- 7/10/2025
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.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Cato is a restaurant that lies at the intersection of the region that we're in, Los Angeles, and some of the immigrant communities like in the San Gabriel Valley where I grew up.
00:11Currently in this space we do a tasting menu, one at the bar, one in the dining room, and the one in the dining room focuses on seasonal changes, changes in our interests and techniques, and it's a more up-to-date snapshot of what we're doing and what's available at any given time.
00:31So these are aged lamb saddles from Anderson Ranch in the Willamette Valley. They're grass-fed, grass-finished. It's for the lamb dish, but it's one of my favorite products.
00:40We basically keep the fat cap on and it creates a really nice flavor. I think for Chinese diners, fat is such a huge part of eating lamb that it'd be a shame if we just took it off.
00:50So he's gonna seam it out from the bone and then finish it over the heart. Lamb and cumin is such like a Silk Road, Northern Chinese-type dish that we wanted to show, like,
01:00the diversity and flavors of that part of the world. The lamb course is based off the sensation of cumin lamb and sharing a cumin lamb skewer with your friends.
01:08So we wanted to do, like, a large set of it where it felt like the table's super crowded and you're sharing it with loved ones.
01:14Yeah, so the top is crunchy because of how they rendered it, but the inside's, like, perfect. And then he'll brush it with that smoky fish soy that we made, and then he'll dust it with our version of, like, a cumin spice blend.
01:26Right now we're serving it with zuckerman asparagus from the Sacramento Delta and other parts of the lambs.
01:31I think for guests, I would want them to feel some sense of nostalgia regardless of what background they come from, you know?
01:38Giving someone the ratatouille moment is, like, obviously great, but you just want people happy.
01:43Ratatouille moment is, like, when someone eats something, they're like, whoa, like, that's my childhood, you know?
01:48So this is Giovanni. He's our AM's soup chef. He gets a lot of, like, our longer projects started during the day.
01:59So he's shaving basically petrified skipjack tuna, and it's the base of our dashi.
02:04In Taiwanese food, there's always, like, small bits of dashi everywhere, and it usually comes in the form of, like, instant dashi, like, powdered or liquid.
02:11We really just wanted to show off his arms before we're making him do a thing.
02:15So this is a Kazuriki. It's a Japanese katsu shaver.
02:20I regularly have to remove the blade and sharpen it like I would on a whetstone any other knife.
02:25I remember when I first started, and I'd always be like, oh, man, I want to shave the katsu. I want to shave the katsu.
02:33And then I started shaving the katsu. And it is the only thing keeping me in shape right now.
02:40So we bring our kombu water up to 180. This will steep for about a minute and a half, and then I'll strain through a cheesecloth and coffee filter.
02:49To clarify it more efficiently than having to strain it twice.
02:53In East Asian cultures, like, broth is obviously king. You don't really eat, like, starch without broth.
02:59So we'll let this steep, and then when it's there, we feel like everything's contributed its flavor.
03:03Well, one of the other sous chefs will come in and finish the broth.
03:06I think the last time you came, we were like, there's no recipe for everything.
03:10And then, obviously, we moved to the space, and we brought on a lot of staff, and then we brought on, like, a business partner, too.
03:16And he's like, yeah, this is, like, a no-go. So we actually need recipes for everything.
03:19I think from the last time you filmed, it's been about, like, five years, obviously the largest change has been space, for sure.
03:25We're able to stockpile, like, a pretty comprehensive pantry.
03:29And, yeah, we're just able to hold on to talented staff and, like, grow them and see how they flourish in the space.
03:35My role now is more spearheading the vision, showing them our techniques and our unique pantry.
03:41So this is our walk-in. This was, like, the size of the old kitchen.
03:47It's just really nice. I can't even describe how nice it is.
03:49We always have, like, rotating coils, so we'll age them first, and then we'll cure it overnight.
03:54And then we'll let it air dry for a few extra days.
03:57All the steps are super important to getting, like, the final product.
