Masa Takayama

Masayoshi "Masa" Takayama (高山 雅氏, Takayama Masayoshi) (born May 1, 1954 in Kuroiso, Tochigi, Japan) is the chef and owner of Masa, a three-Michelin-starred Japanese and sushi restaurant in Manhattan, New York City. He is also owner of Bar Masa, with two locations: one adjacent to his New York City restaurant, and one in the Aria Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.

Early years

Born in Kuroiso, Tochigi, a small town one hour north of Tokyo, Takayama's parents owned a fish shop and a catering business. He began cutting fish as a child. His brother and three sisters all helped in the store, loading the fish into the display cases before school. After school, Takayama would get on his bicycle and deliver sashimi his father had made. In the spring, which is wedding season in Japan, the family catered celebrations, typically five-course dinners for 200 guests where he would help all day at the expense of school. In high school, he wanted to become a surgeon. After high school, he apprenticed for eight years at the famous Sushiko in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. As per traditional culinary apprenticeship in Japan, he spent many of those years working on the mundane tasks of dishwasher and bathroom cleaner before rising to the level of sushi chef. In 1978, a vacation to Los Angeles convinced him to move to the United States. In 1980, Takayama opened his first restaurant in Los Angeles, Saba-ya. He planned to eventually open a restaurant that would be closer to what was available in Japan, a plan that he felt he fulfilled with his second restaurant, Ginza Sushiko.

Masa (restaurant)

Coordinates: 40°46′05″N 73°58′55″W / 40.76806°N 73.98194°W / 40.76806; -73.98194

Masa (雅) is a Japanese and sushi restaurant located on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center at 10 Columbus Circle (at West 60th Street and Broadway) in Manhattan in New York City.

The restaurant was opened by Chef Masa Takayama in 2004 and is considered one of the most expensive restaurants in the world, as well as the most expensive restaurant in New York City. Located next door to the restaurant is Bar Masa, a more accessible dining experience offering an à la carte menu. In 2009, a second Bar Masa opened inside Aria in Las Vegas.

Menu

The offerings are Omakase (no menu) only, with five-course chef-selected meals costing US$2,550 per person, not including tip, tax or drinks. The sushi bar itself is a US$260,000 piece of rare hinoki wood from Japan; Masa is one of only two sushi restaurants in North America to have a hinoki wood sushi bar. Reservations for the 26 available seats are taken three weeks in advance. Chef Masa Takayama prepares the menu himself, often including seasonal ingredients. He uses many exotic ingredients, such as truffles and Kobe beef. Most of the fish is flown in from Japan. Chef Masa can be seen working behind the bar and will sometimes serve the food as well. While there is no menu to order from, Chef Masa does keep a record of what he has served to his customers and what their reactions were so he can cater to them on their next visit.

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern United States and is the United States' 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border in the Atlantic Ocean with Rhode Island, east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the north and Ontario to the west and north. The state of New York, with an estimated 19.8 million residents in 2015, is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City, the state's most populous city and its economic hub.

With an estimated population of nearly 8.5 million in 2014, New York City is the most populous city in the United States and the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. The New York City Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City is a global city, exerting a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment, its fast pace defining the term New York minute. The home of the United Nations Headquarters, New York City is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world, as well as the world's most economically powerful city. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% live on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th century Duke of York, future King James II of England. The next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany.

Masa

Masa (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmasa]) is Spanish for dough. Although the word is mostly used to refer to any kind of dough, in some regions (Mexico, parts of Central America and the American South West) it is often short for masa de maíz, a maize (corn) dough made from freshly prepared hominy. It is used for making corn tortillas, tamales, pupusas, and many other Latin American dishes. The dried and powdered form is called masa harina, masa de harina, and sometimes Maseca, the name of a leading commercial brand. It is reconstituted with water before use. Masa is not to be confused with masarepa, masa de arepa, or masa al instante, a type of unnixtamalized, soaked, and cooked cornmeal used to make arepas.Masa de trigo is Spanish for wheat flour dough. It is also used for making wheat tortillas and other breads and pastries.

To make hominy, field corn (maize) grain is dried and then treated by soaking and cooking the mature (hard) grain in a diluted solution of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) or wood ash, a process termed nixtamalization. Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the corn. Some of the corn oil is broken down into emulsifying agents (monoglycerides and diglycerides), while bonding of the corn proteins to each other is also facilitated. The divalent calcium in lime acts as a cross-linking agent for protein and polysaccharide acidic side chains. As a result, while cornmeal made from untreated ground corn is unable by itself to form a dough on addition of water, the chemical changes in masa allow dough formation, which is essential to the ability to fashion dough into tortillas.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas (/lɑːs ˈveɪɡəs/, also locally /lɑːs ˈvɛɡᵻs/; Spanish: [laz ˈβeɣas]) officially the City of Las Vegas and often known as simply Vegas, is a city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, the county seat of Clark County, and the city proper of the Las Vegas Valley. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city known primarily for gambling, shopping, fine dining and nightlife and is the leading financial and cultural center for Southern Nevada.

The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its mega casino–hotels and associated entertainment. A growing retirement and family city, Las Vegas is the 29th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 603,488 at the 2013 United States Census Estimates. The 2013 population of the Las Vegas metropolitan area was 2,027,828. The city is one of the top three leading destinations in the United States for conventions, business, and meetings. In addition, the city's metropolitan area has more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world, and is a global leader in the hospitality industry. Today, Las Vegas is one of the top tourist destinations in the world.