Chef Rainer Becker – Dedicated to Serve Japanese Cuisine

Do you like this post?

Zuma is a restaurant in London owned by Chef Rainer Becker and Arjun Waney, his Indian business partner. This restaurant offers Japanese cuisine with a very contemporary twist, and through his culinary skills, it fast became one of the hottest fine-dining restaurants in the city. Right now, they are at the 66th position on the San Pellegrino’s list of the top 100 best restaurants in the globe.

Chef Becker was born in the early 1960s in Germany. Cooking has always fascinated him, especially since it was an integral part of their home, and he got his love for cooking from his mother. He underwent apprenticeship and training at some of the finest restaurants in the country’s big cities such as Munich’s Koenigshof and Bensberg’s Goethehaus. At these restaurants, not only did he study the basics in cooking, but he also developed his own culinary style. However, it was with the Hyatt hotel group that he spent most of his culinary career, staying with them for 14 years and traveling all over the globe.

In 1988, he went to work in Cologne’s Hyatt hotel where he became the head chef of its restaurant. He stayed there from 1988 to 1991. After Cologne, he moved to Australia to manage Sydney’s Park Hyatt Hotel’s restaurant where, again, he was its head chef. After Australia, he then transferred to Japan to become the head chef of Tokyo’s Park Hyatt Hotel. He stayed in Japan for six years. In 1998, Chef Becker went back to the United Kingdom and worked in London’s Hyatt Carlton Tower Hotel as its head chef where he played a very integral part in reopening the Rib Room and Oyster Bar.

Chef Becker teamed up with Alan Yau, a restaurateur, and became his consultant when the latter launched Hakkasan. It was after that consultancy job that Chef Becker finally decided to launch his own restaurant, and, teaming up with his Indian business partner, Arjun Waney, they came up with Zuma, a very trendy restaurant that offers ultra-modern Japanese cuisine. They opened the restaurant in 2002.

It was during his stay in Japan that he was captivated by the Japanese cooking style, most especially by the different ingredients and flavors that make up a dish. The contrasting flavors and textures have fascinated him. In fact, he was enchanted by the thought that there is a complex cooking method behind such a simple-looking dish, and it was this inspiration that prompted him to offer contemporary Japanese cuisine.

Zuma was a big hit. In that same year, Zuma was nominated as Square Meal’s Best New Restaurant, and by the next year, in 2003, Square Meal named them as the Best Restaurant. In 2005, the Tatler has also named them as the Restso of the Year. Other awards came pouring in. Zuma and its head chef received awards from the Tio Pepe ITV London Restaurant Awards and from the Harpers and Moet Restaurant Awards where Chef Becker was named as the Chef of the Year.

Such was the success of Chef Becker’s restaurants that he and his partners soon opened another restaurant, Roka. The demand for his cuisine was high that they soon expanded their business worldwide. They opened restaurants in Asia as well as in the United States, aside from their UK restaurants.

Chef Rainer Becker’s Chicken and Bacon Casserole

Ingredients:

450 g Steaky Bacon 2cm chunks
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Chicken Jointed into 8 pieces
4 medium carrots peeled and cut into 4cm chunks
10 Baby Onions peeled and halved
8 Garlic Cloves peeled
400 ml chicken stock
Thyme, Rosmary or Sage

Directions:

1. Put the bacon into a small saucepan of cold water and bring up to the boil to remove excess salt.

2. Drain, and dry the bacon on kitchen paper.

3. Heat up a frying pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil, sauté the bacon until nice and golden and crispy, remove to a casserole,

4. Add the chicken to the pan, adding more oil if necessary

5. Saute the chicken for a few minutes until golden, then remove from the casserole and sauté the carrots, onions and garlic for a minute, seasoning with salt and pepper.

6. Add them to the other sauted ingredients in the casserole.

7. Deglaze the frying pan by adding the stock over a high heat and dissolving all the juices on the bottom.

8. Pour the stock into the casserole.

9. Add a sprig of thyme or rosemary or sage and put into an oven at 160c for about 45 mins or until cooked.

10. Strain the juices if you like (if you have not added flour at the start) and spoon any fat off the top and add back in to the stew.

11. Sprinkle with some chopped parsley if you like.

12. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Notes & Tips: Of course you could put potatoes ontop of this in the casserole, like an Irish Stew. * You could also add 150ml white wine into the stock when you are deglazing the pan. * If you want the juices to be slightly thick you can do 2 things. 1.You could toss the chicken pieces in flour seasoned with a little salt and pepper, before you brown them. Don’t burn them. 2.You could thicken the juices with some roux at the very end, then pour back on the chicken and vegetables.

Servings: Serves 4 to 8.

Image Credit: squaremeal.co.uk

lifestylefood.com.au

Popularity: 1% [?]

Currently 0 comment - But what do you think?