Opening the chef’s omakase tasting course are appetizers demonstrating the chef’s incredible skills and unique sensibility. Appetizers, usually numbering about seven, include a seasonal dish, two types of sashimi, and a heated dish like octopus or abalone. Akashi octopus is prepared and served to time with the guest’s arrival in an incredibly simple boiled preparation of just salt and water because Ishizaka wants guests to experience the authentic flavor. Steamed abalone is a summer signature featuring abalone from Chiba’s Boso Peninsula steamed with sake, salt and kombu.

When the nigiri component begins, Ishizaka firmly grasps the rice to shape it, topping it with delectable seafood ready to be devoured immediately and served at a steady, enjoyable pace. After all, sushi has its roots in fast food stalls on the old streets of Edo. Guests are always greeted first with the buttery goodness of chutoro medium-fatty tuna. Ishizaka prefers maguro bluefin tuna with softer flesh, perhaps one caught at Toi on the southern tip of Hokkaido. He removes the sinew to reveal a delicious portion of flesh called hagashimi. A perennial favorite, it is simple and always tasty. This may be followed by kohada gizzard shad, squid, akami lean tuna, seasonal shellfish, and hikarimono silver-skinned fish.

The chef then serves a generous helping of Saga Prefecture sea urchin so guests can experience the best the luscious ingredient has to offer. It is served as either nigiri or gunkan, surrounded by roasted seaweed, so named for its resemblance to a submarine. The plump, resilient flesh of botan-ebi shrimp follows. Then comes anago conger eel cooked to perfection and brushed with an exquisite savory-sweet sauce, which is the product of reducing the cooking liquid from over a year of preparing the saltwater eel. The chef’s tamago egg is the final piece in the course. It is rich in dashi flavor and served by itself or as nigiri depending on the guest’s appetite.

At some point amid the nigiri, Chef Ishizaka presents guests with a curious-looking morsel. It is his signature of Niigata Prefecture shiitake cooked with salt and sake. Combined with a rice oval and wrapped in an oba green shiso leaf and roasted seaweed – it is a masterpiece that brings great comfort.

INGREDIENTS
The seafood served at Ishizaka is mostly supplied by Toyosu Market. Kyushu’s Yanagihashi Rengo Ichiba market is the source of Saga Prefecture sea urchin and other delicacies from the southern Japanese seas. When it comes to bluefin tuna, Ishizaka prefers softer flesh types, and because he is committed to using only domestic fish, he will use frozen stocks when fresh is not available. His signature nigiri of a shiitake features the thick, umami-rich mushrooms grown in Yairo, Niigata Prefecture.

Ishizaka’s rice is the Koshihikari varietal from Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture. For the vinegar, to a base of Iio Jozo rice vinegar brewed in Kyoto, he blends Mitsukan’s Yamabuki – a throwback to his training days and a signal that he always wants to stay faithful to his roots. Wasabi is delivered directly to the restaurant from a farmer in Izu, Shizuoka, and Ishizaka uses seaweed from the Ariake Sea. This rich wetlands environment experiences the largest tidal differences in all of Japan.