00:02All right. This more than 200 pound bluefin tuna is being carved up live in front of the audience
00:09that's about to eat it. That's a new monthly tradition at sushi restaurant Uchi in West
00:14Hollywood. Chef Joel Hammond says the idea came about because he was breaking down a whole tuna
00:20every week anyways, behind closed doors. One tuna can feed the restaurant for a week.
00:38The experience brings more guests and more exposure to Uchi, but doesn't cost the restaurant anything
00:45extra. That's why high-end sushi restaurants around the U.S. are turning tuna butchery into
00:51dinner theater. What I start with is I take the tuna, do a process called Tsukibiki-ing
00:56it, where I'll remove the scales with my knife. Once we do that, we'll pull the head off, the
01:01commas, and then we'll split the tuna, pulling the belly loin off first. And here's the prized
01:09first cut, first cut belly loin. So all right down in here. That's all O-Toro. The back loin, and
01:18then we'll pull the bones out of the spine, and then we'll separate it all up. The tuna breakdown
01:24show originated in Japan. It's a lot more high-end, you know, very special, special occasion thing,
01:32you know, wearing suits, going out, watching this tuna carving from like the master sushi chefs,
01:37and you're paying very, very high dollar. With us, we just want it to be casual and fun
01:42on our patio. Make it something where, you know, you can go sit outside, have a couple cocktails,
01:46two-for-one sushi bites while watching a full show, so.
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