Wagyu katsu sando is the most expensive sandwich in the world
The Asian-inspired restaurant Taiko at the Conservatorium Hotel, run by one of my favorite chefs, Schilo van Coevorden, is celebrating its fifth anniversary. To mark the occasion, he is inviting an international top chef to make a guest appearance five times. That is how I ended up sitting down with Japanese rock-star chef Hisato Hamada for a twelve-course (!) wagyu dinner—and eating his world-famous sandwich.
Wagyumafia
Hisato Hamada from Tokyo is co-owner of one of Japan’s best-known restaurants—and its only members-only restaurant—Wagyumafia in Tokyo. Together with part of his crew, he flew to Amsterdam for two days, bringing a generous portion of wagyu, Japan’s most celebrated beef.
A $180 hot-beef sandwich
Wagyu is not only top of the bill in Japan; the meat is praised worldwide for its rich, buttery flavor. The twelve-course (!) wagyu dinner (€185 p.p.) sold out within a day. Hamada is a celebrity, after all: with his hysterically expensive, $180 sandwich, the ‘wagyu katsu sando’, he created a genuine internet sensation. Global stars such as David Beckham and Ed Sheeran are queuing up for this sandwich.
Call me a snob, call me crazy, but I wanted to be there. Even though I don’t eat meat. Well, except for one kind: wagyu. I remember the first time I ate wagyu as if it were yesterday; I had never tasted meat so refined and almost erotic. But could I, a self-proclaimed wagyutarian, survive twelve courses?
What’s up with wagyu?
Maybe you’re wondering now: $180 for a sandwich, €185 for a dinner; what’s up with wagyu?! Well, it’s all about the marbling. That means the fat isn’t around the meat, but actually inside it. ‘Regular’ meat has a rim of fat and is smooth and evenly pink-red in the middle, or has coarse veins of fat. Wagyu has extremely fine fat marbling. The finer, the better. And it’s found throughout the entire animal. Add to that the good feed, the good life, and the Japanese chefs who create incredible dishes with this meat—or serve it in all its purity.
FEBO croquette, but just a little different
To introduce Hisato Hamada to Dutch food culture, Schilo took him on a day-long tour of our culinary gems, including good old FEBO. He based the first dish on the veal croquette: a wagyu croquette topped with white truffle. Utter decadence and an incredible flavor. Crunchy on the outside (crispier than a regular croquette) and velvety soft inside. The tone was set immediately!
Wagyu and toro
What followed was a succession of small dishes with grand flavors. Such as raw wagyu with raw toro—the fatty belly section of bluefin tuna, which is just as wonderfully soft and creamy as wagyu.
Uni wagyu
Also obscenely delicious: uni wagyu; sea urchin sushi with thinly sliced wagyu, briefly seared with a chef’s torch.
Sometimes you have a dish that genuinely leaves you speechless, and this was one of them. So soft, so elegant, yet so rich in flavor. Wow!
Wagyu katsu sando
Then came the sandwich, even the white bread for which had come from Japan. It was served with plenty of spectacle, and once it’s in your hand, you can hardly believe that your teeth slide through the meat as if you’re biting into a soft pack of butter. Un-be-lievable how tender and buttery-soft it is! And also: irresistibly delicious! The piece we were served was, incidentally, a quarter of the regular sandwich. A $45 snack, in other words. And quite filling!
Bao with wagyu tongue
Another very special dish: bao filled with wagyu tongue. I’m not usually enthusiastic about tongue, but this dish was once again extraordinarily tender and soft, with a very elegant flavor. By then I was becoming quite full. Thanks to its so-called marbling, wagyu is not only incredibly tender; because of the fat, the meat is also very filling, meaning that in principle you need to eat up to a third less of it than other meat. And to think that the main course was still to come…
Slurp like a boss
That was the Japanese noodle dish ‘ramen’, in this case WAGYUJIRO, the world’s first 100% wagyu ramen. A ramen with a loyal following of fans—just check out #slurplikeaboss for videos and photos of wagyu slurpers around the world. The broth is cooked for 24 hours, with, naturally, wagyu. The flavor is intense and good—very, very good. Wagyu continues to surprise, even after eight courses. But I admit: halfway through this bowl of delight, I surrendered. Besides its rich and unparalleled flavor, this dish was also exceptionally filling.
But what an amazing experience it was! Wagyu is and will remain the most delicious meat on earth to me. I proudly wear the honorary title of wagyutarian!
Want to try Wagyumafia dishes?
You can! In the coming months, a number of Wagyumafia’s signature dishes will remain on the menu at Taiko Bar, including the katsu sando (through September 2020). And believe me: you want this! Every bite is more than worth the price!
Next guest chef
Would you also like to join a dinner with a famous chef? The next top chef is already preparing to come to the Conservatorium Hotel. Bobby Geetha is the executive chef responsible for the (eighteen!) restaurants of Asha’s in the Middle East and England. He will be in Amsterdam on April 5 & 6. The final tables can still be booked here. Tickets can be ordered here.
Read also:
- Taiko and the king of crabs
- I asked star chefs about their ultimate guilty pleasure
- Yuzucello: the ultimate Japanese tipple
