Wagyu is the star at Azabudai Nakamura, and it finds itself in wonderful company among exquisite dishes typically found in traditional Japanese courses. Chef Nakamura feels strongly that wagyu is an indispensable part of Japanese culture and, thus, Japanese cuisine. Having focused on teppanyaki until now, the move to the new Azabudai Hills location presented Nakamura with the opportunity to add brick oven cooking and charcoal grilling to his repertoire to serve all cuts of premium Kobe Beef in the best possible way.

On any given day, your course at Azabudai Nakamura begins with a trio of sashimi, perhaps including akagai ark shell clam from Miyagi Prefecture, Fukuoka Prefecture aoriika bigfin reef squid, and Nagasaki grouper. Next, the owan lidded bowl dish found in traditional Japanese courses is always a chance to soak up delicious aromas and flavors; in this case, the scent of ripe yuzu citrus is the accent for an elegant dish featuring amadai tilefish and heirloom Shogoin turnips.

Seafood aromas start to fill the air as the chef prepares lobster and black abalone on the teppan hotplate. While the center is heated to between 250 and 280 degrees, the edges are just around 70 degrees, and the chef uses his intimate knowledge of the hotplate to carefully place and cook each ingredient to accentuate its innate flavors. Much to the surprise of seasoned teppanyaki guests, Nakamura uses very little oil in his cooking, describing it more as a steaming process.

He does not appear to remove his focus from the hotplate, yet all the while, Nakamura is lovingly grilling Kobe Beef sirloin steak in a rogama brick oven. Cooked to juicy and tender perfection, the chef personally slices the beef before guests’ eyes, even for those dining in the private room. The course of contrasting flavors, temperatures and textures continues with the creamy goodness of puffer fish milt followed by steamed savory custard. Then the chef’s beef cheek stew arrives – a deeply satisfying yet surprisingly light creation made from beef bones and tendons simmered lovingly in plenty of port wine and accompanied by heady black truffles.

Incredible beef flavors unfold as you sink your teeth into air-dried, cured Kobe Beef bresaola, beef fillet teppanyaki, and Chateaubriand, punctuated by the refreshing taste of honeydew melon. In a shabu-shabu dish, impossibly thin pieces of Kobe beef spend just seconds in a hot dashi stock extracted from kelp aged for six years. The rice course may contain ingredients steamed together or cooked in a clay pot. In spring, a warming steamed rice dish is filled with spring flavors, like bamboo shoots, hamaguri clams, canola blossoms, and tara no me sprouts of the Japanese angelica tree, affectionately known as the king of sansai, the collective name for wild mountain vegetables.

INGREDIENTS
The incredible dining experience at Azabudai Nakamura is woven together with exquisite ingredients from across Japan. The star is Kobe beef from Kawagishi Farm, but the seafood is also unforgettable. All are delivered live to the restaurant by trusted suppliers at Toyosu Market in Tokyo. This includes live Ise-ebi lobsters from Katsuura and Boshu in Chiba Prefecture, live Ezo abalone from Chikura, also in Chiba, and live kuruma-ebi shrimp from Kumamoto Prefecture.

Wasabi arrives fresh from the lush, green land of Marusei in Azumino, Shizuoka Prefecture. It is an enduring relationship from when Nakamura met the producer during his work at the Kamikochi Imperial Hotel. The rice is an organic crop of the Hitomebore varietal grown in the Kurikoma Kogen highlands of Miyagi Prefecture. It contains plentiful umami cultivated in soil prepared over three years before planting to create a rich stock of nutrients.

For katsuobushi bonito flakes, Nakamura uses the increasingly rare honkarebushi type, prepared by steaming, sun-drying, and inoculating with mold in a long, repeated fermenting and drying process. The chef shaves the hardened fish fillets freshly as needed to a thickness of just 0.01 mm. The premium makombu kelp featured in his cooking is aged for six years before being steeped to extract flavor.