Seattle-based chef Shota Nakajima talks about how he processes achievements, like making the Food Network Hotlist, and how he tends to take things one day at a time.
Seattle-based chef Shota Nakajima talks about how he processes achievements, like making the Food Network Hotlist, and how he tends to take things one day at a time. Shota describes how the Pacific Northwest shaped his culinary perspective and how he enjoys being in nature to forage for ingredients and clear his mind. He shares how he fell in love with the hospitality industry by holding down two jobs at just fifteen years old and how that led to working in a Michelin star restaurant in Japan all before the age of twenty. Shota shares his thoughts on restaurant hierarchy and how he pivoted his operations to foster a more collaborative model with his employees. He describes his experiences on various food competition shows and how Tournament of Champions is a different beast. He reveals the touching way Guy Fieri supports the competitors and why he loves the blind judging before nerding out over his love of anime.
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Find episode transcripts here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/shota-nakajima-on-sushi-rice-secrets-toc-cold-sweats
Jaymee Sire:
Hello, hello and welcome to Food Network Obsessed. This is the podcast where we dish on all things food with your favorite chefs, food influencers, and food network stars. I'm your host Jaymee Sire, and today we have an intrepid young chef outta Seattle to talk about foraging for ingredients in the Pacific Northwest and how he deals with competition. He's been a James Beard semi-finalist three years in a row. He is a restaurateur and is repping the West Coast on this season of Tournament of Champions. It's Shota, Nakajima Shota. Welcome to the podcast and congratulations on being part of the 2023 Food Network Hot list. What was your reaction when you found out?
Shota Nakajima:
My reaction? Excited, nervous, because I feel like there's a lot of anticipation that comes with it.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. So exciting. And you can just add it to the list of accolades that you've been racking up. You've been a James Beard, semi-finalist, three years in a row, an eater, young gun among many other things. How do you process achievements like that in your career?
Shota Nakajima:
I, I think one thing I've realized about myself after, I guess multiple achievements is I am more focused on the daily achievements that I get for myself. I, I genuinely enjoy it a lot more, so I get achievements. It's cool for like a quick second, but I'm more focused about what else I'm gonna finish that day. So I guess I appreciate, I'm humbled, but I'm focusing kind of on my craft.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. And we see a lot of that craft too o on social media, which has been a lot of fun to watch. Do you enjoy that aspect of, of kind of where your career has evolved a little bit?
Shota Nakajima:
I do. You know, at the end of the day, I, I grew up in hospitality. I love hospitality and I love, I mean, my videos, I try to make it so anyone feels like cooking's approachable. That's the main reason I started was because, you know, I, I was this renowned chef and all my friends would be like, oh, I don't want to cook for you, or, I'm nervous to cook for you, or whatnot. Right. Even through a date or whatnot, they'll be like, I don't want to cook for you. I'm like, I just want to sit down and feel relaxed. Cuz cooking's just cooking at the end of the day. So I'm trying to like, break it down into parts so everything seems achievable because at the end of the day, it really is that, and then you just put things together and it turns into a dish.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Loving how simple it is. You know, I try to really keep the recipes simple and approachable as much as possible. You know, four or five ingredients, not more than three steps, four steps, and still get a delicious bite out of it, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
But it's like, how to store cilantro properly. And I, I kind of put that out there half for, you know, the viewers as well, but half for, you know, people who work for me because they wash my social media and I'm like, now you know how to store Cilantros guys. Yeah.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
You know, I grew up in, you know, I didn't grow up in Seattle proper. I grew up in a spot called like Redmond. Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
But, you know, as a chef, I would say, growing up here, I still had a mom who cooked every single day for us. So, you know, I didn't realize how, how much my mom did until I grew up, just because I grew up with it. But she cooked every single day. And we would go out maybe once every other month, you know, f and the Japanese classic is like five little dishes. So every single night there's rice, there's misa soup, there's some main, there's two sides of something mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
It was honestly playing in the dirt and coming home
Jaymee Sire:
And, and how is, how, how have your trips to the forest changed now? What what are you doing in the forest now besides playing with your dog?
