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He bows. Just to be on the safe side, you bow back.
Smiling inscrutably he takes out a knife. You make a grab
for your chopsticks.
He reaches into the cart he’s wheeled in. From it he brings
out rows of these really beautiful fresh whole shrimps.
Suddenly, the man turns into a kind of whirling dervish.
Zip, zip, zip . . . his knife flashes through the rows like lightning.
The shrimps (now cut into bite-size morsels) seem to dance to
the center of the grill. He presses on. With magnificent, sweeping
gesture he adds freshly ground pepper to the shrimp. Then
butter. Then soy sauce. The action never stops. He even spins
around and throws sesame seeds out from over his shoulder.
At last comes the moment of truth. He flips a sizzling
shrimp directly on your plate. You taste it. You have a small fit
of ecstasy.
Naturally, that’s just the first scene. The show goes on this
way . . . course after course after course. He performs. You
eat. He performs again. You eat again. Steak. Chicken. Mouthwatering
vegetables of every variety. You’ve never had such a
feast. You’ve never seen such choreography.
Finally, it’s over. He bows. You sigh. He thanks you. You
thank him. He walks off. If you weren’t so full you’d get up
and give him a standing ovation. 23
The key to the success of the teppanyaki formula developed by Rocky Aoki
was the culinary entertainment it provided, without really challenging the
customers’ taste buds. The fact that teppanyaki was fashionable in the
United States provided an additional spur for its popularity in Europe.
The first teppanyaki restaurants began to operate in Europe during
the 1970s, before Benihana began to gain international fame. They were set
up in Germany by Kikkoman-Daitokai-Europe Ltd – a daughter company
of Kikkoman Corporation, a leading Japanese producer of soy sauce. The
first venue was opened in Düsseldorf in 1973, soon followed by Munich,
Cologne and Berlin. 24 By the 1980s, imitators of Benihana and Daitokai
mushroomed, since frying beef on a steel griddle required neither specialist
skills nor high investment. In the Netherlands, Chinese restaurateurs
eagerly embraced teppanyaki in order to deal with the crisis that the Chinese
restaurant business was experiencing in the country during the 1980s – the
market was saturated, competition tough and profit low. 25 By switching to
teppanyaki, Chinese entrepreneurs in the Netherlands were able to give
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