Where is the original benihana

For the cake layer, we whip up just enough of a simple white cake batter to fit into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. The cheese layer in our clone is created with a special custom combination of gelatin, Dream Whip and cream cheese so that no baking is required to firm it up. You could, of course, use a store-bought white frosting for the edge of the cake, but since you only need a small amount of frosting, the clone recipe here makes it cheaper.

The hazelnuts are candied with sugar and reduced to crumbs in a food processor. And two ounce cans of mandarin orange wedges is just the right amount for garnishing the top. Complete the Benihana experience with my copycat recipes for their Japanese onion soup , ginger salad dressing , fried rice , and hibachi chicken and steak with dipping sauces. Before your meal at the Benihana chain of hibachi grill restaurants, you are served a side salad doused in this tangy, slightly sweet, fresh ginger dressing.

When spooned over a simple iceberg lettuce salad this easy clone transforms your bowl of greens into a great start for any meal. Making the dressing is as simple as dumping the ingredients into a blender, whizzing it up, and popping it into the cooler to chill. I've seen many attempts to duplicate this coveted formula, but I think the original Benihana ginger salad dressing copycat recipe presented here comes closer to the real thing than any other recipe floating around cyberspace.

Menu Description : "It takes half a day to make this perfect combination of onion, celery, carrot and garlic. The restaurant menu claims this soup takes a half a day to make, but we can clone it in a fraction of that time using canned chicken broth I use Swanson brand.

This soup works great as a prelude to your favorite Asian dishes or other Benihana clones since it's so light and won't fill up anyone before the main course. I've included a simple technique here for making the breaded fried onions from scratch for the most accurate clone , but you can skip that step by substituting French's canned French Fried Onions that are sold in most markets. For 30 years I've been deconstructing America's most iconic brand-name foods to make the best original clone recipes for you to use at home.

Welcome to my lab. Recipe Filter. This incredible American success story really had its roots in Japan right after the war. At that time, Yunosuke Aoki, a samurai descendant and a popular Japanese entertainer together with his wife Katsu, opened a small coffee shop in Tokyo. A red flower, found in the neighbourhood streets gave the Aoki's the inspiration for the restaurant's name - Benihana - which in Japanese means "red flower.

Yunosuke would have to pedal his bicycle more than 20 miles to purchase the sugar. The family's four sons grew up with the coffee shop, which later became a full service restaurant. Each of them understood the restaurant business from the ground up - the importance of absolute cleanliness in the kitchen, using the freshest ingredients and the very best cooking tools money could buy. The eldest son, Hiroaki also grasped the important lesson of offering guests something out of the ordinary and he could not help but inherit his father's appreciation for the "theatrical".

There was something magical about this combination and the thought stayed with him as he completed college in Japan. Meanwhile, Hiroaki's athletic ability had not been overlooked. Get the freshly baked 5-minute newsletter every day except Saturdays.

And written for innovators of every industry. Sign up for the news that slaps. We use cookies to make the Hustle website a better place. Cookies help to provide a more personalized experience and relevant advertising for you, and web analytics for us. To learn more about the different cookies we're using, check out our Cookie Settings. Decline Allow Cookies. Manage consent. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website.

Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.

We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent.

You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Necessary Necessary. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Functional functional. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Analytics analytics. Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website.

These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors. But just because the Japanese Americans were free to return home didn't mean they'd have a warm reception.

So when Rocky Aoki emigrated from Japan to America, with a dream to open a Japanese restaurant for Americans, it was a long shot that his dream would come true. And yet, it did. Benihana was the brainchild of Aoki's parents, Yonosuke and Katsu Aoki. His father Yonosuke was famously descended from Samurai, and was the one who came up with the name Benihana, named after the red flower he found while walking through the rubble of war-torn Tokyo.

Rocky famously wrestled for Japan in the Olympics, before moving to America where he would become a world champion until While attending college, Aoki worked odd jobs and scooped ice cream until he was able to rent out a restaurant space in mid-town Manhattan.

Jeannie Means: And his thinking was that Americans would love the traditional proteins, shrimp, chicken, fish, steak, but cooked on a steel grill, which is called teppanyaki, and it is a unique cooking style to Japan.

In , a Japanese chef began using the cooking style to grill steaks for homesick American soldiers. It seems fitting that a Japanese cooking style, used for Americans deployed in Japan, would eventually make its way across the Pacific, to bring Japanese food to the States. Rocky Aoki knew what he was up against when he opened Benihana of Tokyo in mid-town Manhattan.

He deliberately banned any foods that might seem slippery, slimy or fishy, which were stereotypes Americans harbored about Japanese cuisine. Instead, Aoki focused on making the menu as American as possible, offering American-friendly entrees like steak and chicken that were done grilled with Japanese-style sauces.

He added live entertainment by chefs to make the meal even more appealing.