This post was sponsored by Benihana. All opinions are my own. When I was asked to partner with Benihana to try out their Be The Chef experience, I was super jazzed. I mean, who wouldn’t want to test that out for a day! The experience from start to finish was awesome. When I first arrived at my local Benihana, I was greeted by Chef Alfredo who introduced himself and immediately made me feel welcome by handing me a chef coat and my very own Benihana chef hat and apron, which I got to take home. Look how official the knife belt is!

Basically, you get to go into your local Benihana and have a one-on-one training with one of the chefs, learning the art of teppanyaki, from the signature fried rice, to the shrimp appetizer, steak entree and shrimp entree. You also get to try mastering some of Benihana’s iconic tricks, from tossing an egg (see my outtakes in the video below), onion volcano, beating heart fried rice, and tossing shrimp tails into your hat.

After your training session, the next step is to invite your friends in to cook for them and impress them with your newly found career path. 😉

Be The Chef at Benihana – let’s get started!

One of my favorite things to do was creating the onion volcano, so simple yet so cool. See above reaction. I was rather excited I was about to make one of these myself.

The first item I got to prepare was the famed fried rice dish. I was happy to find out garlic butter is involved in this deliciousness. (This garlic lover, was even happier to find out, you can ask your chef to sub garlic butter for any of the other dishes that use regular butter.)

Next up, cooking the shrimp entrée in lemon butter and cutting each one up into threes. This took me a few shrimps to master, but I eventually got it! The most difficult part is using the 2 pronged fork to hold the shrimp in place and not stab it.

I also prepared the veggies and steak! My favorite part of the plate was the steak, and Chef Alfredo agreed, when I inquired about his favorite.

Pro tip: The chef cuts off and discards a couple parts of the steak that are a tiny bit fattier, but you can ask to have them. I definitely don’t mind a little bit of fat for added flavor.

Have I convinced you to Be The Chef for the day? Even just to wear this cool chef getup? If not, take a look at this video from my chef experience! Be The Chef packages start at just $300 for a guest chef and 5 guests. Check it out here.

Check out what else I’ve been up to with Benihana!

Happy Chefing,

Corey