Shota Nakajima:
I go forging. I mean, I was just in California. I flew back yesterday, but, you know, I had four hours before my flight, so I went out to the coast and went foraging and found some black trumpets, some golden yellow put mushrooms and a bunch of hedgehogs
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
You know, I would say in general, you know, cuz just outside of cooking too, I own two restaurants. I have a retail line, I do the social media and now I'm having opportunities to work with you guys. So there's so much going on. And when I go out to the woods, it's like the time where I get to kind of just like reflect on everything I'm doing slowly mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Quiet zen time. But yeah. You know, it's, if it's like, you know, I have a dinner coming up, that's one of the things that I would definitely go through. Just walk through steps, there's nothing going on. And I usually try to go to a place without service, so I'll just be like, cool, what's in season right now? And I'll see you chanterelle and be like, okay, chanterelles, chanterelles pork looks good right now. I want to try some pork and apples and, you know, and then I'll just like start creating it in my brain and as I keep picking, you know, it's just like, yeah. Get solidified in my head.
Jaymee Sire:
No, it sounds like a lot of fun. You mentioned your mom growing up and, and how much she was, you know, cooking every day for, for you guys. Was, was she like the main driving force in, in terms of your interest in food at a young age or was there somebody else?
Shota Nakajima:
I mean mom and dad mm-hmm. For me. Mm-hmm. Honestly, they both love food. They still love food. I think there's a big part of me that got into food because I was like, you know, if my parents love food this much and if I can cook good food, they'll like me
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Jaymee Sire:
That's really
Shota Nakajima:
Cool. It's fun to nerd about what,
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. What did you, I mean, what did you learn from like that little exercise that, you know, maybe one of your friends was doing that you were, you were not doing?
Shota Nakajima:
My friend puts a little bit of water in so it steams and it gets more Mm. Uh, even if that makes sense. Yeah. On a cook compared to the outside cooking first. So I really like that mess. I was, I thought that was smart. And what I usually do is I do a high temperature and kind of char the outside and then hit it with extra oil, salt and lemon. So that flavor really hits your face and you kind of get that charred flavor. But I try, I'm gonna try doing it. I haven't tried it yet, but I wanna try doing it with a little bit of water too after the hard char. So going at a higher temperature and then try and get and just see, you know, maybe it's a little bit more of an even like, like bite or something, who knows? It's just, it's weird stuff. I like thinking about it.
Jaymee Sire:
No, it's fun. It's fun to experiment in the kitchen for sure. Do you remember when you actually kind of went from like just loving and appreciating the food to actually wanting to like learn more cooking it?
Shota Nakajima:
I would say when I got, when I got my first job, I got my first job when I was 15 in restaurants and I loved it. I loved it so much. After four months I picked up another full-time job in restaurant
Jaymee Sire:
Possible for me.
Shota Nakajima:
Up? The second job I picked up was another sushi restaurant in Seattle. Okay. I just fell in love with kind of that counter service style. Okay. You know, I, the biggest thing that I really loved was serving guests and you know, at a counter you get to see people enjoy it right away. So as I'm making food, I'm plating it in a different way. And this new, the same regular comes in, I played it in a new way and they're like, I like this. This is cool. Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Ah, I love that. I mean, what, what else did you learn just from being in a professional kitchen for the very first time?
Shota Nakajima:
The excuses don't really work.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
One thing that was crazy was we cut everything by millimeter. So we had to measure everything by millimeter and cut it. And if it's not accurate, like your sous chef's gonna come by and throw it in a bucket and say it's for staff meal and make you redo the whole thing. So you wanna make sure it's accurate.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Right. And a lot of it's like kind of dumb too at the same time. But, well I thought it was dumb. Right. Throughout the whole process and about a year in my chef was like, Hey, let's go grab a drink or something. And we went to like his bar and he takes everyone like one by one to the restaurant and it was like, Hey, why do you think we cut everything and do all this process, this entire process? And I was like, because it's a Michelin star restaurant and it needs to be perfect and that's what we do. And he was like, not really. That's not what it's about. And he, his approach of it was every single aspect of the dish is so cared for from every single person in the restaurant and every position understands that the sous chef understands how long it took for you to cut those carrots. Cuz he used to do that four years ago. Hmm. I understand everything about it too. And the fact that that hits a plate and that's when you can put a dish to somebody, that's what makes a great restaurant. And that like that whole mentality was just like,
Jaymee Sire:
Cool.
