How Michelin-Starred Kato Became the #1 Restaurant in LA — Mise En Place

Chef Jon Yao, the 2025 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: California, is the visionary behind Kato in LA, a Michelin-starred restaurant also named "One to Watch" by the World's 50 Best Restaurants. The tasting menu showcases seasonal ingredients and modern takes on Chinese cuisine using complex cooking techniques. One of its signature dishes, yúdù gēng, uses the entirety of the Dungeness crab — incorporating the fat in the custard, crab meat as a topping, and shells in the fish maw. During preparation, the chefs carefully inspect the crab meat using tweezers and black light flashlights to ensure no tiny pieces of shell are left behind. Other standout dishes include aged lamb saddle in the Zī rán yáng, dry-aged quail in the anchún, and buttery sablefish in the suāncài yú.

#chef #losangeles #restaurant

0:00 Intro
00:35 Making the Dry-Aged Cumin Lamb
01:52 Making Dashi
03:20 The Growth Kato Has Had in Five Years
03:41 Starting the Quail Process
06:12 Beginning of the Crab Dish
06:50 Black-Lighting Technique Used For the Crab
07:30 Roasting Crab Shells in Wood-Fired Oven
08:03 Making Glaze Out of Crab Shells
08:36 Breaking Down the Sable Fish
10:17 Pre-Service Plating & Taste Tests
12:20 Service Begins - Amuse Bouche Course
13:36 Cooking & Plating the Quail Course
14:25 Cooking & Plating the Halibut Course
15:05 Cooking & Plating the Crab Custard Course

Credits:
Producer/Director: Connor Reid
Senior Video Director: Murilo Ferreira
Camera: Murilo Ferreira, Tom Daly
Production Sound Mixer: Noah Kovalick
Editor: Jay Simms

Executive Producer: Stephen Pelletteri
Head of Production: Stefania Orrù
Supervising Producer: Connor Reid
Director of Production: Michelle Fox
Post-Production Supervisor: Lucy Morales Carlisle
Audience Engagement: Frances Dumlao


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