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N2002 LARRY OLMSTEDate one of the

richest best steaks he’s ever had. The

food and travel columnist forForbes and

USA Today was at the Park Hyatt Tokyo to

sample the highest-grade Japanese Kobe

beef which has the mouthfeel of beef fat

meltingonthetongue.AsOlmstedrecounts

in his new bookReal Food/Fake Food: Why

Yo u D o n’ t K n o w W h a t Yo u’ r e E a t i n g & W h a t

You Can Do About It the meat had the tex-

ture of butter and was speckled with white

dots “as if it had been hit with a shotgun

shell of fat.”

Over the next decade whenever Olm-

stedsampledKobebeefinAmericansteak-

houses he wondered “Why doesn’t it taste as

good?” There is a simple answer: Currently

onlyeightAmericanrestaurantsservethe

real thing (among them 212 Steakhouse in

Manhattan Alexander’s Steakhouse in San

Francisco and three pricey steak joints in

Las Vegas). Less than 400 pounds of Kobe

beef come into the U.S. a month. So when

WallStreetbigshotswowclientswith$300

“Kobe” entrées and they’re not at one of these

eight elite the odds are that they’re being

taken for a ride. After exposés by Olmsted

andInside EditionManhattan’s prestigious

Le Bernardin took the Kobe name off its

menu but thousands of cheaper joints go

on selling “Kobe” steaks and sliders. “What

appealed to me about this story was that it

was so transparent” Olmsted says. “The res-

taurantsarelyingtoyouandtheyknowthey

are lying to you.”

The shamelessness of the Kobe scam

inspired Olmsted to hit the road in search

of other fake foods a two-and-a-half-year

journeythatpacks

his book with more

than a dozen fraud

scandals. He went to

rural Kobe Japan

to interview the

veterinarian who

explained the scar-

city (only 12 geneti-

cally ideal Kobe

bulls are selected

to impregnate the

The Fraud

in Your Food

A new exposé on culinary counterfeits — sushi

beef the olive oil in your cabinet — will have you

scrutinizing your next meal.byJOSEPH HOOPER

PERSONAL

THERE THAT

I DON’T KNOW

RELATIONSHIP.

YOU WONDE R

ABOUT?’”

‘WHAT IS IN

A VERY

“FOOD IS

MEN’S JOURNAL 52 SEPTEMBER 2016 photograph by SHANA NOVAK