Today I'll be cooking for Yama, the heaviest Japanese sumo wrestler. He is a 2 time sumo world champion weighing in at 600 pounds and he's also the heaviest Japanese human being in recorded history. Guinness wears his plaque. To get a sense of his strength, check out this buzzfeed video of him fighting regular people. Yama eats a lot of food and that's where I come in, but he doesn't speak much English nor do I speak any Japanese. So we've got Andrew to help us out. While I begin prepping for lunch, Yama's gonna finish up his training for the morning. Our first course for Yama is a huge plate of sashimi.

We'll be feeding him a 5 course lunch meal with more food than some of us eat in an entire week. This plate of sashimi has salmon, tuna, yellowtail and yellowtail belly, halibut, and to finish some mackerel. And we have something very special as well. This here is real wasabi. And when you feed someone like oh, no. Oh, god. And And when you feed someone like Yama who's used to high quality Japanese cuisine, we've gotta use all real ingredients and the best of the best. Most wasabi is just horseradish.

Yama, before your first course begins, please choose any sake that you like. Which one do you want? All, please. All of them. Perfect. Yama, your first course is this sashimi? Woah. You hungry? Hungry. So hungry. Hungry.

Yeah. I'm gonna be Yama's waiter for the entire day. So whatever he needs, I'll get it for him. What is your favorite type of fish?

Magrodtuna.

So you got lots of tuna. You have sea salmon. Yep. Yellowtail. Yeah. Say when? All

the way. Okay.

All the way up. Good boy. So good. Dig in. Todakimasu. So I'll go make that and you finish up. And our first step here is to season the rice. I'm gonna gently pour over this mixture of rice wine vinegar, sugar, and sea salt because we need this rice to be flavorful for Yama.

At this point, we need to spread the vinegar and also cool the rice. My eyes are burning from the vinegar. I'll use a wet towel to wipe off all this dead rice from the edges because once again, all of this has to be perfect for yammer. Once we've done the rice, we're gonna make yammer a few different types of rolls and I'm actually looking to get a little bit of color and char on these. You gotta always keep it moving. Make sure you're not staying in one place for too long while still getting that really nice crust on top of the salmon. To me, this is one of the most satisfying things in all of cooking, and just the smells that come off of this when you're doing it are incredible. On top of that, I'm gonna go on with just a little bit of this smoked salt here because we always gotta season as we go.

And then something that pairs perfectly with salmon, a nice squeeze of lemon all across the top of the salmon roll. I'll finish it off with some bonito fish flakes. And I have to say, I'm so jealous of Yamu right now. I know this might look like a lot of food, but keep in mind, Yamu means mountain in Japanese. So we gotta go big with the quantities. Yamu, how was your first course? Yeah. So good. The sun's getting kinda hot, You wanna go inside? Okay.

Yep. Yamu? Yep. Your second course is quite large. We've got sushi roll.

Oh, so nice.

Can you eat this?

Yeah. Of course.

This is like 70 something sushi rolls. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. That's it?

You need more sake? Oh, yep. You almost finished the whole bottle already. Oh. It's only the second course. Yeah. Manny, you'd be on the floor by now if you drank this much sake. Yama, while you have your second course, what are your favorite foods? What do you like the most? I like sushi. And I know you like sake.

In the US, you had more salmon than in Japan.

Mhmm. I

think it's because they have so many varieties, much more than we have here.

Yama, one time, I went to all you can eat sushi with my friends, but I think I ate 45 pieces of very small sushi like this. How much sushi can you eat? So like 3 or 4 of these in each piece? Yeah. And he ate I'm about to 50 So this is nothing. This is easy for you, Yamamoto.

Yeah. Too easy. These are the one one more piece of this. Oh, my.

I'll go make some. Alright, Yamamoto. I'm gonna do this for you.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

Our 3rd course is called chankonabe, which loosely translates to a Japanese sumo stew. Now to our chankonabe, I'll add down some of that fresh cut cabbage, a few more of these chopped up carrots, and then before we serve a big handful of Tokyo Negi or Japanese green onion. With that, our sumo stew is ready to serve. Andrew, I heard there's something about why there's chicken in chankonabe. Could you explain? Chicken stands on 2 legs, doesn't cut down.

If they put b for pork, they're on 4 legs. If you fall down in sumo, all four limbs touch you. Wow. So the superstition is chicken is what you eat before the competition.

And because he has a match against mayonnaise tomorrow, he's gotta be prepped.

Oh, actually, he's gonna fight mayonnaise right now.

Follow sake, done? Done. Yep. Get that out of here. Are you ready for the next course?

Yes, please.

We made it the best we could, so you're gonna have to give us your rating. Okay? Okay. Be right back. Anyama? Yep. The chankonabe? Whoop. Let's see. Oh.

Oh. Nice.

So this is your favorite soup? Yeah. Is this about the size of that you would normally have?

Yeah. No. Yeah. No. No.

Oh, wow. This is a small version. Okay?

So normally, they cook it in an enormous pot, but it's for all the sumo wrestlers to share.

Oh, okay.

So this

is just for 1

sumo wrestler, but rent one regular sumo wrestler. He's bigger than a regular guy, chef.

Who cooks it? You have a private chef?

Sumo wrestler.

You cook the chankon nama yourself? Oh, so you're a sumo wrestler and a chef? That's why it's called sumo stew.

