Ross Shonhan

Wara means ‘straw’. Rice straw is burned and the food is cooked over the flames. It’s quite an unknown cooking style that’s typical of the Kochi prefecture in south Japan. Say ‘warayaki’ in Japan and there’s a real chance many Japanese people won’t know what you’re talking about; it’s certainly unique here in Dubai.

I walked past a small restaurant in Japan and saw flames. I knew a lot about Japanese food but I’d never seen this before. I thought it was genius – so simple and delicious.

Yeah, it is, but there’s a point to it, it’s not just for show. It gives the food an earthy, natural taste, like a campfire. It’s very primal: people, fire, food.

I’ve spent years learning about Japanese food but I reckon I could spend the rest of my life learning and still not know everything. It’s one of those cultures where food is so ingrained in life.

I’m a cook, not an interior designer but I’m involved in a lot of it. It’s inspired by kabuki theatre. The open kitchen is the main stage and the walkway though the centre of the restaurant copies the type found in kabuki theatres. We painted old images from kabuki theatre on the walls. It’s a real restaurant with soul. It’s not a concept restaurant. We’re not trying to be flashy Dubai, we’re just trying to make people happy.

Okay, it’s a steak sandwich for AED 1,000 – but there’s a logic to it. Japanese beef is the most expensive beef in the world – fact. At Netsu we have the best Japanese beef from Japan. If you go to any beef restaurant in Japan they’ll serve a simple steak sandwich and it’ll be expensive but it’s simple. We put one on the menu here and added some gold flake as a tongue-in-cheek gesture for Dubai.

It’s a Japanese dish with a western twist that’s a journey of creamy, salt and sweet that feeds about eight people. It’s mixed fish, sushi rice cooked in beef stock, vegetables and omelette. On top we put chives, salmon roe, some wagyu, sweet soy, caramelised onion, hollandaise and a bit of gold leaf – there a lot going on. It’s mixed at the table and looks pretty.

You get such juxtapositions of culture. The Japanese are fascinated by English and American cultures. I remember walking in Osaka once and seeing a group of rockabillies in 1950s clothing with gelled back hair on Harley Davidson motorbikes, dancing to music blaring from a stereo. It made no sense. I remember that like yesterday. There are so many things in Japan that don’t make sense.

Their respect for ingredients and keeping things simple. It sounds kind of funny but I dig through the bins in all my restaurants because I hate food waste.

Yeah, my chefs think I am crazy! If the chef is cutting off the ends of vegetables, does that mean their knife skills aren’t good enough? Are they throwing something edible in the bin because they don’t know how to use it? If a farmer has grown a vegetable it’s been harvested and transported to market, then to a restaurant, so I feel it’s our duty is to use every part of it, otherwise it’s just wasted energy.

Japanese cooking challenges everything you think you know and flips it on its head.

I used to think I could filet fish well because I was taught by great European cooks. Then I worked with a sushi chef who watched me filet a piece of salmon and was horrified – he almost committed hari kiri! I realised that I had to start again.

They make logical cuts that go with the skeletal structure of the fish and delicately remove pieces of fish. European fish fileting knives are very flexible but the Japanese deba knife is rigid – polar opposites. I threw my old knife away immediately.

Yeah, I was in Kyoto during blossom season, sitting by the river eating lunch. This Japanese guy sat next to me and started talking to me to practice his English. We chatted for a couple of hours and he invited me to have dinner with him and his friend. They gave me a ticket to see some kabuki theatre the following night.

It was a tiny theatre, I’m six foot four and I realised that the people behind me couldn’t see anything so I had to fold myself up like a pretzel and sink into my chair. I sat there for three hours with no intermission, not having a clue what was going on.

People stand next to you and laugh! Then they want to have their photo taken with you, it’s pretty funny.

Yeah, I don’t sleep much! In the London restaurant business you grow or die, but you don’t want to overstretch yourself either. I don’t want to be comfortable, you’ve got to push yourself, you know? My true age is 40 but my chef age is probably 60; chef bodies age much harder. Chefs are sick animals – we don’t think like normal people.