the center of the table. Everybody adds something. You add things in stages. – Originally the chanko was made of chicken soup,

But now they cook everything. – [Voiceover] Beef, chicken, meatballs, seafood, mushrooms, green vegetables, tofu, onions, radishes, egg, rice. You can use it all, and we are. – And of course it’s like a nabe style, which is boiled in order to provide a hot meal for the rikishi, which is the wrestlers.

You can see the taste of the soup is changing gradually. – [Voiceover] I really had no idea what to expect. One of the first surprises is that chanko is fun. Sort of like a living dish, in that as the conversation proceeds and the subject matter changes,

The character of the dish can change as well. It can start out fairly light, but you can add stronger ingredients, and of course as it cooks down, it becomes stronger as well. – I like that. It is spicy. It’s really good, it’s really hearty, and I really like the style of cooking,

And the style of eating. I mean, this is fun, it’s casual. We all sit around, we all put stuff in, we all take stuff out, we all serve each other. I think Michiko and Shinji take particular delight. Their whole countenance has changed during the course of this meal.

– I feel honored to be served. For friendship, for serving chanko. – It’s fun. I like this. – [Voiceover] For such an almost cult-like closed society of sumo, their food is perhaps the most accessible for the everyday American. I can see chanko taking off in the United States. – I know how he feels, and I’m well on my way. – [Voiceover] From the precision and restraint of Edomae sushi, to the volume and bulk of chanko, in a 24 hour period. Eating my way around the world. It would be intimidating, I think, if it just wasn’t so exciting.

I think it’s gonna take about a week to walk off this meal.