The theme for this episode is hot pot cuisine. Chef Saito and Yu Hayami make mizutaki, a standard among Japan's many varieties of hot pots. By cooking a chicken over low heat for a long time, the delicious flavor is extracted all the way down to the marrow of the bones, for a collagen-rich soup that goes great with chicken and vegetables. This Hakata favorite has grown popular nationwide, and restaurants specializing in mizutaki can be found all over Japan. In this episode, chef Saito teaches how to bring the restaurant-style flavor of mizutaki home with his own recipe, using kombu kelp and rice to quickly reproduce a soup that usually requires simmering a chicken carcass for hours. Viewers also learn how to finish off the hot pot with ramen noodles, taking advantage of all of the delicious flavors the soup gets from the ingredients cooked in it.
