Hiring a Yakiniku Chef: Wagyu Butchery and Japanese Beef Grading

In a yakiniku restaurant the guests do the grilling. The chef's work happens before the meat reaches the table: breaking down beef, trimming, slicing each cut to the right thickness and angle, cleaning offal, and making the tare and marinades. When the beef is Japanese wagyu costing a great deal per kilo, every gram trimmed wrongly is money lost.

So the core hire is closer to a skilled butcher with a Japanese menu in their head than to a line cook. This guide covers the job, how to understand the Japanese grading system your chef and supplier will talk about, the food safety points specific to yakiniku, and how to test candidates. For a teppanyaki counter where the chef cooks wagyu in front of guests, see hiring a teppanyaki chef.

1. What a yakiniku chef does

• Breaking down beef. Taking subprimals (or, in larger operations, bigger sections) and separating them into the muscles used for yakiniku cuts: kalbi (rib and short plate), rosu (loin and chuck), harami (skirt), and smaller specialty cuts that a skilled chef finds inside larger pieces.
• Slicing. Thickness and angle change the eating quality of each cut. Heavily marbled wagyu is often cut thin; leaner cuts may be cut thicker or scored.
• Tongue and offal (horumon). Beef tongue, intestines, tripe, heart and liver need specific cleaning and trimming. This is a separate skill and many general cooks have never done it.
• Tare and marinades. Soy based tare, miso marinades, salt and sesame oil dressings. Recipes are often closely held.
• Yield and cost. Recording how much usable meat each piece gave, and pricing plates from that.
• Explaining the beef. At higher price points, staff need to explain grade, origin and cut to guests.

2. Japanese beef grading, explained for hiring

Japanese beef carcasses are graded by the Japan Meat Grading Association (JMGA, 公益社団法人日本食肉格付協会) under the beef carcass trading standards it publishes. A grade such as A5 combines two separate scores.

Marbling is scored with the Beef Marbling Standard (BMS), numbered 1 to 12. The JMGA bands it into quality grades as follows:

Two points matter for hiring and menus. First, the letter is about yield, not taste, so an A grade does not mean better eating than a B of the same number. Second, "A5" covers BMS 8 through 12, so two A5 loins can look quite different. A good yakiniku chef will talk in BMS numbers and in the look of the actual piece, not just the grade on the box. Ask candidates to explain this; a vague answer is a warning sign for a premium concept.

3. What "wagyu" means in Japan

Under a Japanese labelling guideline on wagyu and other distinctive meats (和牛等特色ある食肉の表示に関するガイドライン, 2007), beef labelled 和牛 in Japan must come from one of four breeds (Japanese Black, Japanese Brown, Japanese Shorthorn, Japanese Polled) or crosses between them, and from cattle born and raised in Japan. Breed is confirmed through the herd registration system and history through the national cattle traceability system.

Outside Japan, the word "wagyu" is also used for cattle bred and raised elsewhere, and labelling rules differ by country. We have not verified those rules country by country. Your chef and your menu should say plainly where the beef comes from and, for Japanese beef, what grade it is. A chef from Japan may assume "wagyu" means the Japanese definition; make sure they understand how your local supply is described.

4. Skills to screen for

Butchery and yield

Ask what they have broken down, in what volume, and what yields they recorded. Ask to see a yield sheet. A candidate who has only sliced pre cut blocks is a slicer, not a butcher.

Offal

If horumon is on your menu, ask exactly which items they have cleaned and how. Offal preparation is time consuming and hygiene critical.

Supplier knowledge

Can they specify cuts to a local packer who does not use Japanese names? Can they read a Japanese beef export certificate or grade stamp? Both save money.

Guest explanation

In a premium room, the chef or senior staff will be asked about grade and origin at nearly every table. Test this in your local language.

5. Food safety: offal, raw beef and the table grill

• Guest cooking. In yakiniku, guests decide how long meat stays on the grill. Some offal and processed items need thorough cooking. Staff should advise guests and use separate tongs for raw and cooked meat.
• Cooking temperatures. As a US example, Washington State's food code (following the FDA Food Code) requires intact meat to reach 145°F (63°C) for 15 seconds and ground or mechanically tenderised meat 155°F (68°C) for 17 seconds. Undercooked whole muscle intact beef steaks may be served only under set conditions: not to a highly susceptible population, properly labelled, and seared on top and bottom to a surface temperature of 145°F with a visible colour change.
• Raw beef dishes. Yukhoe and other raw beef dishes do not fit that steak exception. Check your local code before putting any raw beef on the menu, and make sure a chef coming from Japan does not assume a dish they served there is permitted where you are.
• Separation. Offal prep should be separated from other prep, with its own boards and a cleaning routine.

6. A practical test

1. Breakdown. Give the candidate a subprimal you use (for example a chuck roll or short plate) and ask them to break it into your menu cuts. Weigh inputs and outputs.
2. Slicing. A plate each of two cuts, at your specification.
3. Grading talk. Show them two pieces of Japanese beef with different BMS numbers and ask them to explain the difference to a guest.
4. Tare. For senior hires, ask them to make or correct your tare.

7. Pay and visa notes

In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $40,140 for butchers and meat cutters and $62,470 for Chefs and Head Cooks (May 2025). A yakiniku chef who runs butchery, purchasing and menu pricing is closer to the second figure, and at a premium wagyu restaurant may be above it. There is no official statistic for yakiniku chefs specifically. See Japanese chef salary benchmarks for other countries.

On visas, a Japanese owned yakiniku business in the US may be able to use the E-2 route for a chef whose butchery and grading skills are essential to the operation; see E-2 visas for Japanese restaurant staff. Full service yakiniku restaurants are generally a better fit for chef sponsorship rules than counter formats. For other countries start with visa sponsorship for Japanese chefs.

General information, not legal, food safety or immigration advice. Grading standards, labelling rules, food safety rules, pay data and visa criteria are as published at the sources below as of September 2026 and can change. Check with your local food authority and immigration authority before you act.