Seiji Yamamoto: 'Hong Kong chicken is best in the world'
The chef and owner of Tenku RyuGin, in Kowloon, and Nihonryori RyuGin, in Tokyo, talks to Bernice Chan about impressing his mum, and Hong Kong poultry
"Yes, I'm very pleased and I thank chef de cuisine Hideaki Sato, sous chef Hidemichi Seki and manager Hiromi Takano for their hard work. I usually come to Hong Kong four times a year but this year it has been only once because I was busy with our newest restaurant, in Taipei [which opened last month]. So I have kept in touch with chef Hideaki often through Skype."
"When I was 11 years old, I learned how to cook in school and the first meal we made was a simple Japanese dish of simmered vegetables with stewed beef and rice. I saved to have enough money to go to the grocery store to buy the ingredients and then made it for my mum and waited for her to come back home. She was very impressed.
"I helped my mother with the cooking every day, so I didn't have time to play, which is why I hated cooking at first. But when I made dinner for her and saw how happy she was, it was then I understood why she worked so hard in the kitchen. She congratulated me on my skills and said I had improved. That's why I feel happy when people enjoy my food."
"I've been doing it for 11 years now and I don't think of it so much as creating something no one else has created, rather I think about how to get the best flavours, crispiness and textures out of an ingredient. I used to make a variety of dishes, some relying on modern techniques, but now I am more concerned about respecting the ingredients."
"In Japan, there's Matsuba crab, which is only available in winter, and game, such as wild duck. It's best not to shoot [the ducks] because then the blood is lost, which affects the meat. Best to have the animal intact and then strangle it. And another thing to eat in winter is fugu - blowfish, it's poisonous!"
"I like Hong Kong chicken. I think it's the best chicken in the world right now. For our recent gala dinner, to celebrate retaining the two Michelin stars at Tenku RyuGin, we prepared charcoal grilled chicken, which is a simple dish. I want to experiment more with the chicken here next time because we can't get this in Japan."