04:01This is Jacob. He's in charge of the heart section.
04:05Jacob's quite shy, so please be nice.
04:07Those are Wolf Ranch coils. It's incredible. They come here.
04:10It's incredible. They come huge.
04:11So these have been aged for the better half of a week already.
04:15He's gonna take out the wishbone, and then he's gonna bathe them in a maltose bath.
04:20And I think this is one of those things where, regardless of what we do to it, it's, like, so delicious.
04:24It ends up being everyone's favorite dish.
04:26So this is a technique that Chinese cuisine they'll do with, like, birds like squab or duck.
04:31But it basically, they'll lacquer it with this sugar mixture, and it'll cake on.
04:35And then after he air dries it, which we do with the smoking process during service,
04:39when he blanches it with oil, it gets a shell, kind of.
04:42So you see, like, the skin, like, tighten up.
04:44A big motif for us in this restaurant is that every small detail compounds in the end to, like,
04:51either something really good or really bad.
04:52So to care about everything as we're doing it is super important for us.
04:57We're sourcing quails from Wolf Ranch, from Brown Wolf.
05:00They're, like, one of the top, top, top Californian ingredients that you can work with.
05:04One of the goals for the restaurant is to showcase that we have a lot of products in California that are of that degree.
05:09So we're using almond wood. I think it's a really gentle smoke flavor without being overly aggressive like an apple or a hickory.
05:16Our goal isn't to, like, give the sensation of, like, barbecue or, like, smoked meat or anything.
05:20It's just to remind you that you're in a restaurant centered around wood fire.
05:25As he's doing this, he'll typically leave a log in to start getting ready to burn, and then he'll move it, put the flame out.
05:32It'll smoke up, and then we'll just slowly smoke the quail.
05:35Yeah, you guys obviously do a lot of barbecue shows, so you see how people smoke stuff.
05:38But we're not trying to cook it at all. We're just trying to dry it out a little bit.
05:41So between, like, the very little heat and, like, the direct smoke, we're just getting something really quick on them.
05:47I think I've been trying to grow as a leader, for sure, you know, how to work with people from different walks of life, from different age groups.
05:53And I think letting people make their mistakes and giving them the freedom to do so and not punishing people or holding something over their heads is, like, super important.
06:02I think our primary concern is, like, not to be avant-garde, but it's just to source well and to make something really satiating to eat.
06:12So this is how the crab dish starts. Basically, we break it down into shells, fat, flesh, and then from there on it splits, and then at the end of the night it comes back together.
06:21Alan's our longest-tenured employee right now. I think Alan's the only person that came over from the old space. One of his great life regrets.
06:28Well, I pretty much started cooking, like, five years ago, and four of those years with John.
06:33I do miss the old space a little bit, but you get, like, a little bit more hands-on, and then you can, like, touch everything.
06:38But since we're doing so much volume here, it's just a little different.
06:40Just taking all the meat from the head, just, like, separating the shells, trying not to get any shells in the meat.
06:45We're doing it every day, and Alan probably ate it, because we actually, like, blacklight the crab, too.
06:49Yeah.
06:50Which becomes, like, a pretty tedious thing.
06:52Right now I'm just using a blacklight to check for any shells.
06:55The shells give off, like, a fluorescent glow, so it makes it really easy to check, make sure none of the crab meat has any shells in it.
07:02I think a lot of restaurants use that method to pick through crab, but as thorough as we can be, and whatever thing we can do to ensure a better product or keep, like, a steady standard is always our goal, first and foremost.
07:16Sometimes when you're picking through it, it's really hard to see if the shells get in there.
07:20So this gives it, like, a little, like, indicator that there's a piece of shell, so you can, like, kind of see how this one glows a little bit, just slightly more.
07:27So these are crab shells. After we steam the crab and pick out all the flesh, these are the shells we'll just toast off the hearth.
07:37These cast iron pans, it's a good conductor of heat. Toast these off, then we'll steep them in both the glaze and aged kelp vinegar.
