What I Learned During My Day at Benihana School | Eater

"A long-running teppanyaki steakhouse that opened in Midtown Manhattan in 1964 and was popularized in the U.S. for turning precision cooking into dinner theater, where chefs flip shrimp tails, sculpt fried rice into hearts, slice steak on the hot griddle and build a flaming onion “volcano.” The restaurant mixes a fairly fixed menu—shrimp, steak, mushrooms with bean sprouts and chicken fried rice, once praised in early reviews for delicately browned shrimp with sansho dipping sauce—with a campy, performative atmosphere (tiki cocktails and sake bombs are common accompaniments). Its founder, a former wrestler who expanded the concept into a national chain, deliberately marketed the experience as accessible entertainment for American diners; that history and the restaurant’s links to teppanyaki’s postwar popularity among U.S. servicemen help explain both its appeal and critiques that it traffics in Orientalist expectations. The chain now offers a “Be the Chef” program — an hour-long, $300 hands-on training that lets guests try classic tricks under a professional’s guidance and then perform for friends in a private room; the lesson often produces a euphoric “flow” state during practice but can feel pressured and mortifying once performing for an audience, with the pro stepping in when timing and volume overwhelm the amateur. Decades after its founding, the spot remains beloved for its spectacle even as it has been reassessed as more show than strict cultural authenticity." - Jaya Saxena