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(video by Eater.com) "Rarely does chef Masa Takayama of Manhattan sushi shrine Masa allow cameras into his restaurant. But Eater's Kat Odell scored a seat at his bar to taste through America's best omakase." #SushiChef

In the heart of San Francisco, you find the soul of Classic Tokyo Style Shoyu Ramen. Born in Indonesia, Leo found his way to San Francisco where he encountered Ramen. Kirimachi Ramen started as a pop-up in 2012 on Broadway street in North Beach: a tiny 30-seat restaurant serving only Tonkotsu Ramen. The original shop got some publicity and cult followings. For two years, Leo and his wife Febry served one bowl at a time until they moved to the current location at Embarcadero: Bigger and close to many downtown offices and lunch crowds. When asked about the intimacy of small Ramen shops in Japan, compared to the current bigger location, Leo says, “Personally, I like to see people eat, interact with them and learn how they eat. In Japan, I think Ramen is food for common people. When the shop is smaller, chefs can focus more on Ramen. Originally, I wanted to open a shop similar to Japanese style, and we couldn’t find any place in San Francisco. It was either big or, well, bigger. So, we just have to approach my customer differently.” Surely, at Kirimachi Ramen, they approach differently. He makes broth from scratch and noodles from scratch. Leo also offers “customization” which is written on the menu. “Lots of customers don’t read the menu, but we actually offer choices – less salty or more salty Softer noodles, and so on. They can tell us when they order their Ramen.” Every day, Leo and Febry get ready to pump out Ramen noodles starting to prep around 8 AM, making broth to serve lunch at 11:30 AM, and continuing on dinner till 7 PM. In the afternoon, Leo tackles the noodle-making machine located at the corner of the restaurant, behind stocked bags of flour. Not too many Ramen shops in San Francisco make their own noodles, let alone, have a noodle-making machine inside the restaurant. “What’s that machine for?” happens to be the most frequently asked question from customers, according to Febry. Before he started Kirimachi Ramen, Leo worked as a manager at hotels and also a waiter at a sushi restaurant. He even has MBA. “I always wanted to make Ramen and that is why I started a Ramen shop.” Leo is self-taught. He never worked at a Ramen shop, though, he did attend a one-week Ramen class in Tokyo and learned how to make broth and noodles. “When I taste food, I can remember the taste. I really like Ramen, so I tasted many Ramens in San Francisco and Japan and can remember what I liked.” During the pop-up years, Leo and Febry made frequent trips to Japan to taste and study Ramen including the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. There are three Ramen shops I really like in Japan. Taishoken is pretty old-school Shoyu. For Tonkotsu, there is a shop in Fukuoka with no MSG. I like Tsuta in Tokyo, which got one Michelin star. I like their style of soup. I went there before they got the star, waited in the line for almost 5 hours.” When I tasted Leo’s Yuzu Shoyu Ramen, it was similar to Tokyo style Shoyu Ramen they used to make a few decades ago. “People like Tonkotsu in San Francisco, so we make Tonkotsu, but my favorite is Shoyu, like the one at Taishoken,” Leo says. (Kirimachi Ramen Kuro Tonkotsu, 2013) (Kirimachi Ramen Yuzu Shoyu, 2016) He says consistency is one of the most important aspects of being a Ramen chef. “The broth and the noodles, we make everything from scratch here.” They even had their Ramen bowls custom made by a Japanese artist, Thomas Arakawa, who is based in San Jose. “I had a specific size and color in mind and couldn’t find one at the store and then, I found a bowl by Thomas. It was perfect. After we got the bowls, we found out that the bowls kept the soup warm longer than the ones sold at a store.” When I asked Leo “What’s next?” he told me about the Ramen class. “We are teaching people how to make Miso Ramen so that they can make it at home.” Kirimachi Ramen 3 Embarcadero Ctr San Francisco, CA 94111 (415) 872-9171 #Business #NewExperience #Hospitality #Food #Happiness #Interviews

Participants made Dungeness Crab California Roll, Spicy Tuna, and as an added bonus, made Kampachi, and Tombo/Hawaiian Albacore Tuna Sashimi. #SushiClasses #SaturdayBrunch #Seafood #Recommendations #Fun

Special Roll was the 49ers Roll. #SushiClasses #Homemade #SustainableFish #Happiness

