Sushi rock star at Uni

Youji Iwakura, the chef de cuisine at the modern-Japanese Uni Sashimi Bar, grew up in Japan and came to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music, as a singer. He first studied funk, and lately he’s doing some Stevie Wonder on the piano.

But at the sushi bar, he’s more of a jazz artist.

Many graduate from Berklee and become waiters. He became a Sushi Chef at Ginza in Brookline. He tried the front of the house for a while, bartending at Troquet and then a general manager at a few local Asian spots. In 2004, he returned to the “back of the house” at Ken Oringer’s Uni sashimi bar at the Eliot Hotel, and in 2005 it was named Boston Magazine’s Best of Boston: Best seafood.

But to further hone his skills, he returned to Japan for two years at an upscale Japanese brasserie. When he came back to Uni, he was named Chef de Cuisine, and continues to wow his customers.

Including one customer, as detailed in a recent Boston Magazine article, who was especially curious about his recipes, even taking notes. Some of Iwakura’s techniques allegedly made its way into the customer’s own sushi bar, O Ya.

The former music major said the chef flattered him, just as Prince emulates James Brown. “To create something, to compose music, you have to learn the style of soul music, not just imitate it.

“Someone can try to get a recipe out of here. But in just two months it will change again…A recipe is only 10 percent. Philosophy is more important.”

Iwakura is not the sushi chef who slices up a few pieces of raw fish and lays them on a wasabi’d finger of rice. The menu reflects what ’s fresh and available, especially what’s flown in daily from Japan.

But it’s not just about the fresh fish. He stocks his sushi bar with a huge spectrum of flavor. His sea urchin, undulled with preservatives, is served on his homemade warm tofu, seasoned with 7 spice Togarashi and roasted white sesami seeds, served in Warishita, traditional soy-dashi sauce, topped with Chardonnay gelee, Tomburi, a vegan caviar, and Youji's green shiso yuzu kosho vinaigrette.

He beams over his warm tofu, the only one of its kind in town, a copy of a recipe he found in a Japanese brasserie in NYC. “I could serve this tofu in Japan,” he says proudly.

The menu also depends on his whims. Lately he’s on an apple kick, because fall means apples.

Uni has just 21 seats, a third of which are at the sushi bar, so you can watch him work his magic five out of seven days a week in the fall. His autumn menu will include savory items such as charcoal grilled duck and mushrooms, "sandwiched" like a Japanese panini into a hasami-yaki style, with layers of ingredients skewered together and grilled, then drizzled with sauce. This "deconstruction of a hasami-yaki" will be the last course of a 7-course tasting menu, for $85 including 1 dessert course.

Another popular sea urchin item on menu is "Uni Spoon", quail egg yolk topped with sea urchin and caviar, served on a soup spoon, one of classic menu item at Ken Oringer's Uni Sashimi Bar.

Favorites include his rather simple tuna ceviche. But within his tiny sushi counter are a full palette of sauces and squeezebottles for the items he creates on the fly.

The recipe he shows today is a bit complicated because it involves using a lot of sauces he’s already created ahead of time. But it’s fall, and a recipe like this is fun for couples who tend to stay home when it gets cold, he says.

He sets the scene: “You’re home all day, and you say, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll go to Russo’s and get these ingredients, listen to music, we’ll sing together… and your husband will say, ‘I like your cooking better, forget about Chef Youji.’”

Here’s a recipe, with lots of notes.

Smoked Wild Bluefin Otoro and Grilled Porcini with Kobe Fat Powder

4 servings

"This is the kind of thing for the season," he said. "You expect some smokiness in autumn. Like you would do for some spice in a gazpacho in summer," which was a popular item that "I do not put it up for the first thing on my list because it's not really in season anymore." This recipe is subject to be changed, like many of his creations that change or improvise time to time, but it's something he's going to be offering more this November. "People enjoy tasting seasonal flavor with it," he says.

The ingredients:

* 4 sashimi slices of smoked o-toro (cold smoke with applewood)
* A porcini mushroom, sliced into four pieces, grilled on charcoal
* kosher salt and black pepper for seasoning

First, you need a seasonal tuna in good quality. "It doesn't have to be bluefin. Any toro (fatty part of tuna) is fine," he says, suggesting calling ahead to Kotobukiya in Porter Square to see when they flew some in fresh that day. "Toro is probably not available every day." He says he often likes to use chu-toro, which he says tends to have more flavor than o-toro, “which just has straight-up fat.”

To smoke the o-toro, you put them in a smoker with applewood chips, that you can get at Russo's in Watertown, or Home Depot, with an underliner of ice tab so that the result will be cold smoke. The key is to keep the toro away from charcoal. “You just want to impart a smoke flavor into the fish,” he says.

To add a mushroom confit: place mushroom slices, canola, any herbs you like, such as thyme, in a cheesecloth, over top of flame over low 150-degree oven.

Saute a little garlic until brown, and set aside.

Just warm up o-toro slices in a toaster oven set at 200 degrees.

Slice the mushroom into four slices, sprinkle with kosher salt to prevent them from shrinking and to bring out their flavor. Place it on a small stovetop ceramic grill, known as Hida-Konro, Hibachi or Shichirin, slowly heated with oga-bincho, formed Japanese charcoal, or any other quality charcoal, in the ceramic, until you can hear it sizzle.

To make sauce:

* Start off with a small diced sweet onion seasoned with salt and pepper, heated up slowly in a little neutral oil (preferably an oil infused with porcini mushroom).
* Add half of crispy garlic, grilled mushroom, and 1 oz. dry sake.
* Add 2 to 3 ounces mushroom broth or vegetable broth.
* Add 4 tablespoons of Youji's yakiniku (see below for Korean-style Japanese steak sauce,) then simmer.
* Add 2 teaspoons of unsalted butter, then emulsify.





To plate them

• Place warmed up smoked o-toro slices onto plate.

• Top with grilled porcini slices and sauce.

• Finish with remaining crispy garlic, chives and Kobe Fat Powder.

About that Kobe Fat Powder: since his restaurant uses real Wagyu beef, and it's a precious piece of meat, he tries not to waste any of it. So he'll take the fat cut from the Wagyu, melt it down, and blend it in a food processor with tapioca maltodextrin (the ratio is 5 parts tapioca to one part beef fat).

This wasn't part of the recipe he wrote out, but he can't help completing the dish without it:

• He adds apple chips as garnish: slice apples into thin chips, steep them in a simple syrup for a short time, then put them on a lightly sprayed tray, to make them easier to >remove. Dry them in an 180-degree oven for four-five hours.

• He also edges the plate with a lemon balsamic reduction and mulled apple cider puree.

"My imagination when finishing up this plate is like an Apple Crumble, with the crumb being the Kobe fat powder, onion, and crunchy garlic," he says. "I am always, always, thinking about the season."



If this recipe is a bit complicated, he says don’t worry about getting it exactly. More important is to understand your ingredients and to enjoy the process. Says Iwakura, "This recipe here is just an example. The most important thing in cooking is to maximize its flavor with each one of those ingredients. If you do, you are a chef."



Sidebar box:

Youji's Yakiniku Sauce

(makes one pint)

Part A:

Usukuchi soy sauce 8oz.

Water 1.5oz.

Mirin 1oz.

Sugar 70g

Glucose 1 tea spoon

Konbu 1 ea.

Apple 1/4

Lemon 1/4

Part B

Korean pepper paste 25g

Sesame oil 3oz.

Grated garlic 15g

The instructions:

* Bring Part A to simmer, for 5 minutes.
* Cool to room temperature, then strain.
* Mix with Part B in a large mixing bowl