Tatsuo Umemiya used to be one of the hardest-working yakuza actors in Japan. Nowadays, he is mainly known as the father of model/talent Anna Umemiya and as "the cooking king" of Japanese show business. He even owns a popular chain of stores that sell all sorts of Japanese foods. The stores are easy to find since each features a figure of the actor standing at the entrance like Colonel Sanders.
Umemiya's reputation as a food expert is founded on his stint as the original host of Fuji TV's long-running but now defunct "Kuishinbo Banzai," a daily five-minute travelogue in which the actor would go all over Japan sampling local delicacies. In more recent years he has moved to the other side of the counter, so to speak, by showing off his own culinary abilities, usually in the realm of donburi and always in a competitive setting. In the past, he has gone to Hawaii, Thailand and Mexico, where he created donburi using only local ingredients and then tried to sell at least 100 of the rice-bowl meals to local people. In all three cases, he succeeded.
Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. on Nihon TV, he will bring his ongoing project to Italy in conjunction with the "Year of Italy in Japan" event that is currently taking place nationwide. He will be joined by comedian Junji Takada, who will act as his "producer," talent Mariya Yamada, who will be his assistant, and Tetsuro Degawa, a comedian known for his lack of common sense, who will procure the necessary ingredients.