--Cooking Demo with Santa, chef-manager of Tokkuri Tei Restaurant--

Sat, Nov 7

by Hideaki “Santa” Miyoshi

12 p.m.
Macy's Ala Moana

About Santa

Honolulu’s own izakaya pioneer and innovator is chef-manager Hideaki “Santa” Miyoshi of Tokkuri Tei, one of the most popular and award-winning izakaya in this Asian-inflected, mid-Pacific crossroads. He is the inspiration behind the seemingly endless menu and funky decor which is made up, in part, of handwritten notes, drawings, memorabilia, and kitschy paraphernalia from admiring patrons.

Santa was born and raised in Kagawa, Japan, where his parents ran a small udon noodle shop. During his college years in Tokyo, he took a job washing dishes at a high-toned izakaya in Ginza. After his first day on the job, his co-workers arranged a little beer party. For food, they served up restaurant leftovers including buri diakon (simmered yellowtail tuna and radish). “I had never tasted food this good in my entire life,” Santa remembers. “It woke me up.” Thereafter he tried every dish in the restaurant. The normally secretive cooks shared their recipes with the avid, note-taking dishwasher. His aunt began taking him to some of Tokyo’s best restaurants. “You must remember this taste!” she’d say when they tried a particularly good dish.

After four years, Santa’s bosses opened a branch restaurant in Honolulu and asked Santa to move there to manage it. But business was tough, and the budding gourmet/manager, who spoke almost no English, was forced into the kitchen, where he began to learn the essential art of wielding a knife. It was a skill he put to good use at his next job in Honolulu, at Kengo’s buffet. As the sashimi cutter, Santa estimates he cut 400 pounds of ‘ahi tuna daily and shucked 40 pounds of mirugai (clams) and 50 pounds of oysters.

After an exhausting year, Santa and his friend Kazuhiro Mitake followed their American dream and bought a local-style plate-lunch wagon that they drove out to Campbell Industrial Park in west O‘ahu to feed the hungry truck drivers and workers. One year later, the team convinced an investor to open the first Tokkuri Tei restaurant on Sheridan Street in central Honolulu. By that time, they had discovered there was no place in Honolulu to go to drink, eat, and be merry—there was no izakaya! But they didn’t want to be straitjacketed by traditional Japanese izakaya, either. The lunch wagon had taught them a thing or two about local tastes. “We made the menu out of whatever we had,” Santa says. “We played with the food, made it crazy. That way, our customers had more fun.” He was 29.

Tokkuri Tei was a hit from the start. Loyal friends became loyal customers, and in–the-know Japanese business people flocked to the place looking for the izakaya experience. But what’s this —Seafood Risotto? Poke Pasta? Idaho Potato Rolls?!?

Not only was Santa freaking out his customers, he was wowing the judges at the numerous cooking contests he entered as he flexed his chef muscle. It all started innocently enough, when he saw an ad for a local competition sponsored by the Aloha Shoyu Company. He entered his tofu-steak recipe and won a trip to Las Vegas. Things were looking up. He went on to win first place in the professional class at the prestigious annual Sam Choy Poke Festival twice. “I guess these experiences helped my cooking career,” he says modestly.

Now, at 48, Santa Miyoshi presents this, his Japanese/Hawaiian/Italian/French izakaya cookbook to celebrate Tokkuri Tei’s twentieth anniversary. It’s a project he’s been thinking about for a while. “I’ve been in Honolulu for 24 years,” he says, “and I wanted to show my appreciation to my wonderful customers who suggested so many new ideas. When we first started the restaurant, the menu was only one page long. Now it is seven pages, thanks to all those customers who inspired new dishes. I want to show them how, using Japanese techniques, I take Italian, French and Pacific-Rim ideas and create new menu items for Tokkuri Tei. They don’t have to go home and start cooking…I would rather they come visit me at Tokkuri Tei! I just want them to know how we create the food.”

Tags: cooking demo, izakaya, Mutual Publishing, Santa, Tokkuri Tei

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Cookbooks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.