It's Teppanyaki, not Hibachi

     A question asked of me recently prompted a slightly deeper dig into a popular but misnamed restaurant concept. Specifically that of Teppanyaki, often mistakenly referred to as Hibachi in most of North America. I've distilled the basics here.

    The word hibachi (火鉢) meaning 'fire bowl' originally refers to a type of heating device of Japanese origin. Designed to hold charcoal and heat rooms while creating minimal danger of fire, it functioned rather like a western brazier. Though due to its mostly indoor usage, most were clay, porcelain, or other fired material as opposed to the metalwork of many Western environments. 

An antique Hibachi brazier

    When used in English, however, hibachi sometimes also refers to small cooking grills. Hibachi grills are often quite small, and most often see use as a form of portable barbecue. They're something of a middle ground between the proper Japanese hibachi and traditional Japanese charcoal-heated cooking vessels called shichirin. 

An example of a Shichirin

    Considering the similarity of purposes and visuals, I can see why the concept might get garbled in translation. But really, I think it's just because hibachi is the easiest of all the terms to say, read, and write in English.

    None of these terms, however, are for what you're going to get when you sit down in front of a flattop griddle with a dozen other people for dinner and a show. The rise in popularity of Teppanyaki (鉄板焼き) or “iron plate cooking” was pioneered by a Japanese restaurant called Misono (http://www.misono.org) in the Kobe region of Hyogo prefecture starting in 1945. It took the very Japanese idea of good, simple food prepared face to face, centered it around an emphasis on western-style steak, used what would become the legendary Kobe beef for said steaks, and created an icon that stands tall in Japan even now.

    In the United States, the Teppanyaki method didn't quite kick off until ~1964, when a Japanese native named Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki gave the concept a clever theatrical bent, opening Benihana on West 65th Street in New York. With the meals to be theatrically prepared by a dexterous, knife-wielding, joke-telling chef, the equal measure of flash and flavor brought rave reviews and huge popularity. Over the next few decades, the Benihana name spread over the country and other parts of the world, even online at http://www.benihana.com/. I must admit though, seeing their brand name in supermarket frozen food sections worries me. Such things always do.

So yes. When next you're craving that flash of flame from an onion volcano, or a deft-handed chef to flip a shrimp into your mouth, remember: it's Teppanyaki you want, not Hibachi.

And yes I can do it. But no, I won't do it for you.