Life's tough if you're a kid. You have to eat your vegetables. You have to go to school. You have to be in bed by a certain time. You get to go eat at Sukiyabashi Jiro.
Er.
Maybe life's not too tough if you're Clark Sandaluk. His parents travel the world as part of their jobs, and are food obsessives, so Clark gets to eat pretty well in general. "Food is really a focus for our family," Clark's mom, Colleen Sandaluk told Travel + Leisure.
Four years ago, when Clark was six, he watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi with his family. Colleen had to dictate some of the subtitles aloud to her son because he couldn't read, but he was enamored with the spirit of the place and the obsessiveness of the chef. When the family was planning a trip to Tokyo this fall, Colleen says she booked a room at the Mandarin Oriental on purpose in the hopes that a concierge at the hotel would help the family secure a reservation at Sukiyabashi Jiro, the setting and inspiration for the film Clark fell in love with. By some crazy stroke of luck, the family got a reservation for three; Clark's younger sister stayed a the hotel with a sitter while mom, dad, and Clark dined on three Michelin-starred sushi.
So what did Clark think of the meal? Apparently the 10-year-old ate everything on the 20-course menu. Jiro remarked, at the end while posing for a photo with Clark, "What a stomach."
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