07:46When you toast the crab shells, there's, like, a sharp turn of flavor. It goes from mellow to, like, you taste darker notes.
07:52We always toast the crab shells in the fire to add that flavor to whatever liquid we're steeping it in.
07:59Nice and toasty.
08:01So for the glaze, it's about a 4 to 1 ratio of the chicken reduction to crab shells, and this, too, will just bring up a very light simmer.
08:10This is based off the sensation of eating, like, shark fin soup without, obviously, having the shark fin.
08:16I trace a lot of our flavors back to things that my mom made.
08:19So when people eat at the restaurant, it's different because I tell people this is just my mom's food done with our techniques and sourcing.
08:27So this will go for maybe an hour, hour and a half. So we'll just keep tasting it.
08:32This is sablefish. It's dry-aged for about two weeks. It comes from California coast.
08:42We specifically source sablefish from Northern California because the cold waters are conducive to, like, fatty your flesh.
08:50We also start with sablefish that are roughly six pounds, and they end up post-age about five.
08:55But you'll notice, like, the fat's, like, weeping on his hands, which, yeah, it looks, it tastes great after it's been grilled.
09:01I'm just getting a clean cut, and then this will get portioned, and we'll try to portion the sides to match each other.
09:08We're actually going to take the skin off for this preparation, so it's, like, really important that we develop a crossover.
09:13So between the sugar and the marinade and how much, like, fat's concentrated in the fish, we get, like, a really pleasant texture.
09:20This is definitely one of, like, the centerpieces of our sourcing program.
09:24So this is the sablefish I just filleted. We're just checking for any leftover skin or any leftover fin meat.
09:31So sometimes along the side down here, we'll get, this is the mussel from the fin.
09:36We want to make sure that's removed. And then we'll portion this to 50-gram portions.
09:40I'll just pass these off to Danny for when he's ready, and then these will go into marinade for tonight.
09:45So, swanzai yu translates to sour vegetable fish. It's a Chinese dish, like, you see a lot in Sichuanese cuisine.
09:52It's basically, like, a sour broth that's situated with, like, sour cabbage and sour Chinese mustard.
09:57You see a lot of specialty shops in China that are, like, chains that just do that dish.
10:01It's slowly starting to catch on in the States, and I think in, like, a year or two, you're gonna see, like, a huge boom of it.
10:07So one o'clock right now, they're just gonna break down the entire kitchen.
10:10This is, like, a little crossover between some of the AM and later AM teams.
10:14But right now, they're just gonna reset some of the work that's been done.
10:17These are all of our tasters for today. It's 3.30. We start service at 5, but we have a bunch of meetings preceding that.
10:23So we'll taste it now just to get an accurate read of how tonight's gonna go, and then if we need to address anything, like, now's a good time.
10:29Everyone's gonna put a component of each dish on a spoon on a tray, and we'll run through those.
10:34Make sure seasoning's right, texture's right. No surprises.
10:38Better we figure out now than, like, mid-service, you know?
10:42We used to do the full dishes, which was better for all the managers to try, but it ends up being a kind of, like, waste of food when you see all of it at the end.
10:51So this is the custard that we did earlier. It's still missing a lot of stuff right now, but, like, the base components are in it.
10:58So the crab glaze, the crab vinegar, and then the crab fat custard.
11:03This is the quail. This is the jus we make with all the leftover crowns.
11:11Yeah, so that one's a miss. We have to fix that one for sure.
11:13The puree definitely was a little far off, so we'll have to fix that.
11:21Jacob, the maetake needs salt.
11:26You can put a few drops of shiro in, too.
11:29The food is, like, so personal to me, and it's, like, so specific.
11:32It's not like you can be out and, like, oh, I'll just have this dish because it doesn't exist, so I try to, like, guide most of it.
11:41Yeah, so a few minor adjustments for service, but we're looking pretty good.
