Glossary · food
お任せ
omakase
English
Literally "I leave it to you." When you walk into a sushi or kappo place and say "omakase", you're handing the chef the keys to dinner. They decide the courses, the order, the pacing — usually within an upper price ceiling discussed up front.
The word does some heavy lifting beyond food. Asking for omakase is a small act of trust: you're saying you respect the chef enough to let them pick. In return the chef commits to giving you their best read of what's good that day, often pulling things off-menu. It's the opposite of the Western "I'll have the…" mode of ordering.
Outside the West, the term has been pop-culture hijacked into "Omakase = expensive sushi". Inside Japan it's just "leave it to me", and works at $30 lunch counters as well as $300 dinners. The price tag follows the place, not the word.
日本語
「お任せ」は文字通り「お任せします」の意。寿司屋や割烹で「お任せで」と注文すると、料理長にコース・順番・ペースを委ねる注文方式になる（だいたい予算上限は事前に擦り合わせる）。
この言葉は食以外でも働く。「お任せで」と言うのは、相手を信頼している小さな表明だ。料理人側は今日いちばん美味い物を全力で組む責任を負う、よく裏メニューも出る。西洋的な「これとこれを下さい」モードの逆。
海外では「お任せ＝高級寿司」のイメージが先行しがちだが、日本国内では昼 ¥3,000 のカウンターでも普通に通じる。値段は「お任せ」という言葉ではなく、その店の格についてくる。
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