Ossiana Tepfenhart
Introducing Benihana
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After finishing his degree, he managed to save up a total of $10,000 from his ice cream truck work and used that to convince his father to invest in a Japanese restaurant concept. He called the restaurant “Benihana,” the Japanese word for safflower.
The first Benihana was not really that impressive, per se. It was a simple four-table restaurant on 56th street. It opened up quietly, to little fanfare. For the first couple of months, the restaurant struggled with getting anyone inside its doors.
During the 1960s, America was not known for being too adventurous with food. Trying to convince locals to try Japanese cuisine for the first time was not easy. It was deemed “strange,” and many people wrote it off before they even tried it.
Believe it or not, Aoki himself couldn’t cook. To staff his restaurant, he hired highly trained Japanese chefs who also took courses in American manners. Even that proved to be too little to get interest.