News

There were eight courses, many prepared three ways. This amounted to nearly 24 dishes, with ingredients that sounded exotic even to a global gourmand: sudachi, obrato, kasu and pickled mioga.

Textures ranged from gelatinous and gooey to crisp and crackly. Delicate petals garnished sculptural serving plates; one in particular looked like a biomorphic bong in the school of design guru Karim Rashid.

Four hours later, Alison Fryer, owner of Toronto's Cookbook Store asked, "Was dinner good?" Manning a kiosk piled with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto's first tome, she didn't skip a beat: "Well, perhaps that was a rhetorical question."

The setting was not Kitchen Stadium, the famous location where Mr. Morimoto's television battles take place, but it might as well have been. In town last week to launch Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking, the celebrity chef did a two-night shift alongside chef Guy Rubino at Rain.

Mr. Morimoto, who is best known as Iron Chef Japanese, prepared recipes from the book while Mr. Rubino showed off his obsessive passion for horizontal presentation (building a dish from left to right as opposed to towering ingredients that mimic a Jenga game).

Cod noodles in a cod roe and soy milk broth, sugared salmon with beet sorbet, Wagyu beef crusted with abalone and hamachi tataki on top of coconut tofu were some of the unusual combinations to come from the open kitchen.

And what would any 21st century meal be without a little foam?

"I love all the sciences," Mr. Morimoto said, between the evening marathons, about the molecular gastronomy technique. "But I think that maybe a house cook cannot do this. To me, 21st century - I think it's borderless."

In other words, he'll serve gyoza (Japanese-type dumplings) in tomato cream sauce or place raw fish over bocconcini mozzarella. ("It reminded me of tofu," he explained.)

But not all cultures have the same palate. Jellyfish, which is commonly ordered in Tokyo, would not have the same appeal in Philadelphia, where Mr. Morimoto opened his first North American restaurant six years ago. When he opened Wasabi in Mumbai, three years ago, he had to cater to a clientele that was 50 per cent vegetarian.

No matter what the menu variations, his appreciation for high design transcends the plate; Philly was left to the über modern devices of Mr. Rashid, and Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Tadao Ando created a spacious soliloquy to Mr. Morimoto's food in New York's Meatpacking District last year.

"It has been my philosophy that the food industry includes everything. Food is just 30 per cent; 70 per cent is décor, music, uniforms and lighting," he said. He has his image down to a science: a perfect ponytail, sharp glasses, a kimono tucked into samurai-type pants and his striped "tabi" socks with a split toe so he can wear his "zori" flip flops.

And his cookbook lives up to its name, thanks to close-focus photography juxtaposed with a luxury of clean space. The elaborate sushi arrangements will delight those who love razor clam, freshwater eel and cuttlefish scored into a beautiful flower - but it may also intimidate people more prone to slicing their fingers.

"You have to try," asserted Mr. Morimoto, who said Rachael Ray and Emeril Lagasse try to simplify things too much. "How come Morimoto is too difficult?" he said. "You have to try. You don't have to have my knife skills."

Mr. Morimoto is 52, which means he has a lot more time to establish a persona independent of the comparisons drawn to Nobu Matsuhisa, whose New York restaurant was a launching pad for Mr. Morimoto in the 1990s. Rock shrimp tempura and black cod with miso are Nobu signature dishes that also appear in The New Art of Japanese Cooking.

But Mr. Morimoto can take full credit for a slimy yet sensual triple threat of uni (sea urchin) layered between an oyster and foie gras. This, he said, is the only way to bridge the "fishy and gamey."

For all of the rich food in the book, it's ironic that the chef wields no power over his diet at home. His wife limits him to vegetables, tofu, natto (fermented soybeans) and some fish. Mr. Morimoto pointed to his stomach and said, "metabolic syndrome." So when he dined at Canoe, the high-end, Canadian-inspired restaurant, for lunch, he ordered two courses of liver - foie gras, followed by calf's liver.

Sounds like an episode of Iron Chef, where competitors are limited to a single ingredient. Which prompts the question: If he were to face off against Mr. Rubino - who has already competed against Bobby Flay in an Iron Chef America that will air next year - whose cuisine would reign supreme?

"I don't know. That depends," he said, smiling. "I cook good in one hour and maybe I win. Or maybe he wins. Only God knows."

Supreme cuisine, indeed.