New York City: Morimoto (December 2010)

Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and leading American restaurateur Stephen Starr opened a New York City location of their immensely popular Philadelphia restaurant, Morimoto in January 2006. The 12,000-square foot Japanese restaurant  is a premier dining destination for Manhattan’s connoisseurs of cuisine and style. Chef Morimoto, acclaimed for his ability to integrate Western ingredients into traditional Japanese cuisine such as tempura, sushi, and sashimi, offers uniquely contemporary Japanese cuisine, revolutionizing the New York restaurant scene, much as he did while serving as executive chef of Nobu. Chef Morimoto, born and raised in Hiroshima, learned the art of sushi and traditional Kaiseki cuisine by training under several of his country’s esteemed master chefs. After running his own restaurant in Japan for five years, Chef Morimoto moved to New York City to explore Western cooking styles. Fifteen years later, he has become well known for his unsurpassed culinary talent in fusing international ingredients into culinary masterpieces, best demonstrated in the TV show Iron Chef. Among Chef Morimoto’s passions is his collection of traditional Japanese culinary tools. The contemporary Japanese menu infuses traditional dishes with Western ingredients and preparation techniques. Morimoto’s sashimi salad appetizing platter of seared toro, smoked salmon, barbeque eel, tuna and hamachi presented in blond wood box and flavored with five different sauces. Other signature dishes include The Duck, Duck, Duck is roasted duck leg and a “duck sandwich” (made with cucumber and a foie gras infused croissant) accented with a red miso sauce and a soft duck egg. Designed by world-class architect Tadao Ando, Morimoto is located directly underneath New York’s exciting Highline project. The stoic steel facade is highlighted with an archway and the largest traditional Japanese noren curtain ever created to welcome guests. The bi-level restaurant is separated into a 160-person seated dining area and a 40-person lounge in the lower level. Ando achieves a Zen-like serenity throughout the space by using glass privacy walls between tables, rice paper walls, and an organic ceiling that resembles the raked sand of Eastern rock gardens. Morimoto boasts a 1,500-square foot exposition kitchen, surrounded by a 24-seat wooden sushi bar, where diners can watch Chef Morimoto prepare his signature dishes. Overlooking the exposition kitchen is the omakase bar, a table where eight very fortunate patrons will enjoy a true Japanese culinary experience. Each guest is to remove their shoes as is tradition and be seated, and then Chef Morimoto and his chosen team will specially select and cook the meal for the table – the Omakase, or chef’s tasting menu. Leading guests downstairs to the lounge is a sparkling sculpture - a wall made of 17,000 Tynant spring water bottles that weighs nearly 9 tons. Furniture for the restaurant was designed by Ross Lovegrove and produced by high-end furniture maker Poltrona Frau. Famed lighting designer Arnold Chan of Isometrix is responsible for the lighting throughout the entire space. Morimoto brings together Japan’s most esteemed chef with Japan’s most  award-winning architect. This is the first of architect Ando’s projects in New York. He has created high-profile projects in Japan, Europe, and the United States, including the Buddhist Water Temple in Awaji Shima overlooking Osaka Bay, fashion designer Tom Ford’s New Mexico home, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Texas, and the Pulitzer Museum in St. Louis Missouri. In 1995, he was named the eighteenth Laureate of The Pritzker Architecture Prize, his profession’s highest honor.