Kobe Steakhouse promotes kitchen assistant, makes her Wichita’s only female hibachi chef
Evelynn Harader’s ultimate goal is to become a commercial airline pilot.
In the meantime, her current job is not only helping her earn money for flight school but it’s also letting her enjoy a moment of local celebrity.
Harader, who in May graduated from Derby High School, has just been promoted to the ranks of the performing hibachi chefs at the popular Kobe Japanese Steakhouse, 8760 W. 21st St. — making her the only female among Kobe’s crew of 12 chefs.
In fact, said Kobe owner Shane Davis, Harader is the only female hibachi chef in all of Wichita.
When Davis and his co-owner wife, Lisa, shared news of Harader’s new job on Facebook last week, the post went locally viral: So far, it’s been liked 25,000 times and shared 454 times.
“Who run the world? GIRLS!” the post read, and commenters responded with words of encouragement. Among the 377 comments:
“Awesome! Where and when can we have her as our chef? I want to see her in action!”
“Evelynn for president 2024”
Harader, who is Lisa’s niece, started working at the restaurant two years ago, she said. First, Harader was a busser, then she moved up to kitchen assistant.
But Harader loved watching the restaurant’s hibachi chefs, who are just as much performers as they are cooks. Their jobs require them to not only prepare garlicky fried rice and tender seared steak, chicken and seafood as customers watch but also to perform tricks like catching eggs in their hats, creating flaming onion volcanoes and tossing shrimp through the air into diners’ mouths.
No other women had the job, Harader noticed, but she couldn’t think of any reason why a woman couldn’t do the job. And her aunt and uncle agreed. Shane, who was a hibachi chef for years before buying Kobe, said he once worked with a female hibachi chef in St. Louis, and she was among the best of the best.
“Working in the hibachi industry, you always think it’s just men,” Lisa said. “You think of females as servers or hostesses. That’s why we’re so proud of her — because it can be intimidating.”
Harader, though, is not the type to be easily intimidated. She’s a go-getter who graduated from high school after only three years and who played on the tennis and basketball teams.
“I just think the whole thing is cool, really,” Harader said. “I did a lot of different jobs at Kobe, and learning to be a chef sounded cool — like just moving my way up.”
Harader had already built relationships with the kitchen staff, and Kobe’s head chef offered to train her. She’s been learning the job for the past two months, and her first shift on the grill was last week. Although she’s still technically in training and still honing some of the more advanced tricks, she can be found manning, er, womanning one of the restaurant’s 12 grills on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
Though some of the tricks come easy to her — especially the onion volcano — Harader said her main focus now is making sure the food is right. She’ll often stay after her shift to practice the more showy parts of her performance.
“I know the tricks and stuff, they’ll come along the way if I keep at it,” she said.
So far, groups of Harader’s friends and family members have been in to watch her work, and many of the Facebook commenters have been asking if they can request to sit at her table. (They can.)
She’s been enjoying the attention and hopes that her presence helps pave the way for more female hibachi chefs.
“A lot of the comments are saying, ‘Hibachi chef — it’s not that big of a deal.’ But I don’t think it’s just specifically in the hibachi field. Just any woman that wants to do anything, I think that it can inspire them, especially if they’re going into a male-dominated field.”
To make a reservation at Kobe Steakhouse, call 316-558-3331.
