Warren Buffett just made a rare trip to Japan after investing in five companies there. The famed investor swore off Japanese food after attending a disastrous sushi dinner in 1989. Here’s the story of Buffett’s 15-course meal, during which he didn’t take a single bite. Loading Something is loading.
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Warren Buffett recently flew to Tokyo to meet the heads of the country’s five largest trading houses, which he invested in a few years ago. The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO probably didn’t sample any local delicacies.
Buffett likes to say he found everything he enjoys eating by the time he turned six. The 92-year-old chows down on McDonald’s for breakfast, guzzles five cans of Coca-Cola a day, and munches on See’s Candies and Dairy Queen Blizzards. When CNBC’s Becky Quick asked him this month what he’d been eating in Japan, he said Hershey’s Kisses and Coke.
Notably, Buffett swore off Japanese food for life after a disastrous sushi dinner in 1989. Alice Schroeder recounted the story in her biography of him, “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life.”
Buffett was invited to an intimate dinner hosted by Akio Morita, the billionaire chairman of Sony at the time. Morita’s Fifth Avenue apartment overlooked the Metropolitan Museum, had a sweeping view of Central Park, and featured a sushi kitchen where guests could watch four chefs prepare their meal.
As a picky eater, Buffett had attended many events where he ate nothing except dinner rolls. While he hadn’t tried Japanese food, he doubted it would be to his liking.
After sitting down for dinner, Buffett watched as his companions slurped down mysterious broths and tucked into rubbery, unidentifiable specialties. He couldn’t stomach trying anything placed in front of him, and mumbled excuses to the waiters when they whisked away his food.
“Course after course arrived, and each of his plates went back, untouched,” Schroeder writes. “He had not realized there were this many things on the planet that could be eaten raw.”
Buffett was sweating and squirming in his seat. He felt embarrassed, worried that he was offending the chefs, and certain he was disgracing himself in front of his hosts.
Hours passed, and nothing appeared that was remotely appealing to him. Buffett thought longingly of hamburgers, and dreamed of escaping to his friend’s nearby apartment and enjoying some popcorn, peanuts and strawberry ice cream.”By the end of fifteen courses, he had still not eaten a bite,” Schroeder writes.
“It was the worst,” Buffett told Schroeder. “I’ve had others like that, but it was by far the worst. I will never eat Japanese food again.”
Buffett might like Japan enough to visit and invest billions of dollars there, but it’s safe to say he’s no fan of the nation’s food.