The 19th Annual Mutual Trading Co., Inc.
-Japanese Restaurant Show-

On Saturday, October 6th, America’s only Japanese food business show was held, sponsored by Mutual Trading Group. This is the 19th time the event has been held, focusing on retailers of food products, restaurant owners, chefs and the like.

This year’s theme was, “Spanning the World: The Secret Passage to True Japanese Cuisine” and presented the multiplicity of changes that Japanese cuisine has undergone. With the recent boom in Japanese cuisine as the backdrop, the market for Japanese food has been growing year by year and the number of participants in this event has also been steadily increasing. Although it was only held during the six hour period between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, this event was a great success, with somehow more than 1,600 attendees.

At the center of the exhibition hall and where Mutual Trading had particularly concentrated its energy, a huge tent had been set up with the designation, “The House of Jizake (Regional Sake),” a corner where Japanese sake was presented. Inside this tent, twenty brewery masters, who had come specially from Japan for this event, offered enchanting varieties of sake that gave a great impact from being assembled all at once, “Hidden Reserve Sake,” usually not available outside each individual brewery.

Every single one of the brewery masters’ sakes exhibited their own charms, but this time a special feature was the presentation of many sakes aged five, seven and ten years. Among them was one aged 11 years from Kikusui Brewery, which was founded 126 years ago. A sampling of “Kikusui” showed that it had a marked increase in the deliciousness of rice that gives it a surprising mellowness.

Inquiring about it from a representative of Kikusui Brewery, a Mr. Endo, he said, “This is based on draft sake, so the taste continues to change. It is something that was produced in 1996 and has been preserved at the brewery originally as a record breaker, so we brought it with us for today. Sake is something that acquires deliciousness as it ages and if we can convey that to people we will be delighted.” It seems that even aging of one or two years makes sake completely different, so how about trying that and seeing what happens?

Besides that, some of the other notable things to see were demonstrations of the sharpening of kitchen knives by Tsukiji Masamoto, a shochu pavilion, fresh, handmade soba noodle demonstrations and on the seminar stage, jizake (regional sake) seminars and Japanese sake seminars. Among these, the one that attracted the most spectators was the on stage Nigiri (Handmade) Sushi Contest, held this year for the second time. Twenty sushi chefs active at restaurants such as Sushi Roku, Koi Restaurant and Geisha House competed in showing their skill. Last year there was a Quick Nigiri Sushi Contest, but this year beauty of presentation was also an object of the judging, so that it became a high level contest. For the Final, four chefs who won their way through the preliminaries were joined by the winner of last year’s event to fight it out, making five contestants.

The one who demonstrated his superiority in preparing 36 servings in seven minutes with the most beautiful presentation was the chef who has unfortunate to take second place last year, Toshihiko Seki of Professional Catering Service. “This is a vindication for me of last year and it makes me happy. From here on as well, I am going to do my best to prepare delicious sushi for as many people possible to enjoy,” Seki said smiling. He received the winner’s cash prize from President Kanai of Mutual Trading and kitchen knives by Tsukiji Masamoto.

For the people who attended the event, it was a chance to check on ideas and new products presented by makers and to sample food and beverage products and in that sense it was time well spent. Those connected with the restaurant found it a Japanese food business show where opinions could be exchanged directly with food product makers and have commercial discussions.
Preparations are already underway now for sponsoring the 20th event next year.


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