Okay, so I was reading Tony Hillerman’s The Sinister Pig, a novel in which people who know too much or are inconvenient meet with unfortunate events. At the same time a fellow on Food TV’s Unwrapped told me that “about 10” people die every year from improperly prepared Fugu fish. Is there any suspicion in Japan that some fugu deaths are intentional? Here in the US, we read that Japanese businessmen entertaining clients spend well over $1000 (US) per person on a business dinner. Would it be a stretch of the imagination that some unscrupulous person would bribe a chef to “make a mistake” and kill a diner?
I´m not sure where I heard this, but I belive that there has never been a death from professionally prepared Fugu, all the deaths were from amatures preparing the dish.
Given this, I think it would be pretty suspicious if a dish prepared by a 1,000$ a plate chef killed someone
You would have to give this chef shit loads of money, though, since you’ve essentially killed his career and left him open to juicy lawsuits. Plus, the odds that the poison is going to kill the diner instead of just making him sick aren’t so good. If you want to make it look like an accident that is.
In the past 8 years or so, there have been between 0 and 6 fugu-related deaths in Japan. Not a whole lot, all things considered. About three people die of salmonella every year, for instance.
Malodorous is correct in pointing out that the majority of fugu poisoning cases are caused by amateurs who prepare fish they’ve caught at home. Any case involving a restaurant, and one that charges 1000$ a plate at that, would bring too much attention for this to be worth doing.