Chef Charles Namba of Tsubaki and OTOTO shares his recipe for the iconic Japanese comfort food.
Charles Namba vividly remembers the first fourth dimension he walk into the kitchen atChanterelle , Chef David Waltuck ’s since - closed four - adept French restaurant in Tribeca .
Namba , at that point , was at the start of his career : After moving to New York City at 21 , he pass three days work his way up in the strident kitchen at the newly openedEN Japanese Brasserie . Namba , a Los Angeles - born and evoke 2d - generationJapanese - Americanchef , grew up on Japanese comforter food by merit of his female parent , but his first foray into a Gallic kitchen was a life - alter moment for him .
“ I never have intercourse what Gallic food for thought was , ” Namba recalls . “ So when I run into a Gallic kitchen for the first clock time , it was the secure experience , from lobster stock to unlike kinds of soup . It was a completely different young smell and taste to me . ”
Chicken Katsu Sando|Photo by Stan Lee for Thrillist
WhileChanterelle closed in 2009 , its spirit lives on in Namba . Now the chef and possessor of LA izakaya restaurantsTsubakiandOTOTO , he say that the moral he learned from his years cooking Gallic food in Chanterelle ’s kitchen early in his calling was foundational to his ethos in his kitchen , where he whips up a variety of Japanese ease food , from classic izakaya transportation , such as charcoal - grill Sir Tim Rice balls , tochicken katsu sandwiches .
In his kitchen , Namba says he practices the French art of subtraction , using seemingly simple , tried and true and dead on target flavour to bring out the best in his sourced ingredients .
“ One of the enceinte lessons I read from working in a French kitchen was that not a lot of unneeded things need to go on a collection plate , ” Namba says . “ It was n’t about a lot of tizzy . It was focused on simplicity and flavour . ”
Charles Namba|Photo by Stan Lee for Thrillist
Namba pronounce his menu is a culmination of his years working in French , Nipponese and Formosan - Portuguese kitchen on both coast , as well as a protection to his mother , a homecook who sell gyoza to Japanese eating house in Los Angeles . In fact , his first restaurant in Los Angeles , Tsubaki , have its name from the prescribed blossom of her hometown , Kobe .
“ My menu is everything I learned over my life , ” Namba explain . “ What I ate as a child , what I learned from Japanese masses in New York , from French cooking . I want my diners to experience what I tasted and memorize . ”
Namba walked us through his recipe for OTOTO ’s chicken katsu sandwich , an iconic Japanese comfort food with a surprising history in Gallic culinary acculturation .
Chicken Katsu Sando|Photo by Stan Lee for Thrillist
What is a katsu sando?
As its name suggests , a katsu sando is a cutlet sandwich usually made with Nipponese milk breadstuff , rip up clams , tonkatsu sauce , dijon mustard and fry pork or chicken cutlets .
The most archetypal style of katsu sando is made with a golden - fried pork barrel cutlet , also know as tonkatsu , but really , katsu sandos make out in all forms — from low - browham katsu sandwichesusually found on convenience depot ledge across Japan , to effete wagyu beef katsu sandwich serve well at speciality restaurant .
Even a simple porc katsu sando can vary bet on the cut of meat used for the tonkatsu , from a hire - katsu sando made using thin porc tenderloin , to rosu - katsu sandwich , which uses a pork cut with marbled layers of fatty tissue .
Tonkatsu|Photo by Stan Lee for Thrillist
While katsu sandos were invented in 1935 bytonkatsu restaurant Isento accommodate geishas who want to eat on tonkatsu without ruin their lipstick , tonkatsu has its origins in thefirst exchanges that Japan had with Franceafter the goal of both Japan ’s isolationist insurance policy in the 1860s and ban on essence - feeding .
According toJapan ’s National Diet Library , in 1868 , after it first opened its ports to westerly craft , Japan ’s new Meiji Restoration government found the country ’s first westerly settlement in Tsukiji , the grounds for Japan ’s first hotels and restaurants aimed at Western bargainer . Tsukiji ’s first hotel ’s eatery , helmed by Gallic chef Louis Begeux , soon became the way through which Gallic cooking and cuisine would be introduced to Japan at orotund — chieftain among them , deep - fried côtelettes , which was later adapted into tonkatsu by Japanese chefs .
Today , katsu sandos are as omnipresent as they are iconic . For Namba , katsu sandos arouse nostalgic memories of his mother , who packed him pork barrel katsu sandos in his lunchbox when he went to Japanese Saturday shoal in Los Angeles . “ My mom cooked all our meals , ” he remember . “ It would be in my lunchbox . There would always be some left out when I got home . It would always be served with curry . ”
Chicken Katsu Sando|Photo by Stan Lee for Thrillist
Namba ’s chicken katsu sando recipe is a classic recipe , one that reflect the tested and genuine flavors and ingredients used since the sandwich ’s origin some 80 years ago . “ I use poulet instead of pork because it ’s a hatful juicier and it ’s hard to overcook it , ” he say .
The most authoritative ingredient , according to Namba , are the bread and panko . For bread , if you ’re in the Los Angeles area , he recommends using bread bake by Little Tokyo’sYamazaki Bakery . For panko , Namba advises capture the most expensive panko make uncommitted at yourlocal Japanese mart — when it add up to katsu sando , quality matters .
OTOTO’s Chicken Katsu Sando Recipe
Ingredients:• 6 - ounce Jidori pelt - on boneless chicken thigh ( cut into 3 - ounce cuts)• ½ cup flour• 2 eggs• 1 cup panko bread crumbs• 2 slices of Yamazaki bread or Japanese Milk River bread• 1 tablespoonful Tonkatsu sauce• 1 teaspoon ketchup• 1 tablespoon ground sesame seeds• ¼ wedge shaved cabbage•Kewpie mayonnaise• Optional : pickled jalapeños
Prep:1 . Shave a good amount of unripened cabbage and shock it in a trough of ice - cold water.2 . Coarse travail your panko.3 . Lightly pledge two slice of pelf . “ Do n’t pledge it too much — you desire it to be soft in the middle , ” Namba says.4 . commingle your tonkatsu sauce with a dash of ketchup and sesame seeds to taste
Directions:1 . Cut the 6 - apothecaries' ounce poulet thigh into two 3 - ounce piece . Lightly sprinkle Strategic Arms Limitation Talks on top.2 . drag the chicken thigh in flour , then dip into an nut wash.3 . Dredge the chicken thighs in panko.4 . hot up your cooking oil to 350 ° farad . Deep youngster both three - ounce thigh for six minutes.5 . Spread Kewpie mayo on both slices of Yamazaki bread . Create a layer of plane clams on the slice of bread.6 . Place both chicken thighs on top of the cabbage and drizzle with “ a good amount ” of tonkatsu sauce . ( Optional : top with pickled jalapeños for a bitch of heat.)7 . veer the crusts off and eat while hot !
