Tell us about your restaurant?

So Royal Izakaya, it's an izakaya that opened actually eight years ago as of next Monday. It's in Philadelphia. It kind of imbues like Japanese comfort food and it's approachable and it was always supposed to just be a neighborhood bar, but it's become a little bit more in Philadelphia. And then in the back, there's Omakase where I personally do 16 seats a night. It's a $300 tasting menu.

Can you walk us through the entire process of what it takes to prep and serve the omakase everyday?

The majority of the fish, nothing comes from Philadelphia and the local river or right here, I'll just say that upfront. Most of the fish comes from Japan, so there three deliveries from Toyosu Market that we get. So we get it on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and I also dry -age fish, but all the fish is coming from Japan. I also get some fish from Spain, from New Zealand, from the West Coast, I use some shellfish.

It's all about getting the best product that we can use. I mean, that is Japanese ethos. Just kind of keep it simple, work with the best product, execute the best technique. That is very basic Japanese ethos for Japanese cuisine. Yesterday we got the majority of the fish, but we leave what we're gonna do today on the bones. So today we have to butcher the fish.

Omakase is all about the rice. I mean, sushi is all about the rice, I have to say. That is like 90 % of it. You can have the best fish in the world, but if your rice is like sticky or soft, it's just not gonna...

It's not going to be as good as it could be. And rice is the one factor that rice and the sauces are that the chef has to be able to do. Like anyone can spend money and buy fish, right? You can, you can hit up my purveyor and be like, I want what Jesse gets. I want that same exact thing. I'll pay, fine. So you can get it too. You can probably break it down.

But not many people know how to make the rice in a certain way, right? It should have a nice texture. It shouldn't be so sticky. I love equating it to working with clay. I mean, it's like how you're molding it. It's like a dance when you're making the nigiri.

What's your balance keeping Japanese omakase traditions, but also being able to have your own fun spin and perspective on every dish?

I would say that most, most omakase you got to are almost like very similar because everyone’s trying to execture just on the highest level of technique. And there are a lot of dishes that are very, that you’ll see in Japan, you’ll see it in America that everyone does. And I was one of those chefs for many, many years. I’ve gone personally through my own evolution. I’m also half korea, my mom’s from korea.

I just at a certain point, I got tired of just doing the same thing, you know? I wanted to be more creative, and I also came to terms that, your hetitage is, you can’t just identify with one thing, right? Your heritage is unique to you. It’s not just…

I’m American, I’m Korean, I’m Japanese. I was born around Philadelphia. I’m part of this Philadelphia chef community. And I try ot integrate all that into my food. And it’s been so freeing to kind of take some creative liberties in Omakase, but also pay tribute to thwat makes it the most important, like the most important parts, the rice, the fish techinque, drying again, aging, stuff like that.

What is your favorite bite on the menu, both izakaya, and omakase?

Favorite bite in the izakaya is the nasu dengaku, the eggplant with the miso. I grew up eating that and that's my dad's recipe. He makes it, we use saikyo miso in ours so it's much sweeter. Some places people use like a red miso so it's a lot more savory.

I love that dish. I mean, it's eggplant with miso, so good. Omakase, my favorite fish in general, has always been sabba, mackerel. It's a challenging fish to work with and a challenging fish for a lot of diners because they've had bad experiences with it. It's usually like salt cured, pickled, all sorts of things.

I'll never forget when I was 17, that's when I started training for sushi. That was my goal to be like, I want to make Saba a very popular sushi item so everyone likes it. So I pickled it, I vinegar it a lot less than classically, so it's not as intense.

What is the most iconic Philly restaurant in your eyes?

That's a hard one. I would have to say, mean, iconic means long standing and just very well known and amazing. I would have to say, Vetri and Zahav.

It’s hard to separate the two. I mean, I remember my dad, my dad's a chef. He took me to a vet when I was like a little kid. I'll never forget that experience. And now I know Marc (Vetri), I'm close to him. And Zahav, it's just like, you know, it's always just been such an amazing experience. And it's only continued to grow. And both those chefs have shown what you can do, right. And they've been long standing in the community. So I would say those two.

TV

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PODCAST

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