"It feels like dinner theater, in sort of a very pure sense of the word," says journalist Jaya Saxena, describing the Benihana experience. As a correspondent for Eater, she participated in the "Be a Chef" program for a $300 fee. Donning a giant toque, she stepped behind the teppanyaki grill to learn how to flip shrimp tails into her hat, build slices of onion into a volcano and set it on fire, flip tongs, and shape fried rice into a heart.
Teppanyaki originated in Japan as a type of steakhouse, where dinner was prepared in front of diners. Popularized during World War II and directed toward Americans stationed in or visiting Japan, Benihana was opened by Hiroki "Rocky" Aoki in the US in the early 1960s. The first location was in Manhattan. A former professional wrestler with a wild streak, Aoki had a passion for bringing this style of cooking to the American appetites. The early reviews mentioned the waitresses wearing kimonos and the interiors featuring design elements crafted to make guests feel like they were in Japan.
Edward Said coined the term and critical concept "Orientalism," to mean preconceived notions about what life and culture is like in "the East," with expectations that those stereotypes would be met with every encounter of people. Aoki played with this Orientalism paradigm during a time when laws restricted Asian immigration to the US and many white Americans had strong, stereotypical ideas about Japanese culture, Saxena explains.
"I think he was really working within this framework to try to bring what is essentially a positive experience of Japanese culture to America. This was a very narrow pathway that a lot of Asian people had in the US to advocate for themselves and create a better image of Asian people," she says.
"It turns out, making fried rice for six people and trying to make it look pretty in a heart shape is quite difficult," says Jaya Saxena. Photo by Christian Rodriguez for Eater.