the true Iron Chef

Justin links to a hilarious and-- depending on how strong your stomach is-- horrifying news article about a certain half-Korean, half-Japanese, renegade Cordon Bleu chef named Kaz Yamamoto who runs Le Menu, a shadowy restaurant that serves barely legal and flagrantly illegal dishes to the rich (an idea Yamamoto cribbed from the Marlon Brando film "The Freshman").

If you're an animal lover, please don't click the above link, and try not to stare at the following photo.


The article is quite long, but worth your while. Here's a plump and tasty morsel:

Whether it's immoral or illegal, I can attest to the fact that Yamamoto does know how to cook a penguin. He leads me back to his immense, gleaming kitchen, pulls a defrosted carcass from the refrigerator and goes to work, using several knives, first one with a three-inch blade, then a series of smaller ones. It's a tad unnerving witnessing this beautiful Antarctic bird being dismembered before me. But soon Yamamoto is frying up its walnut-size brain in a Japanese omelet with shiitake mushrooms and heirloom tomatoes. The aroma soon has my tummy growling, and when the result is plated, I dig into it with relish. Magnificent! The stringy, penguin gray matter has the same texture of sliced, pickled chanterelles.

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