American Hiro, Jack McCallum
American Hiro, Jack McCallum
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

American Hiro
The Adventures of Benihana’s Rocky Aoki and How He Built a Legacy

Author: Jack McCallum, Steve Aoki

Narrator: David Lee Huynh, Steve Aoki

Unabridged: 6 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/08/2023


Synopsis

"Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character." —From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy-nominated producer and Billboard award-winning DJ

Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued. From wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana, Rocky's passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. Rocky's rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is an American dream realized unlike any other. Running and expanding the business would be all-consuming for most people, but Rocky would not be deterred. His determination for the business rivaled the drive he demonstrated in his other interests, some of which almost killed him. American Hiro by Jack McCallum, who had full access to Rocky Aoki and those in his enterprises, provides the only full inside account of one of the most famous symbols of cultural assimilation and capitalistic zeal in modern United States history—a champion in business, sports, and life.

About Jack McCallum

Jack McCallum was a writer for Sports Illustrated for thirty years and is currently Special Contributor. He is the host of the breakout podcast the Dream Team Tapes, based on his New York Times bestselling book Dream Team, and is also the author of Seven Seconds or Less and many other titles. While concentrating mostly on basketball-in 2005 he won the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame-he also edited the weekly Scorecard section of Sports Illustrated, covered five Olympic games, and has written about virtually every sport, including bowling, bicycle racing, squash, and wrestling. McCallum teaches journalism at Muhlenberg College and lives with his wife in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anusha on July 15, 2024

This is a exciting summary of the upbringing, rise, and evolution of Rocky Aoki, the founder of Benihana. The author explores Rocky's childhood in Japan (and his parents' business that shaped his own career trajectory), education in New York, early work founding Benihana, and the ways that he enjoye......more