Interview with Matt Abergel

Chicken neck, -tendon and -tail, Matt Abergel, chef and co-owner of yakitori restaurant Yardbird in Hong Kong, leaves no part of the chicken unused. Even the knees are threaded onto skewers.

It all began at a small food stall in Inokashira Park in Tokyo. Canadian Abergel, then seventeen years old, ate his first yakitori there and fell instantly in love. “Even as a child I was a fan of barbecuing, setting things on fire and playing with fire. Here, that was combined with my favorite cut of meat: chicken and the Japanese precision involved.”

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Flip-flops

After his trip through Asia, Abergel worked in Japanese kitchens throughout Canada before moving to New York City to work under Masayoshi Takayama at Masa. That was where he developed the idea of opening an izakaya (Japanese pub) in Hong Kong. “I wanted a place where you could eat really well, but where my friends could also simply walk in wearing their flip-flops. No stiff atmosphere with white tablecloths and candlelight.”

In 2011, the time had come: together with his business partner Lindsay Jang, Abergel opened his own restaurant, Yardbird. A place where you can eat only chicken skewers grilled over charcoal. It was an instant success. Now, seven years later, he shares his recipes in his first book: Chicken and Charcoal.

Book

“I find it quite exciting. Yardbird’s menu has barely changed in seven years, but every dish is now prepared in a completely different way than it was seven years ago. Like sushi masters, we continue to develop and improve our technique. Having it in black and white now is really cool but also strange. People may read this a few years from now, but perhaps by then I will have completely changed my mind again. But for now I am mainly very proud of the book; it has turned out beautifully.”

The book is certainly beautiful, and clear too. From the type of chicken (fresh that day), the way you cut and skewer it (precisely in the middle), season it and grill it (over binchotan charcoal): everything is explained in detail with beautiful drawings and photographs. Here too, the mix of expertise and precision on the one hand and accessibility on the other applies.

Favorite

Recipes for skewers with chicken breast and chicken thigh are alternated with recipes for chicken knee and chicken gizzard. “As far as I am concerned, chicken breast is the most overrated part of the chicken. It can be delicious and we use it too, of course, but I find it the least exciting. The neck is the most underrated part. It has a lot of flavor, but naturally relatively little meat, so you need more chickens and it is therefore less economical.” His favorite recipe? “The meatball yakitori, because it best allows us to show Yardbird’s character.”

Charcoal and fresh chicken

In his kitchen, Abergel uses only a special type of chicken (triple yellow) from Hong Kong and a yakitori grill. “These chickens are raised just a few streets away from me. So I am very close to the source and they are fresher than fresh. That is the most important thing: that the chicken is fresh that day. The difference between a yakitori grill and a regular grill is that the skewers on a yakitori grill hang between two iron rods above the charcoal. As a result, the heat reaches the meat directly, instead of through the flat grate, and you can grill it beautifully all around rather than on two sides, like a hamburger.”

Tips

But what if you don’t have a yakitori grill? And how do you actually get fresh chicken? “You can easily convert your own grill with a few concrete blocks and two iron rods. And as for the chicken: if your butcher doesn’t have it or doesn’t know what you mean, ask in a Chinese or Muslim neighborhood. Live poultry is always nearby there.”

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Title: Chicken and Charcoal
Author: Matt Abergel
Publisher: Phaidon
Price: €29,95