Mashi No Mashi, an upmarket ramen and wagyu restaurant, boasts a bespoke highball and a menu of exclusive beers and sake.
For Hisato Hamada, the chef behind the Wagyumafia restaurant group, Sydney is a “second home.”
“I grew up here from six to 10. Sydney was probably the first city that taught me the importance of ingredients,” Hisato says.
“Everyday I would cook with my mum, going down to the fish market and bringing back fish, lobsters together.”
“So without your city, there would be no Hisato as a chef and there’d be no Wagyumafia.”
It’s for these reasons that Hisato has chosen Sydney as the location of his first international Mashi No Mashi restaurant outside of Hong Kong.
Alongside Wagyujiro (a speciality ramen made with Kobe beef bone broth and Wagyu steak), Mashi No Mashi has a specially developed drinks menu.
One beverage Hisato was very keen to perfect was the classic Whisky Highball, which is a cornerstone of Japanese drinks culture.
“In Japan Highballs are everywhere, you can get them on tap, at the convenience store in cans or bottles – it’s easy,” Hisato says.
However, Hisato has found it difficult to enjoy Highballs outside of Japan, Australia included.
“A lot of bartenders don’t know how to make it. When you travel and you order a highball – they cannot get it right, they will serve you a glass with a rock of ice and one dram of whisky inside and a bottle of club soda on the side.”
“I just wanted to make the perfect ratio,” Hisato explains.
“And by producing this can of Highball – this is my perfect ratio. Pure whiskey and pure soda – you need to mix it right, so the ratio is very important.”
The Highball, which is canned for consistency, intriguingly contains whisky made by the Niigata brewery.
“Niigata are very famous for making beers,” Hisato says.
“I met them five years ago and we decided to make a Highball together.”
The canned cocktail contains Japanese whisky blended by Hisato himself, and has been matured in combination of five different casks, including the illustrious Japanese oak, Mizunara.
“Each year, I change the flavour a little bit – this is our second year of the Highball, and this one’s a little bit peaty,” Hisato adds.
Hisato says he chose Niigata Brewery to produce his whisky as he wanted to showcases lesser known, smaller Japanese producers. It’s this philosophy that also led the chef to partner with Heiwa Shuzo, traditionally a sake-maker, to create his beer, in an interesting reverse.
“The beer is brewed by a very young, female craft beer-maker who I met in 2015,” Hisato says.
Hisato is referring to Kanako Takagi, a brewer behind Heiwa’s craft beer program, after the company had tasted success with their ‘KID’ Sake range.
“If you open a restaurant, a lot of the major players will come up to you, and want to subsidise you, but you need to represent Suntory or Super Dry Asahi. I’ve done it before, but I wanted to support [Takagi] and asked her to make special edition beers for us.”
These beers all have a ‘hotel’ theme and showcase Japanese ingredients, with the most popular so far being ‘Wake Me Up’, a lager flavoured with Sansho pepper. The Wakayama Prefecture, where Haiwa Shuzo is located, is famous in Japan for the quality of its Sansho.
‘Do Not Disturb’ – a Yuzu IPA, and ‘Sunset Cruise’ – a raspberry sour beer, complete the selection.
Mashi No Mashi also features a selection of specially-made sake from the Sharaku sake brewery.
Sharaku is another small producer, operated by the Miyamori brothers, and their partnership with Wagyumafia is the very first collaboration with an ‘outsider’ in the brewery’s history, something that Wagyumafia described as ‘one of our proudest achievements to date’.
Hisato had a direct role in the creation of the sake bottlings – taking control the koji mould application which induces the reaction to create alcohol.
The crowning glory of the sake selection is Wagyumafia’s ‘S’ sparkling sake. This product was borne out of Hasito’s desire to create a Japanese drink that could rival Champagne for the ‘celebration occasion.’
“None of the Sparkling Sake really satisfied me, so one day I decided ‘Why don’t we crate the best Sparkling Sake ever?’” Hasito says.
“This was three years ago – and we’ve just done our second batch this year. We’re using the same technique as Champagne, so secondary bottle fermentation, disgorgement – it’s a long, long process.”
The Miyamori brothers have their brewery in the Fukushima region, which was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
“After that, we had a very close relationship because I wanted to support them. They’re my age too, so it didn’t take much time for us to become best friends,” Hisato says.
This partnership reflects the approach Hisato takes to food and beverage in general.
“I always work with people – not businesses. My philosophy is one category, one player. So I only work with Heiwa, I only work with Niigata and I only work with Miyaizumi, who make Sharaku.”
The one area where Wagyumafia and Hisato has deviated from Japanese produce is with the wine list, which centres around a selection of wines from the La Molara winery in Campania, in Southern Italy.
The relationship between Wagyumafia and La Molara began humbly, when Oliviero Molleri, the son of wine-maker Riccardo Molleri, visited a Wagyumafia venue.
“Every time he came to my restaurant, he brought his father’s wine,” Hisato explains.
“Then, when COVID, the Italian economy was heavily damaged. And the father’s winery was dying, so that’s when I said ‘I will get 5,000 bottles’ just to rescue it.”
Since then, La Molara has won awards at the Sud Top Wine competition of South Italian wineries, and provides Mashi No Mashi with red, white and sparkling wines.
Hisato’s final words were spared for the city of Sydney itself, the city that Histao credits with introducing him to the joy of cooking.
“I’m very, very thankful to Sydney, and am so happy to bring something back to the city.”
As Hisato says, “it’s all about people.”
Mashi No Mashi is located in the Star, Pyrmont, Sydney and will open in May 2022.
