The theme of the main event, held in Ariake, was “Chef’s LIVE FES!” It presented the future of Tokyo cuisine, with stalls by chefs from famous and hard-to-book Tokyo restaurants, specialty chefs of diverse cuisines including vegan and halal, and future chefs: culinary school students. Visitors were delighted to witness leading chefs deftly preparing dishes right before their eyes. Stalls sold regional delicacies, from vegetables through to sweets and alcohol, while a range of workshops were also held. The event provided opportunities to try new tastes, to learn, and to relish in the joy of food, while discovering the cuisine that Tokyo has to offer.
Ariake Event Report
Chef's LIVE FES!
It ran for three days, from Friday to Sunday, May 19 – 21, in Stone and Light Plaza, within Ariake Symbol Promenade Park. The famous Tokyo restaurants represented offered cuisine ranging from Chinese through to Italian and Spanish, even curry, as well as the best Japanese fare, including wagyu, eel, soba, ramen and wagashi sweets. It was a great gathering of the diverse tastes of Tokyo.
Restaurants included Yoroniku, a hard-to-book yakiniku barbecue restaurant in Ebisu, innovative izakaya-style pub Shokudo Todaka in Gotanda, and No Code, opened last year by renowned chef Fumio Yonezawa. Eager attendees arrived early to queue for their pick as soon as the venue opened at 11 am. The event attracted a crowd in spite of rainy weather for the first day and a half. Many were drawn by the free admission, while passers-by headed from Tokyo Big Site to Kokusai-Tenjijo Station were no doubt tempted by the aromas.
The booth of Fumio Yonezawa’s No Code offered a menu of original dishes specifically created for Tokyo Tokyo Delicious Museum. Visitors were astonished to taste such lavish fare at an outdoor event, with surprising offerings such as fried Kanawa oyster “hot dogs” with the chef’s own yuzu pepper and miso tartare sauce, or sardine and green curry Vietnamese-style cold spring rolls.
Feel-good music was provided by FPM (Tomoyuki Tanaka), the renowned musician, DJ and foodie, along with other guest DJs. Attendees noted the affinity between the sounds and the food, with one tweeting their joy at feasting on Ri.carica’s pâté de campagne while quaffing orange wine to FPM’s music.
Bar Portillo, a Spanish bar from Nakameguro, had a long queue at its stall from start to finish. It is the sister store to Sal y Amor, in Daikanyama, listed in Michelin’s Bib Gourmand for 7 years straight. Many visitors lined up to try their spare rib and angel shrimp paella, with satisfied guests expressing their hope to dine on paella at the actual restaurant someday.
here was also a stage with one-off presentations by some of the world-leading chefs at the event. On the Saturday, TACO RiCO’s owner Noboro Kitajima, and Middle Eastern Mediterranean restaurant Kanda AL MINA’s chef Shahdi Bashiyi gave a talk on “Food Diversity.” Mr. Kitajima described his first encounter with tacos in the USA that led to his opening a restaurant, while Palestinian chef Mr. Bashiyi described his first impressions when he came to Japan, and spoke in depth about halal cooking, to the great interest of the audience. The queues at the stalls of both restaurants grew even longer after their talks.
TACO RiCO offered two types of taco: grilled chicken and avocado, and two burrito options: grilled chicken and pork carnitas. Customers looked to fully enjoy the tastes of Mexico, with a taco in one hand and a Corona or Tecate beer in the other. The Mexican staff ensured that the dishes were prepared authentically. Japanese attendees were delighted to see non-Japanese customers chatting happily with stall staff in other languages, adding to the diverse atmosphere.
Contrary to the expectation that visitors would favor the booths of hard-to-book restaurants, non-Japanese attendees seemed keen to try the eel and ramen. Eel restaurants Nyorosuke Ginza served a “Horoyoi” set menu of three styles of charcoal grilled eel (as opposed to steamed), combined with Japanese sake, while Yamada no Unagi served eel-bone ramen, usually only available at the restaurant on Fridays and Saturdays, each attracting a long queue.
From 5 pm on the Saturday, TOKYO FM presented a special talk-show “RiCE RADiO - Houtare” in collaboration with food culture magazine RiCE. Quite a crowd gathered around the stage to catch a glimpse of the celebrated presenters. RiCE editor Hiroshi Inada hosted guests singer and voice actress Nana Mizuki and celebrity chef Ichiko Takehana, in a discussion on “Delicious Tokyo.” The three foodies had a lively chat about their favorite curry, Chinese, and Western eateries. At one point, Ms. Takehana joked they were getting so excited that they might have left the audience behind. Asked what they ate at the event, Ms. Mizuki replied that she had enjoyed tendon (tempura on rice), spring rolls, and ginger ale.” This elicited quite a response online, with some of her Twitter followers guessing she must have tried Hal Yamashita’s tendon.
- Links to the talk event archived here
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「RiCE RADiO〜HOUTARE〜」special talk show
＠Tokyo Tokyo Delicious Museum
Tokyo’s first winery, aptly named Tokyo Winery, cultivates grapes and produces wine in Tokyo’s Nerima-ku. It organized a booth at the event together with Chinese Tapas hachi, a Chinese restaurant also based in Nerima-ku, serving light Chinese snacks made with Tokyo-grown vegetables to perfectly complement the wine.
In a similar vein, HANEDA SKY BREWING had a stall offering its craft beer together with hamburgers. It was quite a sight to see happy customers stuffing their cheeks under the blue skies. Based at Haneda Airport, HANEDA SKY BREWING’s claim to fame is that it is the first craft beer that visitors encounter when they arrive in Japan. Similarly, its stall was the first that visitors to Tokyo Tokyo Delicious Museum saw when entering from the Kokusai-Tenjijo Station direction.
The site was jam-packed with elements to interest visitors even after they had eaten their fill. Physical theater duo ZEREKO presented their brand of unscripted comedy, while STILTANGO, a duo who perform tango on stilts, weaved their way through the crowd, along with other street performers.
A workshop area was also organized and proved particularly popular with families with children. “One in the World” gave visitors the chance to craft a realistic food display model, while in another workshop, hosted by a wagashi sweets artisan, participants made replicas of fancy bean paste confections from clay. Such workshops provided deeper insights into Japanese food culture.
Over the three days, guests were able to discover an array of new foods and tastes. According to staff, most visitors managed to visit from three to five stalls. The open setting was a chance to savor tastes with chefs who are usually tucked away in their kitchens.
The ongoing evolution of Tokyo’s food scene should not be missed.
