Introduction: Let 'Em Cook
Explaining what Omakase Formula is all about. Also explaining the weird name.
Omakase (お任せ) (pronounced “oh-mah-kah-seh”)
Translating to “I leave it up to you,” this Japanese phrase describes a dining experience where the chef quite literally improvises the entire course of the meal based on what’s available that day. No, there’s no à la carte selection for you to order Mongolian beef—but with chicken instead of beef and without scallions (the latter I understand but not the former. The beef was the only honest part in the name! Now for the same price you’ve ended up with chicken in brown sauce). No, there’s no prix fixe menu for you to warily eye course number eleven: liquid salad (an actual dish yours truly once sampled. The most disgusting part about it all? It was served lukewarm). No, omakase offers none of that. There are just the ingredients of the day, the chef’s creative vision, and your faith in them.
Simply put: let ‘em cook.
The best omakase experiences can be intimidating affairs. You’re likely one of only a handful of people at a counter. It’s quite intimate. It has to be in order to succeed: the chef is relying on your reaction to what they’ve just served you to decide what the next course should be. In other words, you are quite literally being profiled by your chef. And the reason you’re still deeply contemplating the mind-blowing experience of nuclear proportions you had weeks later is because they’re quite good at it. That and the fact they’ve also nuked your bank account while doing so.
But quickly leaving behind the thought that the chef behind your omakase experience could give the agents on Criminal Minds a run for their money—not to mention the successful run they made on your money—and you can appreciate the artistry behind it all. A chef working on an omakase experience is a chef in full flow. One not working with the constraints of a menu decided ages ago that they’re now going through the motions trying to replicate for yet another night. One allowed to actually take whatever comes to mind and run with it.
It’s this freedom of imagination at the heart of the omakase experience that inspires and underpins Omakase Formula. If I stuck to one topic and/or one formula there’d be no nagging worry in the back of my mind that this project might come across as scatterbrained. But strictly boxing myself in feels, for lack of a better term, not human. The cliché about variety being the spice of life rings true. Who among us can confidently say we’re only passionate about one thing in life, not to mention only discuss that one thing without end?
That’s not to say every conceivable topic will be discussed just because Omakase Formula will offer multi-categorical musings. This project will cover a lot of specific topics, but at the end of the day barring the odd exception the content here will relate to one (or even multiple) of sports, food, travel, and media/pop culture. Having that constraint, even if it is a broad one, might feel antithetical to the “freedom” of omakase. But even Omakase Formula’s namesake comes with its own subtle limits. After all, we associate the idea of an omakase meal specifically with sushi. You might be getting out of your chef’s way and letting them use their imagination by choosing to go omakase, but you’d certainly be outraged if in return they plopped a Hot Pocket in front of you.
So please don’t be surprised if you ever see a recap of the Italian Grand Prix followed by a recommendation to watch Slow Horses. And please don’t be surprised if you never hear about propagating plants outside this sentence.
With that, welcome to Omakase Formula. I hope you’ll join me along this multi-course experience, it should be a fun one. And at least this omakase won’t nuke your bank account.
Austin Chen
Creator, Omakase Formula