He made a note of it before reviewing the food. Nowhere did he state “staff aren’t japanese therefore food quality is bad”
I’m preparing myself to eat robotically-cooked food in the near future. #Terminatomakase #LearnToFixRobots
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+1000. Long story short, I totally agree conceptually w/ @moonboy403, but my own biases (esp growing up in a heavily Chinese area where I’m used to “seeing” things a certain way) makes me feel the way that @Starchtrade and @Chowseeker1999 do (at least to a certain extent).
Is my viewpoint fair or consistently accurate? No. So, esp in this day and age, I appreciate being encouraged to challenge my assumptions.
But I also don’t think it’s completely unreasonable that Person A would make some assumptions about Person B’s background based on prevailing demographics in the area (the whole North Dakota thing)… I think the important thing is whether Person A is willing to keep an open mind and to learn about Person B.
I also wonder if the price of the eatery makes a difference. If we see a white chef cooking at a high-end Asian restaurant, am I more likely to assume has the requisite knowledge and skills? Probably… Esp if the restaurant is located in a place w/ a large Asian population. But we are talking about inexpensive places, so I wonder if that changes the assumptions we initially make.
At any rate, back to curry…
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Do a quick search of “100% non-Japanese” on FTC and one might begin to get the implication. I’ll leave it at that.
What implication? That’s the context. Time and time again we have seen bait n switch restaurant openings so he started pointing it out when they change staff/chefs.
You can choose to ignore the context, or keep feigning ignorance and offend yourself, that’s fine too.
So if these restaurants hire new staff that are Japanese, food will magically be better? Or did the new staff, regardless of being Japanese or not, lack training? 
Feel free to keep doing those mental gymnastics.
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WFH abuse on display today
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bruh if they came back with a 100% staff straight from Japan you bet your ass the food would magically be better.
I acknowledge that said staff from Japan is likely to be significantly better trained than their non-Japanese US counterparts.
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… and here is the new management, meeting the Onos to discuss the transition. #ConanagoNigiri #EatWithMeIfYouWantToLive
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Hans : Alright. Once again, I am Hans…
Franz : And I am Franz, I am the son on the right who will always live in the shadow of Hans. And we just want to…
Together : omakase… [claps]…you up!
Hans : Alright.
Franz : Alright, first of all, let’s clear something up. You know, many people have accused us of being involved with sushis.
Hans : Ja. They are right! But let me explain us, those sushis are something different!
Franz : Ja. They are the people who stop on the street and stare at our amazing craftitude!
(Cue Kraftwerk: We Are The Robots)
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LOL Kraftwerk robots, using Kraft Miracle Whip instead of kewpie on the mayo rolls.
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I’m not @moonboy403 , but I think part of his point is that “Japanese” and “from Japan” are not the same thing.
@moonboy403 we mercilessly screen all chefs regardless of country of origin or ethinicity.
#EqualOpportunity
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@moonboy403 my reading of @Chowseeker1999’s post was that in the context of this food message board the Japanese chef bait and switch has occurred quite frequently and having all non-japanese staff was likely a sign that a bait and switch had occurred and a precursor to a downhill alert and not that non-Japanese people can’t cook curry or shouldn’t be permitted to cook curry.
Unfortunately, judgments about people happen all the time based on ethnicity, gender, class, dress, style, and appearance. IMO people should strive to NOT make judgments based on those criteria and we should all work to remove our inherent biases and negative stigmas from our thoughts regarding such criteria.
But to preclude any observations on the basis of such criteria is absurd and I would say possibly unhelpful in many situations.
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Then my parents would say I am overcharging people and ripping them off, there’s no pleasing them.
Also my ability to sell out of food IMO is more of a factor of my inability to produce more due to hardware limitations in the space not due to intense demand which hopefully I can solve over time therefore I don’t think I would want to raise the prices for now, that’s a last resort.
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Regarding “bait and switch” of original crew from Japan to a local one, it wasn’t a downhill alert for me when I tried Marugame Monzo in Little Tokyo over a year after it first opened.
I had a counter seat and instead of seeing a Japanese person making the udon noodles, it was an extremely muscular Latin American cook rolling out the dough. I was initially surprised, but decided to consciously check my bias at the door and reminded myself I’m here for a decent meal, not a Disneyland show.
The udon noodles were very good in terms of taste and texture and that’s really all that mattered in the end.
Profit-wise, I don’t think it makes fiscal sense to fly in too many staff from Japan for a fast casual business (pre-COVID, Japanese could visit the US for up to 90 days without a visa), or to do a nationwide search to recruit Japanese staff already living in the US, but for baller places like Tempura Endo, Ima, and Yazawa, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if a chef or two were flown in long term.
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