WOWOW cooking show host
David Chiddo brings yummy California cuisine to your kitchen. Vanessa Asell digs in.
"It's a real melting
pot," said David Chiddo, the chef and host of Wowow's cooking show Taiyo No
Gochiso (the sun's bounty). "It's about creating fun, casual food influenced by
the California way of living. Compared to New York, there is not a lot of pretense
there."
Chiddo had long been involved in the Tokyo restaurant business when Wowow proposed he run
a show introducing California cuisine to Japanese viewers.
"It was in 1990 that my friend and partner Joseph Suceveanu first mentioned coming to
Japan. He had been an adviser for the Royal Host Company that wanted to open up an
American-style bar and grill restaurant here. Joseph recruited me, and I arrived in
October 1992 to be the opening chef for Lunchan Bar & Grill in Aoyama. I had always
had a curiosity about Asia, and after ten years in LA, I was ready for a new
challenge," said the native New Yorker.
He took it on, and within a few years he was doing menu planning and concept development
for Royal Host and several specialty restaurant divisions such as Apetito, Royal Deli,
Sizzler, and Café Croissant, eventually bossing not only Lunchan, but some thirty other
restaurants in the company. Six years later he teamed up with Ian Tozer and Joseph
Suceveanu and started a consulting company.
"Our big project was to take over the management and direction of the T.Y. Harbor
Brewery, located on Shinagawa's Tennoz Isle, where the shooting for the show takes place
in the morning before lunch service begins," he said.
Ingredients for a great food
show
Concepts of California cuisine are presented every month; the past has seen grilling,
brunch, ethnic Asian food with Vietnamese, Thai and Korean dishes, and French Californian
- the root of California cuisine.
"First of all we decide the theme, then the menu. I work with the director and
producer from Wowow, a food stylist and a food coordinator. First I do preliminary recipe
testing and food styling and then I prepare the actual dish for the director. We consider
the look and the mood it conveys, making sure it has a Californian image, If not, we
remake it and fine-tune it."
Chiddo pictures the audience as predominantly housewives and women in their 20s and 30s
who like to cook at home-hopefully trying to prepare some of these dishes.
"But when you see a recipe, it should just be a guideline, you don't necessarily have
to follow it exactly - especially if you have any kind of cooking skill. Have fun, don't
be too serious, don't get out the scale and measure exactly 1.5 grams of this or
that."
He says that 70 percent of cooking is preparation - it's about being organized and having
enough space to work comfortably. "Prepare as much as possible beforehand, cutting
and measuring your ingredients. Then the cooking is simple."
Dishes on the show use easily obtainable ingredients, which goes in line with the concept
of it all: that it should be casual. "I don't use any fancy ingredients because the
average viewer doesn't shop at Kinokuniya. Most dishes I present aren't things I would
make at a restaurant, they are quick and easy and that's the point."
So are there food trends in Tokyo? "Absolutely - but I wouldn't say with raw
materials as much as with food concepts. Eight years ago no one here knew what a Caesar
salad was, but there has been an influx of Western-style concepts like the deli with fresh
salads, soups, bagel and panini sandwiches. The Japanese are becoming more aware of what's
out there," says Chiddo.
Food for thought
This king of California cuisine's interest in food spans back to his childhood spent in an
Italian and Irish neighborhood in Queens. "I often had lunch with my Italian
grandmother and she would spend the whole morning preparing a three-course lunch for just
the two of us. She put her heart into it and taught me how to respect the
ingredients," says the chef.
When he decided food was his thing, he attended a two-year course at the CIA (Culinary
Institute of America) in upstate New York. "Then I lived in California for ten years
and worked with some famous but very demanding French chefs. There was a lot of mental and
physical abuse, I got my ass kicked on a daily basis, but the toughest chef I worked for
was also the one I learned the most from. He was my mentor - it was worth it,"
explains Chiddo.
What he would cook for his grandmother today, he replies, "Since it's summer, I would
start with a salad of arugula, prosciutto, fresh figs and some shaved pecorino
(sheep cheese) on top, dressed with a simple balsamic vinaigrette. Then a nice fresh white
fish, perhaps snapper, marinated with olive oil, fresh herbs and grilled over a real wood
fire, washing it all down with a nice light and crisp Pinot Grigio. For dessert, something
fresh and light - a cold lemon yogurt mousse with fresh blood orange sauce, summer bing
cherries and lots of fresh mint."
Is anyone's mouth watering?
Tune in to Taiyo No Gochiso on Wowow, every Monday at 7:30pm. It's broadcast during
no-scramble time so if you don't have cable but do have a dish, you can view it on BS.
David Chiddo
can be contacted by email: chef4u@gol.com or phone:
03-5479-0327.