Shota Nakajima:
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Leadership and managing a team in Japan, it's very vertical structure, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Because I believe the top should be supporting everyone. Right. Okay. Context over control. I make my manager's life easy, my managers make our employees life easy and the employees make the guests happy.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. So I mean taking, you know, kind of some of those things like you said that you learned there, you know, figuring out what would and wouldn't work back home, you know, how did you approach opening your own restaurant?
Shota Nakajima:
My first restaurant, I approached it in a very Japanese manner, if that makes sense. It's very vertical society, you know, we did a restaurant that was 10, 15 courses. We changed the menu every other week or so mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Barely do it in your twenties.
Shota Nakajima:
Barely do it in your twenties. Um, so it was very, very vertical society. I wrote the entire menu every single day and it was my menu and everyone prepped the way I wanted them to prep everything from service to touchpoints. And then eventually, you know, that's when I started to learn that I really do have great people around me and I want to rely on them more. Also, the restaurant I trained in in Japan was, it was 20 seats with eight chefs. So it was a very different way you can manage things. I had a restaurant, my first restaurant was 50 seats. So completely different mentality and you know, learned very fast.
But I'm great at adapting. Right? Yeah. But that's when I started relying on more people and realized having different chefs from different backgrounds is actually a very unique thing because there's so many things I'm learning from what they do. And that's when I incorporated more the idea of making a collaborative restaurant and a collaborative as in from the menu to, you know, kind of front of the house service, just making sure our core is correct, where we're at, like company culture of what our perspective is. And you know, for me it's always about hospitality but you know, like my, my C D C had Hermes that she would do and she would bring it to the team and we all taste it. Our sous chefs had their own specific means, so they kind of would be able to work on their stuff that they want to. They were like basic kind of guidelines that we follow. Like, hey, this is the base ratio, this is the base flavor balance that we're looking for. Don't change the balance. Cuz if you change the balance it tastes like five chefs cooking in there
Jaymee Sire:
So how did you decide to go from, you know, like you said like 15 courses and you come obviously from, you know, this Michelin trained environment to, you know, kind of going more, a little bit more casual with a, a Japanese fried chicken bar.
Shota Nakajima:
You know, I would say that's kind of timing. I had the restaurant, the, you know, the finer dining restaurant mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
You know, it's fun because number one, I don't have to personally change the menu. That's something that I work with Baltimore, my culinary manager and you know, we, we've worked together for a while so we understand each other's palette, but I tell him that I want him to touch everything that I make. If I make come in and work on a recipe or a menu item with you, I want you to tweak it at the end and make it yours. Because if it's not yours, you won't feel proud about it. Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
And, and what have you noticed about kind of switching to that more collaborative effort and, and having, you know, kind of empowering your employees and your chefs to, like you said, feel proud about the, the dishes that they're, you know, creating?
Shota Nakajima:
You know, I absolutely love it and I would say that's kind of the majority of what I focus on in my company. Like, I incorporated profit share now into the company just because I'm telling everyone like, Hey, I want you to come negotiate not your salary, your profit share, because that makes more sense, right? The more time you give me, the more profits I give, the more menus you can come up with. The more different ways to promote the restaurant, do events, blah, blah, blah. Like the more money you guys will actually get in your pocket as well as you guys have the creative freedom. And at the end of the day, for me, the only thing I really care about is making sure food is delicious.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah, no, I mean, it sounds like a win-win for everybody, right? Like if the, if the restaurant's doing really well, then your employees are gonna kind of reap some of those benefits and it gives them more of that incentive to to work even harder and, and feel like they're getting something in return. Yeah.
Shota Nakajima:
Because with two restaurants and, you know, if I was just doing that and focusing solely on that, I might not even have time to do this podcast,
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Thank you Kinsey. Thank you Baltimore. Thank you Kim. You guys are great.
Jaymee Sire:
For anybody who hasn't had a chance to really kind of dive in and explore the, the food community and the scene there in Seattle, what, how would you describe it
Shota Nakajima:
In Seattle? I would say it's, you know, we have a lot of Asian influence because we're on the west, west coast and Asia's right there. So all the regions, all the food from like, you know, China mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah. No, that is exciting. And, and, and do you find yourself, you know, connecting with those other chefs that are, you know, in Seattle and, and what, what does that community look like?
