A plate of sashimi is complemented by wasabi at Rintaro Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. Chef/owner Sylvan Brackett, right, is particular about serving only real wasabi, not dyed-green horseradish. He buys it exclusively from Half Moon Bay Wasabi, which ships it to him the same day it’s harvested.
beginning of each dinner shift and another later, keeping each in a sealed container until ready to plate. He uses the back of a knife to scrape off the skin of the wasabi (a peeler takes too much off). Then, he grates it on a sharkskin grater. “A sharkskin is very fine, almost like sandpaper and it yields a really smooth paste,” he says. If preparing a small batch, often chefs will shave a little off the sweeter leaf end and then off the hotter root end and blend the two to maintain a uniform flavor. Brackett says any leftover grated wasabi can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen “if you don’t want to waste it … but it won’t be the same as freshly grated.” Brackett used to buy wasabi from Japan, “but it would show up just in terrible shape. It was just old, having gone through all the transportation.” Now he buys it exclusively from Half Moon Bay Wasabi, which ships it the same day it’s harvested. He notes that he appreciates and admires Roller and Hall. “They chose one of the hardest things in the world to grow and they’re doing a really good job.”
Brackett opened Rintaro in 2014 after cooking at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and restaurants in Japan (where he was born) and running his catering company, Peko Peko. When developing the concept, he was “trying to think of California as a region of Japan and what that would look like.” Wanting to buy from local farms, he says he was thrilled to discover Half Moon Bay Wasabi. Brackett suspects most of his customers had never eaten real wasabi before coming into his restaurant, but he says they seem to notice the difference between it and the horseradish they’re accustomed to. “We get a lot of people commenting that it’s delicious,” he says. “They both give you the heat, but wasabi has a natural sweetness to it. It’s a more distinct and clear flavor—like you can taste it as a vegetable—and the texture is a little smoother.” Preparation process Wasabi’s heat comes from a gas that will dissipate if left uncovered for a few hours. So, when Roller delivers his wasabi, Brackett typically stores it in a covered container in the refrigerator or buried in ice, but doesn’t freeze it, which would alter the texture. He prepares a batch at the
Linda DuBois ldubois@californiabountiful.com
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January/February 2023
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