11:45Nothing, like, no huge projects to take on at this point in time, which sometimes it does happen, unfortunately, but I think we're pretty good for service today.
11:56So we're about 45 minutes to service, so we're gonna change out, get the kitchen ready for show ready, and then get back for a full staff lineup.
12:03Okay, good afternoon.
12:04Good afternoon.
12:05Dietary restrictions today.
12:07Want to know raw protein or lamb, we have subs for them.
12:11No restrictions at the bar, no restrictions for snacks.
12:13Okay, have a good service.
12:15Yes!
12:20First course is three different things.
12:22This is, like, our version of, like, snacks or canapes that Rep. Saunders usually do.
12:26You know, like, everyone's f***ing doing tarts.
12:28We wanted to do something that was formatted a tad bit differently and something that could be eaten with chopsticks, so it felt more like us.
12:35This is, um, they've been calling it ocean whitefish, but, like, when you're cutting into it, it, like, very deeply resembles tilefish.
12:41Typically, our flavors are definitely more aggressive, but they're, like, very, like, bright flavors.
12:46We don't do, like, citrus in the menu too much, so this is a real good time to offer, like, sharp acidity, like, early on in the menu.
12:53This is fresh radish compressed in, like, a fermented radish liquid, but it ends up looking like flower petals.
13:00With cheese garnishing, we wanted to do a dish based off sesame noodles in Taiwan, which is, like, super big.
13:06The big flavors are, like, horseradish, cucumber, and sesame, so we do a roasted sesame dressing.
13:11We actually bring in, like, a specific sesame paste from Taiwan for this.
13:15Fire to menu.
13:17Fire to menu.
13:18Fire to lamb.
13:19Our menu is 12 or 11 courses.
13:22It goes a little longer with supplements, but roughly 11 to 12 at any given night.
13:26We try to go from raw preparations into something that maybe cleanses the palate into four pretty intense dishes.
13:34These are the quails after they've been lacquered.
13:37They're, like, left to dry out.
13:39And, like, look, it's, like, papery.
13:41So Jacob's gonna baste it in hot oil.
13:44So it's caramelizing.
13:45It's essentially frying, too.
13:47And then after this, he's gonna roast it in the oven, and then it'll get darker.
13:51It doesn't, like, necessarily, like, peak at the end of meats and then ends softly at dessert.
13:57I think there's, like, pits and peaks throughout, and it's built out that way.
14:00You have points of richness, points of acidity, parts with broth in one, parts with bread, parts with starches, parts with rice.
14:06So it's a little unlike the Western menu, but we try to have, like, that up and down.
14:15We're grilling the sablefish for the sour fish set in that Taiwanese grilling mixture.
14:19So it has a lot of ginger, garlic, soy paste, essentially fries, all the sugar it's marinated in.
14:25Like, all the charred bits on that is, like, super good.
14:28So after he pulls it from the grill, he brushes it in a little neutral oil.
14:31The hearth is super useful in that way.
14:33We need to finish anything and get some, like, last-minute, like, smoke and flavor on it.
14:37It's, like, a great time to do it.
14:39This is the sour fish.
14:41On the bottom is a relish of fermented mustard greens.
14:45Grilled artichokes and grilled sugar snap peas.
14:48Just garnished with kinome.
14:50This is the sablefish, dry-aged, marinated, and grilled.
14:54And this will get a table-side pour of the sour fish broth.
14:58Fire for a custard.
15:00I think for guests, when they come and finish their meal, obviously, we just want people happy after they leave, you know?
15:07I've had meals recently where it was of a completely different genre and cuisine.
15:12And I felt really good about it because they were so strong in their identity that I would want people to feel that leaving too, you know?
15:20Like, to be proud of their heritage, to not feel, like, ostracized by, like, how they look or how they grew up, you know?
15:27I think that's the beauty of fine dining right now.
15:29Like, you get a lot of different stories and visions and opinions and perspectives, and it's all so varied.
15:34It's not so homogenous, you know?
15:36Bye bye!
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