Shota Nakajima:
Seattle's community is, you know, I would say it's been, it's been a little spread after the pandemic just because everyone I think really had to focus on what they're doing at the moment mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Food. Yeah. Do you find, you don't find it being like, like a competitive atmosphere? It's more, you know, supportive and collaborative kind of thing?
Shota Nakajima:
I would say Seattle's a lot more collaborative and supportive, but you know, I think there is beauty of competitive as well. So I'm, I'm pretty competitive. I don't know if you notice, I do a lot of TV competitions,
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
I know it's funny, like I'll go to Chicago and I'll start talking to chefs and I'm like, oh cool, I love this
Jaymee Sire:
When we come back, Choda gives us the scoop on how he prepares for competition shows and what it was like competing for the first time in the new season of Tournament of Champions. Well, let's talk about some of those competitions, because as you mentioned, you are no stranger to them. You were runner up, fan favorite on Top, chef Portland competed on Iron Chef Gauntlet. You beat Bobby Flay in a tempura challenge. I'm curious if you, if you do any preparation for these competitions, do you practice or do you kind of just let it rip when you get there?
Shota Nakajima:
It's been different per, per I guess, competition. When it was beat Bobby Flay, I was working in my kitchen every single day, so I was practicing tempura nonstop and I was just like, I'm a run temporarily, you do expo. They're like, I haven't done expo. I'm like, oh, T-shirts go, I'll figure it out.
Jaymee Sire:
Fair
Shota Nakajima:
Jaymee Sire:
Just left. Who took care of your dog while you were My
Shota Nakajima:
Mom and dad. Okay.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
I prefer not to, but you know, if we're in like a group of friends in someone's wants to embarrass me and play in episode or something, like I'll watch parts of it and it's nice. Like I, I enjoy all the moments that I do watch when I do rewatch him at the end of the day.
Jaymee Sire:
Do you take any like notes? Like, do you like think to yourself, okay, I need to, you know, do this better or say this differently next time or that kind of thing?
Shota Nakajima:
I do, you know, that's one thing that I'm really enjoying about doing more TV stuff is every single time I'm doing an interview or judging or doing something new, I'm trying to be better at, I guess enunciating and communicating what I'm trying to say. And for me, I've been in the restaurant industry for, you know, 18 years. So there's a lot of mistakes and there's a lot of things that happen, but I'm pretty savvy at navigating through them, you know, I'm just like, oh cool, it's okay, don't trip, we just gotta do that. Oh, don't worry, call this person, I got you
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Maybe I'm weird, but hi, my name showed in Nakajima
Jaymee Sire:
We love it. Embrace the weird, right. Well, speaking of which you are on the upcoming season of Tournament of Champions. So I'm, how is that different than all of these other competitions that you've had? Because we've had a lot of people on over the last couple of years and they say it's just like a completely different beast.
Shota Nakajima:
You know, I think to start with it's the caliber chefs that are on there. I mean, I remember seeing the lineup and just, you know, I remember like my blood just cooling down throughout my whole body and I was just like, oh my
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
I think it's a little bit of everything. Scared, excited, nervous, you know, excited because there's so many faces that I haven't seen in a while, like Stephanie Iza, blah, blah, blah. And at the same time I'm like, oh cool, I have to go against her
Jaymee Sire:
There's a lot of heavy hitters on there, but you are, you know, you're in, in that company for a reason. I mean, does that, does that make you feel good as well? Like knowing that like they put you on the same level as a lot of these people that you admire?
Shota Nakajima:
You know, I think for myself, I'm still seeing
Jaymee Sire:
Did you say no right away or did you?
Shota Nakajima:
Actually, in my brain, in my brain, in your brain, I said no right away. But I always tend to do that. But I have a rule of thumb. If it's scary but exciting, always do it. So. Okay. That's one of the biggest reasons why I did it.
Jaymee Sire:
I think that's a good piece of advice. And you are one of 14 first timers on this season, so what was it like kind of being a newbie in this very tough competition? I mean, and how did people that had been there before kind of welcome you in?
