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Japanese food has become popular around the world and many Japanese restaurants have opened overseas. Among them, Yakitori (Literally, grilled chicken, but it more generally translates as Japanese skewers) are becoming popular lately. Many people think of seafood when they think of Japanese food, but Yakitori, as its name indicates, is a meat dish which grills chickens. It is very simple, but it is said that the quality depends on the cook a lot. Among Yakitori cooks, there’s a saying that says three years to master skewing, but forever to grill. To become a Yakitori master, it is believed to take one’s lifetime. So, what is Yakitori actually and what skills does it involve?

What’s Yakitori?

Yakitori is a very simple dish which grills skewered chickens that’s cut into small pieces. It has got a very long history it is believed it originates in the twelfth century, when people were forbidden to eat meat, but was allowed to eat wild birds – people skewered small bird and grilled it then and as time passed, chickens were domesticated and thus people started eating skewered cut chicken meat. The cooking method is very simple, yet the type of charcoal and the ways of grilling make a big difference in tastes. Also, the source and salts to season the chicken are very different in different Yakitori shop. Therefore, the skills of the Yakitori cook determine the Yakitori quality and therefore, the Yakitori restaurants with great cooks receive a lot of people.

To Become a Yakitori Cook

It is said, to become a Yakitori maker, you have to train for many many years. The phrase introduced earlier explains how tough it is perfectly and even for those people who are regarded as Yakitori makers, they often are still far from perfection and they keep improving their skills. To become a Yekitori maker, you first have to train at a Yakitori shop – you start from doing chores not actually cooking for couple of years. You learn from observing how the cook of the shop makes Yakitoris. Like many first-class restaurants, you have to spend quite many years just doing chores. Even when you get to cook Yakitori, as you cook in front of the customers, you have to learn the appropriate ways to conduct oneself and good customer service, and on top of that, to make high quality Yakitoris while also performing those service skills. There are many skills to learn and it takes even longer to have one’s own shop. The ones who will become first-class Yakitori makers are only a portion of those people – it is a tough journey to become a Yakitori maker.

Skills for Making Yakitori

Being a Yakitori maker requires a lot of high skills. It appears simple to cook Yakitori – just cutting meat into pieces, skewer them and grill. However, even a little bit of error in, say, grilling time will make the meat hard or burn and spoil the taste. In traditional shops, they use charcoals and therefore, it is hard to control the fire. It requires the ability to always keep an eye on the meat in order to serve at the best timing. Also, the tastes of the source and the type of salt control the taste a lot, so many Yakitori makers try to come up with the original source and find the great salts – which again, requires the makers great skills. You can tell straight away that Yakitori shops with great Yakitori makers have Yakitori that is not even comparable with those without.

The Secrets of its Popularity

Yakitori is very popular in Japan and many foreigners also go in the recent years. Yakitori originally was eaten as the snack to go with the alcohol and therefore have been quite reasonable, but as the types of customers diversified, more high-end Yakitori shops have emerged which use high quality ingredients or unique ingredients. Also, many shops now have English menu to accommodate foreign customers. Therefore, some research beforehand to see which shop will have what you want will make the experience satisfactory – in fact, many guidebooks now introduce Yakitori shops so it would be worth checking out.

The Yakitori, made by Yakitori makers who have had many many years of training, may appear a simple dish, but is a unique and amazing Japanese food. The Yakitori places that are popular among the tourists would be nice, but what is also nice to try is to find the ones that the locals love. Also, as the method itself is very simple, it would not be impossible to re-create Yakitori yourself. Why don’t you try some Yakitori instead of regular barbecues?