Do you raise cows?
I breed w agyu cows.
What does w agyu mean?
‘Japanese cow’. Locally bred and born, raised and slaughtered in Japan – the best cow in the world!
What is she the best at?
It gives the best meat in the world.
What’s so special about that meat?
Meat marred with highly infiltrated fat, heart-healthy, succulent. And with a very low melting temperature.
What temperature are we talking about?
The temperature of the tongue. This is where the Matsusaka meat sheet is melted.
Matsusaka?
It’s the city where my farm is located: that’s why my beef is trademarked as Matsusaka Beef, the best beef in Japan.
Here we meet Kobe beef.
Of the more than two hundred brands of w agyu, Kobe Beef – meat from cows raised in the city of Kobe – is the most popular outside of Japan.
But in Japan, on the other hand…
The champion is Matsusaka Beef, the meva, followed by Kobe Beef and Omi Beef.
At what temperature does your meat melt?
Normal meat melts at 40ºC or 30ºC; wagyu, at 25ºC… I’ve made my Matsusaka meat melt at… 12ºC!
What is this quality due to?
I go around Mie Prefecture and look at seven- to ten-month-old dairy calves, and buy them to raise.
By what criteria do you buy a calf?
I analyze the calf’s face, forehead, eyes, horns, nose, loin, hindquarters… And I use my intuition.
he’s looking at me
I can’t help but look at people like calves.
And how do you breed them?
With my method, on my farm Ito Ranch, learned from the elderly: I grew up watching my father’s back, and the son’s my.
Do you massage your cows?
The grandfather loved his ten cows, caressed them: the legend of the massage was born.
Do their cows drink beer?
My grandfather used to dilute vitamins and supplements in a bottle of beer, and put it in the cow’s noses.
And the cow, delighted!
Maybe I will recover this practice, and that good music will also play.
What other attentions do you get on your farm for your cows?
Individual stall, virgins (they will not give birth), rice straw fodder grown with organic manure from the own cow, fermented for a year… For 35 months, when the usual is 25 months, and so the fat becomes unsaturated, the healthiest, in very fine and infiltrated veins.
Since when does Japan produce wagyu meat?
We Japanese traditionally ate little meat, the cow was just a draft animal for farming. When Japan became westernized, the grandfather’s generation started raising cows for consumption.
Let’s talk about World War II.
My grandfather started raising cows 70 years ago, and we Japanese are hard-working, self-demanding and strive for excellence.
Did you find it?
I want to produce the ultimate meat. It is my challenge to never slack off in my path. I’m always looking for something better, better…
How many cows must he have raised?
Thousands, thousands. I sacrifice about 350 each year. I don’t want more, I don’t want quantity, but maximum quality.
How much meat comes out of one of your cows?
About 400 kilos.
Which cut is the best?
all A very thin cut of tenderloin or fillet is unforgettable. It rolls your eyes. And it revitalizes you. If you eat the best, you are healthy.
And what do we drink in the meantime?
Sake de Matsusaka.
Remind me of one of those cows: one.
The queen of Matsusaka: I reserved her for competition, but I sacrificed her to now bring her meat to Europe and have Ferran Adrià taste it.
Where can I eat their meat?
In restaurants in Tokyo. I serve the imperial house. But now I’m leaving Japan for the first time! This 2023 I am selling three cows from Ito Ranch, my farm, in Europe.
Whose?
To the Akaneya Group, my strategic partner in Europe: they will serve my meat at their Marie Akaneya restaurant in Paris. Its owner, the Catalan Ignasi Elías, came to Ito Ranch to meet the cows.
And in Spain, what?
In Madrid, at the Pilar Akaneya restaurant, they will also serve Matsusaka Beef, although not yet at their Barcelona restaurant, Carlota Akaneya.