Shota Nakajima:
It was very welcoming at the end of the day. I mean, I felt like we connected, you know, I, I was in the room and honestly I was really nervous when I got there. Just the energy from everyone, right? Like being in the same room with all of those chefs is inspiring, rewarding, but overwhelming
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
And I remember feeling that way and Tiffany Faison came over to me and she's like, Hey Dawn. I'm like, honestly a little overwhelmed. And she's like, don't worry, all of us are feeling that way,
Jaymee Sire:
Oh, that's nice. Had you met, had you met Guy before?
Shota Nakajima:
It was my first time meeting Gefi.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
I'm still nervous when I'm in front of him. I'm not gonna lie, when he talks to me, I'm just like, well, he's very him, right? Yeah. But at the same time, after working with him, my impression, and I, I say this to a lot of people, my biggest thing I remember about the whole entire experience of tournaments of champion is after, you know, people get kicked off or whatnot, guy takes like 20, 30 minutes out of his time to go talk to that person, like off camera, whatnot. Just to be like, Hey man, hey, hey la like great job, you did this, blah, blah. You know? And just take their time to do that. And for me, like I'm a, I'm a sucker for hospitality and that the fact that someone in his position that busy takes his time to do that is just incredible.
Jaymee Sire:
Oh, that's awesome. What do you think your competitive edge is in an environment like that?
Shota Nakajima:
I think my competitive edge is, I have a background of, you know, using a lot of Japanese simpl, simple approaches to cooking, but making them delicious, which I think sometimes helps in quick environments or, you know, adjusting to something. For example, if I have a weird ingredient that's given to me just because of how, you know, I was trained in how my brain works, I'll take asparagus and I'll think of seven different ways to use it right away. Mm-hmm. And I'll think of what the best one would be to fit into this challenge.
Jaymee Sire:
And of course the, the Randomizer is the one handing out these sometimes, you know, obscure or weird ingredients. Is it as intimidating as it seems on television?
Shota Nakajima:
You know, it's the slow clicks that gets me. Oh
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah.
Shota Nakajima:
It's like it cuz it keeps going and
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
I was excited to go against whoever is thrown my way. You know, I'm someone who doesn't really think about what happens tomorrow. Good. Think bad thing. Yeah.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
I do, I do. I'm the same way. I do think about my life in general, but like, you know, opportunities and just going with the flow.
Jaymee Sire:
Just get through the thing that's in front of you kind of thing,
Shota Nakajima:
Right? Yeah. So that's kind of my mentality and I wasn't thinking about who I'm going against. I'm just hoping that whoever I go against, I can still cook the best food that I can cook if I win or if I lose. I'm proud of everything that I did and accomplish and that was kind of my biggest goal.
Jaymee Sire:
What about the blind judging? Is that, do you, do you find that as like an advantage or a disadvantage? At the end of the day?
Shota Nakajima:
I take it as an advantage. I'm a big fan of blind judging cuz at the end of the day, you know, a lot of us, we know each other. There's a lot of connections. And when it's blind judging, I think it just makes it extremely fair.
Jaymee Sire:
What is your biggest takeaway from, from ke competing on that show?
Shota Nakajima:
That I am competitive and I love competing
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Yes, a hundred percent
Jaymee Sire:
Putting it out there. Just putting it out there. Well, we're so excited to watch everything unfold on this brand new season of Tournament of Champions and it's been so much fun chatting with you. We are gonna finish things off with a little rapid fire round and then we have one final question that we ask everybody here on Food Network. Obsessed. All right, so rapid fire questions, secret to perfect. Sushi rice,
Shota Nakajima:
Hot rice when you pour the vinegar in.
Jaymee Sire:
Okay. Why?
Shota Nakajima:
Why is because it's about utilizing that steam that evaporates to soak in that vinegar at the right timing. And when it's hot it cooks the vinegar in the sugar in the right way into the race. Mm. So when it cools down, it's not overly sticky or mushy.
Jaymee Sire:
Okay, good to know. If you've got a day off in Seattle, what are you up to
Shota Nakajima:
In the woods with my dog Dodger. Come here.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Advice for small business owners. Support your staff. Take care of him. That's
Jaymee Sire:
Good advice. Next travel destination.
Shota Nakajima:
Next Travel Destination. Montana.
Jaymee Sire:
Really? That's where I'm from.
Shota Nakajima:
Oh, is it? I'm doing an event called Paw Up.
