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The French Culinary Institute asked me to cover the New York Culinary Experience in Soho  featuring hands-on classes with over 30 Food Network and Bravo celebrity chefs like Morimoto, Todd English, Marcus Samuelson, Alex Guarnaschelli, Anita Lo and Cesare Casella (the chef with the rosemary in his pocket).

I gladly said yes with a plan to give Iron Chef Morimoto a copy of The Gourmet Bachelor cookbook and to find out when he was a bachelor, which dish he made to impress the ladies.

But first, I watched the award-winning, Iron Chef masterfully carve a 3 lb. plate of delicate Toro, White Tuna, Uni and King Crab Legs into an elaborate piece of art in about 5 minutes. A chef jokingly said that the plate would cost $150 at the restaurant. Morimoto corrected him — “$300.”  Shortly after, Chef Morimoto proceeded to slice and dice 3 more family-style platters of sashimi for our small group.  It’s at this precise moment that I looked around the room, counted 20 people and realized that I would soon devour a Peter Luger’s-porterhouse steak-portion of the most rare and delicious fish Japan had to offer.

So…with enough mercury to fill a thermometer, I walked up to his counter to ask my question —  “When you were a bachelor, which dish did you make to impress the ladies?” He slowly placed his right index finger to his lips and said, “Secret.”  The whole room heard gin and cigarettes and looked shocked but I later discovered the truth. This gentle Iron Chef won the heart of the ladies with a home-cooked dish from his hometown of Hiroshima,  Japan called Okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki is made from basic ingredients like cabbage, onion, bacon, fried egg and noodles. Morimoto later demonstrated how to prepare it. Okonomiyaki actually reminded me of a traditional home-cooked dish that my Eastern European grandmother made for me as a kid called Haluski.

This day also reminded me of the reason why I wrote The Gourmet Bachelor: Global Flavor, Local Ingredients cookbook — to show that cooking global dishes can be easy! Most dishes from around the world include the same basic ingredients that we grew up eating in our home town. We just have to try something new once in a while.