Tuna Tartare on Wonton Chips

Use impeccably fresh sushi-grade tuna. Keep fish cold throughout prep - work on a bowl of ice if needed. A sharp knife is essential for clean cuts.

Tuna tartare has a more precisely documented origin than most dishes: it was invented in 1984 by chef Shigefumi Tachibe at Chaya Brasserie in Los Angeles. Tachibe, who had trained in both Japanese and French culinary traditions, created it as an improvised substitute when a group of diners asked if the restaurant's beef tartare could be replaced with something lighter — this was, as Chowhound notes in its documented account, "at the dawn of the low-fat craze." Looking around his kitchen, Tachibe noticed that the dark red ahi tuna he had on hand resembled beef closely enough to make the swap. The customers loved it so much they insisted he add it to the permanent menu. The knife Tachibe used to make that first tartare is today in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. Wolfgang Puck made tuna tartare one of the signature dishes at Spago, and by the late 1990s it had spread to upscale restaurant menus across the United States. The dish's name connects it to the older French tradition: steak tartare had been a European restaurant staple for decades, with Auguste Escoffier publishing an early recipe in 1921 and the name "tartare" appearing in his 1903 Le Guide Culinaire. The tartare name itself carries a romanticised link to the Mongol warriors known as Tartars, who reportedly ate raw horsemeat on campaign, though food historians note the evidence for this origin story is thin. What is indisputable is that tuna tartare's fusion of French technique, Japanese raw-fish culture, and California sensibility produced one of the most imitated appetisers of the late 20th century — and the wonton crisp base is a direct product of that same California Pacific Rim spirit.