The finest wines deserve the finest service. The finest beef deserves no less...

The finest wines deserve the finest service. The finest beef deserves no less. Diners at high-class restaurants are used to the attentions of a sommelier, a wine steward, an expert on hand to answer questions and concerns. In Japan, eating a U.S. steak in a white tablecloth restaurant is a dining experience, an occasion, a touch of class. In the future, Japanese diners will be served by U.S. beef sommeliers, graduates of a program funded by the United Soybean Board, which began this week in Tokyo with a class of 70.

The U.S. beef sommelier graduates, with training from the U.S. Meat Export Federation, will be goodwill ambassadors for U.S. beef and recognized experts, who can reassure consumers that there is no safer beef than U.S. beef and accurately inform them about the attributes of individual U.S. beef cuts and dishes.

But it’s not just diners who will benefit from the class and expertise of the U.S. beef sommeliers. Japanese retail stores, too, sent employees to benefit from the program. Even Japanese journalists signed up for a class to train advocates for U.S. beef, who will spread the messages of taste, nutrition and safety to clients and colleagues in anticipation of the market’s reopening.

The creation of the U.S. Beef Sommelier Program has reverberated through Japan’s food sector and is being watched by competitors since it’s the very first qualification program of this kind in Japan’s meat industry.

The first class was tested prior to the lecture course and afterwards to gauge the success of the course in teaching the message covered by the lectures:

1.   An overview of the BSE issue and the U.S.-Japan negotiations.

2.  U.S. beef quality management and production (presented by USMEF Marketing Manager Mitsutaka Misawa).

3.   U.S. beef nutrition, cooking ideas and food education from a consumer perspective (Ms. Hiromi Akahori, registered nutritionist and vice president of Akahori Cooking Institute).

4.   U.S. beef’s uses and marketability.

5.   What a qualified U.S. Beef Sommelier needs to know (renowned International Wine Sommelier Shinya Tazaki).

After the lectures and examination, the successful candidates were awarded a certificate and a U.S. Sommelier Pin in a ceremony. The program’s importance didn’t end there, however. USMEF will tie the U.S. Beef Sommelier Program with sales promotions and nutritional and cooking events to emphasize the high quality of U.S. beef after the reopening of the market.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

– USMEF –