These photos are from our monthly Sushi Making Class "SELECT." Thank you everyone for attending the class - all of your rolled looked great! #SushiClasses #Events #Services #Recommendations #Homemade

Sushi Kit, $59.95 Set includes hangiri tub, bamboo rolling mat, and rice paddle. Perfect for making sushi rice and rolls at home. Nigiri Sushi Mold, $14.95 Just put Sushi rice and fish in the mold and press. It's very simple and you will have Nigiri Sushi. #News #SushiKit #Homemade

I had the pleasure of working with Dan and his company, Domestic | Match for the past several years. Domestic | Match is the Bay Area’s most exclusive domestic staffing agency. Thanks to Dan, I was able to fulfill my goal of becoming a private sushi chef, serving various prestigious private clients in the San Francisco Bay Area. Though I never met Dan in person, and we only communicated via emails and phone calls, I immediately liked his style and felt that I would like to work with him because I felt I could trust him and he was running a great business. He is very soft-spoken, calm, and firm at the same time. Well, I guess my feeling turned out to be correct – Domestic | Match just received the 2016 DEMA Agency of the Year award. Here is the picture of the award. So, here is an interview I did a couple of years ago, which I never published. (sorry about the delay, Dan.) Q: Would you briefly describe how you started your company and where the inspiration came from? Dan: Domestic | Match is a household staffing agency based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We help families find the ideal staff for their home, estate managers, butlers, housekeepers, et cetera. We also have a division of Domestic | Match called Private Chef | Match, we work with clients around the world who have the need for private chefs to work on their estates, aircraft, or yachts. After many years of working as a recruiter for a private chef placement agency, I decided to take the leap and open Domestic | Match! Before working as a recruiter, I was a private chef and estate manager for families around the world. Domestic Staffing is foreign to many recruiters; I believe that it’s almost impossible for recruiters to understand private service unless they have worked for a private family themselves. Q: What’s your company’s Unique Selling Point? Dan: We have been there; we understand private service and work to make smart matches. An equally important selling point is just plain old honesty and integrity. It’s such a small world, bending the truth to make a dollar is a means to an end. Q; What is it that your clients love about Domestic | Match? Dan: Clients have been very excited by the candidate profile page on our websites. They love to read the bios prepared by the candidates; it helps give them a glimpse into the candidate’s background. We also offer very personal service; we visit the client’s in their home to get a better understanding of their needs. It helps us to explain the job opportunity to interested candidates. Q: What is the most valuable asset in your company and why? Dan: There is only one answer to this question; it’s the relationships that we form with our candidates. Domestic | Match will always be about people. Our fun tech toys are exciting but helping someone find their dream job trumps everything! Q: Did you have a mentor when you started your business? If so, how did your mentor come into your life? Dan: I really did not have a mentor in the traditional sense of the word, I turned to my wife for support and guidance as we built the business. I also brought on a consultant to help me with the tedious tasks, business licenses, securing insurance, et cetera. Q: If you were to become a mentor for someone who is thinking of starting a business, what is some of the advice you can give? Dan: It seems obvious but make sure that the market will support your business, research, and then research some more. Get to know your competition and build your business to be a better option for future clients. I would also recommend working with a business coach, it’s important to have someone who is entirely unbiased on the team. Q: What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve made that, in turn, made you and your company stronger than before? How did you turn that around? What was the most important thing in turning those situations around? Dan: Our biggest mistake was over-complicating our application process; our initial process proved to be terribly popular, to say the least. We are currently redesigning our application and hope to have the most user-friendly version out soon. Keeping an open mind and listening is absolutely crucial for any business owner. Q: How important is it for your company to utilize the latest technology such as the web, social net, and mobile technology? Dan: Technology is extremely important for us; it is the backbone of our service. At the moment we are working on making our website more “mobile-friendly”, we made this decision because we track our website traffic daily, we can see what percentage of our visitors are on a mobile device - it’s a much higher number than we imagined. We also work with an amazing Applicant Tracking System that is light years ahead of our old system. Being fast and organized is crucial to our success. Q: What are some of the challenges your company is facing right now? Growth. It’s a wonderful challenge to have. We are just in our second year of business and staffing requests have exceeded our expectations, we are actively searching for a skilled recruiter to join our team. Q: What do you love the most about your job? Dan: I love making people happy; it’s exciting to know that I played a small role in someone’s professional life. Last year we worked with an amazing candidate who had just moved to the US a couple of years prior, we were able to secure her a position with one of our clients - she told me that we helped make her American dream come true, it doesn’t get much better than that! Q: How do you see your business 5 to 10 years from now? Dan: Domestic | Match will be one of the nations’ leaders in domestic staffing and will have offices in several metropolitan areas around the country. Domestic | Match 501 Walnut Street | Second Floor San Carlos, California 94070 #Interviews #Business #Recommendations #StaffingAgency #PrivateClients

