What you need to know about Wagyu, according to restaurateur Sam Chua

Are there different tiers of Wagyu?

Chua likes to use Hida beef, which is reared in the city of Takayama. It’s widely regarded as one of the top tier Wagyu brands because of its exquisite marbling all throughout the meat, not just in tender areas. In this tier, you will also find top-quality brands such as Kobe, Matsusaka, and Tajima. “That’s like your first-growth wine,” Chua says by way of analogy. 

Chua then identifies a “second tier” of Wagyu, which includes brands such as the commonly used Miyazaki and Kagoshima. “They are good quality, and because they are a lot more in production, they tend to be a little bit more affordable,” she says. 

Read more: Why white truffle is a prized delicacy in the culinary world, according to an expert

The third tier of Wagyu, Chua says, is occupied by brands that use crossbreed cows or brown cows, which are leaner. Crossbreed cows, which are usually a blend of Wagyu and Black Angus in the United States, are graded from a range from F1 to F4; F1 Wagyu is 50 per cent Wagyu and 50 per cent Black Angus, while F4 Wagyu is a full-blooded Wagyu cow.

What are the most ideal conditions for rearing Wagyu cattle?

When the cows are young, the breeders will allow the cattle to roam around freely to develop their structures and muscles. At about seven months, Chua says, they are purchased by farmers, where it is general practice to keep them fairly stationary. As cows get older, farmers prefer not to let them roam around as much, to avoid the meat from getting too muscled. “You want the marbling to be as intricate as possible,” she says.

Feed is also very important for the development of the cow. Most often, Wagyu cattle are often served wheat, soybean meal, corn, and hay. There are exceptions, including a famed brand of beef from Shodoshima, an island in the Kagawa prefecture. As Shodoshima has many olive groves to support an olive oil industry, the byproducts of olive oil production are dried and roasted before being used to feed the cows. The resulting beef has some of the best marbling out there, and with only a few thousand Wagyu cattle on the island, you can expect to pay a very high price for olive-fed Wagyu.

What’s considered “good” Wagyu?

Independent governing bodies judge the quality of Wagyu with a unique grading system. Wagyu is first judged by its yield, or its ratio of meat to fat, and is graded according to an ABC grading system. A is top quality and C is the lowest; the higher the yield, the higher the grade. 

A number grade from 1 to 5 also accompanies the letter grade to judge the quality of the meat, with 5 being the highest grade. For this, Chua tells us that graders are looking for qualities such as viscosity, colour, and marbling. In general, brighter colours are appreciated, though one would look out for meat that’s more pink, not red.

Viscosity refers to the colour of the fat, and it should be white. “If not, it’s tainted. It means it’s unhealthy,” she says. The melting point is also different for whiter fats, and to illustrate her point, Chua brings up Matsusaka beef, one of the top Wagyu brands in Japan. “It’s famous for having a lower melting point. It melts when it touches your skin,” she says. 

Ultimately, however, Chua believes that what is considered “good” Wagyu should be entirely up to you. “At the end of the day, it’s what you'd like to eat,” she says. At her restaurant, customers often prefer not to enjoy A5 beef because they don’t want the amount of fat that comes with intricate marbling. With regards to taste, it’s also up to your preference. “Kagoshima has a very distinctive flavour. You can really taste it,” she says. In contrast, if you prefer delicate and balanced profiles, Chua says Hida beef is your best bet. “It melts in your mouth without that too-strong flavour,” she says. 

For Chua, then, what’s more important is the “freshness of the beef”. The beef that is exported may be the best quality, but there are many other variables affecting quality, including the care the beef receives while it is transported.  “From a restaurant point of view, when I buy beef, I buy directly because I like to know that my beef is gonna be high quality, or I use chilled beef. I never use frozen because I feel that I lose a lot of the taste and flavour,” she says. 

In case you missed it: What’s the secret behind good caviar? We ask Singapore’s ‘caviar king’ Benjamin Goh

What you’re eating will also determine the cut of beef you will enjoy. If you’re eating sukiyaki, for instance, you don’t want your Wagyu to be sinewy or tough.

Why is Wagyu so expensive? 

The Wagyu supply chain in Japan is intricate with many stakeholders at every step of the way. There are the breeders, who try to breed the best quality cows; they are then sold to the farmers, who will spend years rearing the cattle. Afterwards, the cows head to the slaughterhouse and then to the auction house, where buyers will bid for the meat, which is often sold as a whole cow. 

There is a misconception that all the Wagyu sold as a particular brand comes from the same region. In fact, for instance, not all Kobe beef comes from cows bred in Kobe; governing bodies will generally focus on where the cow grew up, so a cow that was born in another prefecture but was reared in Kobe would be considered a Kobe cow. Each cow comes with a certificate detailing all its generations; where it was slaughtered, processed and exported; and its grading quality. “It’s all about traceability,” she says.

This is not to mention the privileged level of access a buyer needs to access the auction houses. Chua is a big buyer, so she is invited to these auctions, but not everyone can just walk into an auction to buy Wagyu. On the part of the seller, there may also be exorbitant costs to even sell Wagyu. In Kobe, Chua tells us, sellers must be licensed and pay a fee of a few thousand dollars per year. Simply put, “you're not just paying more just for the product,” Chua says. 

Wagyu brands are also interested in preserving their prestigious reputation, so only the best is exported worldwide. In Hida, for example, only A4 or A5-grade beef can be exported, making sure that what you get for a high price is also of the highest quality.

Looking to satisfy your Wagyu craving? Black Cow offers Hida, Kagoshima, Miyazaki, and Yonezawa Wagyu in its sukiyaki, shabu shabu and beef don offerings.

If not, beef specialty restaurant Fat Cow offers a wide range of Wagyu brands in the form of sandos, shabu shabu, and donburi, including Tajima, Omi, Kobe, Kyoto, Miyazaki, Tochigi, Saga, Hida, and Matsusaka.

For a taste of something special, head down to Wagyu X, which serves a special Wagyu crossbreed from Hokkaido, which you’d be hard-pressed to find outside of Japan.

NOW READ 

Gyu San Japanese Sando & Charcoal Bar serves perfectly grilled A5 wagyu hamburgs and katsu sandos that gourmands will love

Why you need to check out Mashi No Mashi, Singapore’s first Wagyu ramen restaurant

The best yakiniku restaurants in Singapore to satisfy your cravings