Download - Brainshare Public Online Library

Yo!Sushi. Most customers understand so little about Japan that they are
unable to recognize the false experience anyway. ‘Yo! is meant to feel new
and vibrant, to feel the way the British expect Japan to feel – young, modern
and an itsy bit wacky, but with a hint of a historical connection.’ 44 The
case of rotating sushi bars implies that the authenticity of the food served
is of little significance in Europe for the commercial success of the restaurants
marketed as ‘Japanese’.
This is also the case with the newest player in the genre of ‘Japanese
cuisine’ in Europe – the noodle bar Wagamama – which has gone beyond
the sushi boom and elevated the globalization of Japanese cuisine to a next
level. The official Wagamama cookbook published in 1994 declared that
Wagamama is not supposed to be an authentic Japanese noodle
bar. We are not concerned with tradition for its own sake,
nor with cultural purity! We believe that to be a good student
is not to reproduce the same recipe as one’s teacher, but to
adapt it, reflecting the essence of our time and making it better
by making it for ourselves and in our own way. 45
Regular Japanese–English dictionaries translate wagamama as selfishness,
self-indulgence, waywardness. However, many non-Japanese associate
the word with the phrase ‘positive eating + positive living’ coined by the
restaurant to stress the health-oriented philosophy of this new dining establishment.
46 The company puts particular stress on the healthy appeal of the
food it serves – from freshly squeezed fruit juices and a wide choice of vegetarian
alternatives to the ability to cater for customers with food allergies.
Wagamama calls itself a ‘noodle canteen’ and it certainly looks like
one – an open space filled with communal wooden tables and benches (not
chairs), with the capacity to sit up to 100–150 customers. It is an original
creation of Alan Yau, the son of Cantonese immigrants who had run a
Chinese take-away in Norfolk on the eastern coast of England. He has
since left the company and gained fame as the creator and manager of the
exclusive London restaurant Hakkasan, which is the first Chinese restaurant
in Britain to be awarded a Michelin star, and currently counted as one
of the most profitable restaurants in London. 47
The first Wagamama venue opened for business in April 1992 and in
April 2006 the enterprise operated 63 restaurants. Most of them are located
in the uk (42), followed by Australia (11), the Netherlands (3), Ireland
(2), and one each in New Zealand, Belgium, United Arab Emirates,
Denmark and Turkey. The greatest challenge for the enterprise is going
197