And you know the thing is,

when you're in the lower

ranks, you have to do all the hard work in cooking.

Once you get

up to the higher ranks like he, he just sits there, they cook and serve him, and he gets the star treatment.

Just like this. Do you have a secret ingredient for your chankonabe? Yeah. Miso pork Trankonabe. Yeah. So good. That sounds good. I'm gonna have to try that next time. Enjoy.

Thank you. So with the leftover broth that Yamah has here, we're gonna add in the udon noodles first. Yeah? Mhmm. Pour them right in. Mhmm. All of them. Yep. You want them all? Yep.

Oh my gosh. And now the egg?

Yeah. No. Negi. Negi.

Oh, now the pile on top? Yeah. All all. All of it. Yeah. Boom. Negi right in. See, I love learning from people that know so much more than I do. How do we know when they're done in your expert opinion?

Well, they're toasty.

You know how to do the one handed egg crack? Yeah. Like this? Mhmm. Can you do that? Okay. He's a pro. And this is how you polish off your sumo soup. So it's 2 meals instead of

1.

They would not have a tiny little snack. Same for me. Wagyu time. Course number 4, we'll be making Wagyu tataki. And given they've sent me Wagyu all around the world at this point, I have to thank Tiffany and the whole Wagyu shop for always keeping me so well stocked. We have about £10 of Wagyu for Yama. Cause as you all know by now, he eats a lot. We've got an a 5 Japanese Hokkaido strip loin.

We've got a few American Wagyu rib eyes. We've got a Japanese Takamori Wagyu tenderloin. We have a Miyazaki gew rib eye. And if Yama still isn't full by then, we got even more to be safe. In case Yama doesn't believe this is the real stuff, I've got certificates for everything. Yama, I know this is a little bit smaller than you're used to, and this is the 3rd course, but number 4 is gonna be Wagyu. I just wanna show you before Nice. We go cook.

You like Wagyu?

Yeah. Yeah. Where's the groom?

All Japan. Oh, nice. Hokkaido, Miyazaki. Oh, nice. All Japan. Yama, in case you didn't believe me, here's all the certificates from showing that they're from Japan.

Oh.

Never. You keep these Oh, yeah. And I'll send you home with some extra Wagyu. Okay. Yeah. He's amazed. Yeah. Yeah? Wow.

They know the the nose print. Yeah. Thank you. To begin with the Wagyu course, we're gonna sear off this beautiful filet mignon, which I will say, Yama seems very excited about. We have to make sure to press it down to make sure we're getting all that surface area contact. We're looking for the perfect sear for Yama. Once it's ready, we'll give it a nice flip. Last but not least, I'll quickly roll it around on all its sides, then we'll turn off the heat and pour over this soy marinade.

Next up, we'll cook one of the most beautiful pieces of Wagyu on the market. Just listen to the sizzle. This cooks incredibly fast. We have our beautifully plated Wagyu. I know Yam is very excited for this, but just like the fish, we have to sear once again. I'll finish with the tiniest sprinkle of salt. We have 3 different Wagyu dishes. To finish the second one, a little sear, a very light drizzle of the sauce, and then a few red onions to finish.

We always like a little bit of color. Yamma Yep. Your 4th course. You have your Wagyu. Oh. Okay? Yeah. One more coming. Hold on.

This last one, Yama, we have to put right in front of you. You wanna sear it yourself? Okay. Give it a nice big sear on each piece. There you go. I mean, Manny, I figure if Yama's a chef already, why not let him help out a little bit? Beautiful, Yamma. Okay, Yamma. We finished this one. It's got a yuzu ponzu and some more green onion.

K? Go ahead. Thank you. So Yamma, I know you're retired now. What have you done since you finished Shumos? Which movies?

Zoolander 2. John with 2, I think, was his most fun.

Minnie, he was John Wick. What happened in John Wick 2?

I'll come on in. That's some of the

but, you know, he almost beat Keanu off. They had a great fight scene. He's been in a football movie.

In Doritos commercial. Oh. On Ellen. He's been in, like, 10 music videos. And he's he's been in, like, 10 music videos. And he's he's everywhere.

But he says he loves us the best because it's

no hard work and loves good deeds. Oh, yeah. You get to eat. Yes. Finish the Wagyu. Thank you. Thank you, Yama.

Don't you know in Japanese culture, he's not supposed to pour his own sake. He's a very important person. You're supposed to be pouring the whole time, man.

I'm gonna be Yama's waiter for the entire day. So whatever he needs, I'll get it for him. Yama, I'm so sorry. It's okay. You should've told me.

He's easy going.

I'm glad he didn't charge me like he charged Manny earlier. Yama Yep. I know you're getting full. Okay? Yep. The final course, Daifuku Manju Yeah. And Ocha. Oh. How's my pronunciation?

Ocha.

Ocha. Ocha. Enjoy the dessert. Thank you. Good meal? Yeah. And you're full? Yeah. Good. Okay.

This is, actually last month's issue of Sports Illustrated. Oh. They did a big feature article and interview

Ah, Yamah.

And Yamah told me because your food, your cooking was really good, he's gonna sign you up a copy of this.

There you go. We'll hang it up in our studio in the kitchen. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm gonna let you finish your dessert in peace. Yep. Very nice to meet you. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Oh, that's that's cool. That's that's good. And I like this very much too.