Special Sushi Class at UC Berkeley, for members of Food Science and Tech at Cal. #SushiClasses #Culture #Unique #Classes

Traditionally in Japan, miso soup is made by adding miso paste to dashi stock. Dashi is made from kelp called Konbu and Katsuobushi, dried fish flakes. There is powdered dashi you can add water to make a quick Dashi. If buying miso paste and making dashi or powdered dashi is too much, there is so-called Miso Broth. This particular Miso Broth by Imagine uses no dashi broth, instead, adding vegetables like Onion and Ginger to the Miso Paste, thus, making it vegan. All you need to do is just add any fresh vegetables, meats, or fish to make miso-flavored soup. You can also add some broth. #Ingredients #Food #Style #Homemade

Participants made California Roll with Dungeness Crab from Washington, Spicy Tuna with Yellowfin Tuna from San Diego, Hand Roll with King Salmon from New Zealand. Our next class is on March 25th and we have classes every month. To view the details and register, click here. #SaturdayBrunch #2017 #LunchTrip #SushiClasses #Tools #Surprises

Sushi: Food for the eye, the body & the soul, by Ole G. Mouritsen Probably, you've never heard of Ole G. Mouritsen. I certainly never have, until I stumbled upon his book, at a local library, when I was casually browsing through cookbooks. Mouritsen is not a sushi chef. He is not even a professional chef. He is a professor of biophysics in Denmark, specializing in "statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, computer simulation techniques, phase transitions and critical phenomena, biomembrane physics and chemistry, interfacial physical chemistry, and soft matter physics, with applications within biomedicine, food science, and drug delivery." (you can see Professor Mouritsen's complete profile here. ) In his book, Professor Mouritsen describes his journey in writing this book, "I made it my goal to write a sort of primitive ‘cookbook’ to convey to my fellow citizens my passion for sushi and Japanese Way of preparing food. But this project languished untouched in my filing cabinet drawer for a long time." What seemed like a simple cookbook project turned into a book that only talks about the ingredients and recipes, but it also talks about scientific explanations like "Why does shrimp turn red when it's cooked?" Professor Mouritsen discusses the history, tools to make sushi, sushi-eating etiquette, types of sushi, and most importantly, the book talks about the Japanese culture and philosophy. The last part, to me, is probably very important to me, as I view Japanese cuisine as philosophy, before cuisine. Because Professor arisen offers a scientific explanation of many of the whys of sushi, it really satisfied my interest which came from molecular gastronomy. From this book I learned: The reason why tuna's flesh is red, in scientific terms The science of taste, smell, and flavor How our sensory (smell) system works Wasabi is NOT horseradish: it belongs to the cabbage family Why are the muscles of wild salmon and sea trout pink, red, or orange? Fresh fish and shellfish do not smell "Fishy" and the scientific reasons why Where does the "fishy" smell of the fish come from and why Freezing the crystallization of water and its effect on the flavor of fish Why happy fish tastes better than stressed (unhappy) fish Why it's always better to keep fish on a bed of ice, instead of keeping it in a refrigerator And the list goes on and on. The book is beautiful. The first half of the book is more like a college textbook, filled with detailed scientific explanations, and the rest of the book is about tools, ingredients, fish, preparation techniques, and sushi recipes. If you are looking for a simple sushi cookbook, this is NOT the one for you, however, if you are curious about the science of sushi, like me and Professor Mouritsen, I'm confident that this book will satisfy your hunger for the knowledge you seek. View Sushi, food for the eye, the soul & the body on Amazon. #Books #Reviews #Recommendations #Sushi

José Cerdá is co-owner and chef talks about his philosophy and approach to his sushi at HOZE RESTAURANT, Sweden. Stigbergsliden 17 414 63, Göteborg Sweden #Sushi #Scandinavian #Style #Restaurants #New #Design #Edomae