Tokyo Italian is a cuisine all its own, according to Ozumo Concepts, the company that recently opened Magari in Los Angeles. They say it emerged in Japan’s capital in the 1990s as chefs there used Japanese ingredients to make Italian dishes. That’s how dishes like Magari’s yuzu tagliatelle became a thing, or the Hinokami, which you’ll see here: A sort of spicy Margarita with shishito peppers, yuzu and other Japanese ingredients.
In New York City, chef Victoria Blamey, briefly chef of Gotham Bar & Grill and now the head of her own restaurant, Mena, shares her techniques for making an earth-and-ocean dish of dried and fresh mussels.
And in Washington, D.C., at Destino, chef Robert Aikens walks us through how he makes pork belly with green mole and pasta. You might want to pull up a chair for that one.
Back in New York, at Aldama in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg, chef Gerardo Alcaraz makes a vegan version of a pig’s feet tostada from the Mexican state of Guanajuato.
And in Atlanta, at the health-focused fast-casual restaurant Recess, Culinary director Whitney Wood shares a nutrient-dense bowl named for the Chinese Year of the Tiger.
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