Selwyn Times: June 28, 2016

SELWYN TIMES Tuesday June 28 2016 19
Taste
Teppanyaki on the move
Shin Yamashita – Shin’s Teppanyaki owner and head chef
• By Gabrielle Stuart
SHIN YAMASHITA’S mobile
teppanyaki business is booming:
He has a successful Auckland
franchise, he’s hunting for more
staff, and he is fully booked
every weekend for the rest of the
year.
But it all started completely by
accident.
He ended up in Christchurch
15 years ago because his car
broke down during a trip to
Queenstown, which meant he
was stuck in the city.
He was offered a job at a teppanyaki
restaurant which was
about to open and urgently
needed chefs, and decided it was
worth a go.
“I didn’t know English much,
so I thought this is great, I can
practice my English talking to
customers.”
He grew up in Tokyo, surrounded
by concrete and crowds,
and said his dream was always to
own a farm.
Cheffing was something he
did on the side to pay his way
through university, where he was
studying English.
“But I found studying English
was not very useful, because I
learned the basic stuff about the
culture and history but I really
couldn’t speak it much. So that’s
why I thought maybe I should go
overseas to study English.”
After moving to New Zealand
he spent several months working
on farms in the North Island,
something he said he loved.
That was when he decided to
make the ill-fated trip to Queenstown.
It wasn’t the last disaster he
ran into.
He worked his way up as a
teppanyaki chef until he earned
a role as head chef at a Kaiapoi
restaurant – but he lost his job
after that was destroyed in the
September, 2010, earthquake.
In the back of his mind he had
thought about opening a mobile
teppanyaki business for a long
time, and he said losing his job
was the push he needed to do it.
Creating his teppanyaki grill
was the first challenge, as it had
to be light enough to transport,
but he said regular customers at
the Kaiapoi restaurant had rallied
around and helped him get
on his feet.
Then a customer
approached him
asking about
starting a
franchise in
Auckland,
which is
now rapidly
expanding.
With business
booming
and most
weekends
booked more
than six
months in advance,
he said
he was looking
for a third chef to
join him in Christchurch
– but finding the right
person wasn’t easy.
Learning to talk while cooking
was harder than he had thought,
he said.
“In my first year and second
year I couldn’t talk to customers.
I had to say sorry, I’m trying to
cook here, can I talk later?”
But he said part of teppanyaki
was the showmanship, and these
days he can happily co-ordinate
talking, throwing eggs, spinning
knives and juggling pepper mills
ON THE
GO: Shin Yamashita stepped
into the unknown when he
opened New Zealand’s first
mobile teppanyaki business,
but it has been a big success.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
while cooking up perfect food.
“But it all depends on the
customers. Some love it, or they
have children there, so I’ll do it a
lot.
But
sometimes
customers
just want
to talk to
each other,
so I try not
to show off so
much.”
Now married with two young
children, he appreciated that the
job allowed him to spend time
with his family during the day.
One day, he said he would still
like to own a small farm. But in
the meantime, he said he loved
the work he did.
“And it is all because my car
broke,” he said.
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