Jaymee Sire:
Oh yes. Paw up looked. I've never been, but it looks amazing. And it's,
Shota Nakajima:
I lived in Montana course. You did? Of course. A year though. In my teenage years I lived in Kalispell. Oh
Jaymee Sire:
Oh my goodness. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm from Great Falls, but I've spent Oh, nice. A lot of time in Kalispell.
Shota Nakajima:
I love, I love Montana. It's such a beautiful,
Jaymee Sire:
It's absolutely gorgeous. I love that. I love that answer.
Shota Nakajima:
Metal tip chopsticks.
Jaymee Sire:
Okay. Why?
Shota Nakajima:
It's my tweezer. It's, I can check temp with it, I fry things with it, I saute things with it. I, it's my thing. All right,
Jaymee Sire:
Love that. What is always on your grocery list?
Shota Nakajima:
What is always on my grocery list? Some kind of pickles. Okay. I like s snacking on different pickles and I like using the pickle juice to cook different things. Yes. Love that. It's, I'm just obsessed with it.
Jaymee Sire:
Damn, that's
Shota Nakajima:
What's the craziest thing I've used? Pickle? I don't know. Is there anything crazy that you're not allowed to use pickle juice
Jaymee Sire:
For? I guess not
Shota Nakajima:
I guess not. Right.
Jaymee Sire:
Do you use it in your fried chicken or no,
Shota Nakajima:
We do not right now. Actually we changed our pick or marinating process, so it's gluten free. So we actually took the pickle link juice out.
Jaymee Sire:
Okay. Book. You wish everyone would read
Shota Nakajima:
Book. I wish everyone would read If I can change the answer to a book, I wish everyone could read. Okay. It's a call, a book called [inaudible], which means the basics of kasak cuisine. Hmm. And it's a very beautiful book where it's written in an order of F, the first page is soup and it explains because course one is usually soup and mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Love that. Well that sounds very on brand for everything that we just talked about
Shota Nakajima:
As well. Thank you. I am pretty Japanese
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Ideal meal for each of those. I would say number one, I think meals are about company, right? Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Nostalgic. Yes.
Shota Nakajima:
Yeah, nostalgic. You know, the view of like your mom cooking in an apron like that to me is comfort. Mm-hmm. For lunch, what would an ideal lunch be? What would an ideal lunch? I guess for me, I don't know if it's something I do regularly. I eat fu all the time for lunch. Okay. It's quick, it's fast, it's delicious. And the place I go to all the time knows that I love extra cilantro, green onions, red onions,
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
[inaudible] Okay. On Capitol Hill.
Jaymee Sire:
All right, perfect. And then, yeah, dinner or?
Shota Nakajima:
Uh, dinner. I would say I would love to go to Japan. Mm-hmm.
Jaymee Sire:
Okay. And so you keep, obviously still keep in uh, pretty good touch with them, huh? Yes.
Shota Nakajima:
Yeah, I just went to go see him when I visited Japan.
Jaymee Sire:
That's awesome. Are you eating dessert or you are not a dessert guy?
Shota Nakajima:
I am such a sweet tooth. Really? Oh my. Yes. I love sweet tooth.
Jaymee Sire:
What's the ideal dessert? What's the go-to?
Shota Nakajima:
Ideal dessert? If I don't have to worry about anything, I would start with ice cream.
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Chocolate chip cookie dough.
Jaymee Sire:
Okay.
Shota Nakajima:
I love cheesecake. Okay. I love fluffy cheesecake or New York sour cheesecake. Yeah. Anything with cream, sweet cream cheese flavor, I guess cuz I'm Japanese we'll call it. Uh, ho Tea Cheesecake
Jaymee Sire:
Okay. I love it.
Shota Nakajima:
Trying to stay on brand here.
Jaymee Sire:
Yeah.
Shota Nakajima:
Yeah. I mean those two, I would say something I, I love anything that has cream in it. Okay,
Jaymee Sire:
Shota Nakajima:
Thank you. I'm excited as well. For everyone to tune in,
Jaymee Sire:
You can catch Shota on this season of Tournament of Champions premiering Sunday, February 19th at eight seven Central. Make sure to follow us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss a thing. And if you enjoy today's episode, please rate and review. We love it when you do that. That's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next Friday.