About Yakitori

I fell in love with Yakitori because of a dining experience at Yakitori Tora, at SOHO in New York City. I came in right after they started the dinner service. The chef was still preparing the chicken. It was a wonderful flow of dance seeing him carefully dissecting it, separate the meat and bones, and well organize them into small sectors by different organs, skins, and different parts of meat with a different texture. Watching the chef making the skewers was also fascinating as well. You got a clear sense that every part of the chicken is Well utilized. There is almost no waste.

Sitting in front to the grill, watching the smoke and the waves in the air, and enjoying the burst of aroma from the combination of charcoal and chicken fat. The experience was sensational.

A Netflix show "Ugly delicious" painted similar experience in the BBQ episode. When David Chang visited Yakitori Masakichi in Tokyo, he was astonished by how delicious the chicken liver can be. " It takes 8 chicken to make one skewer" Chef Masahiko told David with the emotion of pure respect of the ingredients. It is not just a skewer, that is a heavy responsibility to make that right and delicious and meaningful. It not only shows the chefs' humble professionalism but also reconnect the link for guest back to the Ingredient and the lives.

All of these take time to achieve, and during the process, the craftsmanship needs to be improved by asking the difficult questions all the time. The interconnection that hides behind "Delicious" is massive, it includes the method, philosophy, numerous practice, insists, and empathy.

I made the yakitori and plated with previous work dark clay satin white plate. I'm experimenting new clay, glaze and new works. Also start to think, what would be the spirit and identity embed beneath my clay work and how to make them internalize within the works throughout the time.

對日式燒鳥著迷的初始是前幾年去紐約工作的時候，造訪了位於蘇活區的Yakitori Tora。 看著師傅正在肢解全雞，把每個部位都小心翼翼的分類且一一串起；從雞皮、不同的內臟，到不同的部位，都被細心的處理著。它們被以適合入口的型態、考慮碳烤後的口感組合，做最恰當的呈現。坐在吧台前面看著爐台裡面燒紅的炭火、因為高溫產生的視線波動，並著雞脂滴入炭火上面湛出的煙燻香，讓原本對炭烤直接粗獷的意象，轉化浪漫的料理形式。

想起在Netflix上《不中看的美食》燒烤篇裡面，主廚張錫鎬（David Chang)去拜訪了位於東京的Yakitori Masakichi。當主廚Masahiko Kodama 端出了蘸過了野豌豆的雞肝，初嚐之後的張感動不已。「這一串需要用八隻雞來做」Masahiko 解釋，其中的對食材的尊重與珍惜情溢乎詞。這句話背負了深沈的重量，反應了主廚知道必須用最嚴謹的態度面對料理還有生命的轉換，也同時讓食客去重新意識到料理與食材之間的連結。「讓香氣融入到食材裡是我的使命」主廚Masahiko謙遜穩重地說。

這些美好都是透過時間還有在不斷審問如何精進的過程中累積下來的。表面上的一串雞胗，雞肝，可以向不同端點去延伸細究；該用哪裡的雞隻、怎麼透過細緻且不浪費的方式處理每個部位、如何組織如何串、用什麼炭、怎麼烤才能達到美味的頂點、最後用什麼食器盛裝。簡單的東西，其實是內化了整個系統後純粹的表現。