By KEN MIYAZAKI/ Staff Writer
May 2, 2024 at 17:59 JST
Eight apprentice chefs are learning cooking and customer service skills while they serve hungry customers at an outlet of the Korean barbecue chain Yakiniku Toraji near JR Tokyo Station.
“Sometimes I am slow in taking orders, but I am getting used to it,” said Yudai Araki, 23, one of the trainees. “I am grateful that I can gain experience on the job.”
Diners are filling Korean barbecue and sushi restaurants staffed with chef trainees because the dishes are discounted 20 percent or more compared with their principal outlets.
The quality of meat and other ingredients used at the Yakiniku Toraji Training Center Store is the same as at ordinary outlets, but the prices of all menu items are 20 percent cheaper.
For example, the standard course, which is offered at a tax-inclusive 6,000 yen ($38) at ordinary outlets, is available for 4,800 yen.
The store opened three years ago to train new staff under the direction of supervisors.
“Although they make mistakes, including in serving dishes, customers warmly offer advice as ‘teachers,’” said Naoya Kamohara, the outlet’s manager.
He said seats were fully booked for the two upcoming weekends.
Onodera Food Service, which operates sushi restaurants under the Ginza Onodera brand, opened an outlet in Tokyo's Ginza district in 2022 where three chef trainees serve sushi.
Menu items at the Touryumon (Gateway to success) outlet are about 25 to 33 percent cheaper than the group’s flagship high-end sushi restaurant, where the chef's choice goes for a tax-inclusive 30,000 yen, although the same ingredients are used.
It has been said that newcomers need about eight years to become a full-fledged sushi chef, and the company is trying to shorten that period by training them at the outlet.
A company representative said some customers would leave angrily because apprentices could not answer questions about the types of fish they had purchased that day.
On weekends, reservations are accepted in front of the outlet on the day, but seats are quickly occupied by customers, including many foreign tourists and young people.
Three chefs who underwent training at Touryumon are already working at other group restaurants.
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Yudai Araki slices beef under guidance from his senior at the Yakiniku Toraji Training Center Store in Tokyo’s Marunouchi district. (Ken Miyazaki)
