THE GAME CHANGER An Unexpected SUCCESS FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS, CHEF NOBUYUKI MATSUHISA ROSE FROM THE ASHES OF FAILURE 68 TA | SEPT/OCT <strong>2013</strong>
WORDS AUDREY TEOH PHOTOGRAPH CORBIS TO BUILD AN EMPIRE. One common trait that all great chefs have in common is a love for quality, unadulterated food. This is particularly true of traditional Japanese cuisine which eschews unnecessary embellishment. Although Japan’s most famous culinary export, sushi, has been reinvented in numerous ways over the years, a deep respect for this classic means that it is always enhanced, never overshadowed. For Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa – better known as just Chef Nobu – being a sushi chef is the culmination of a lifelong dream. As a boy, his first visit to a sushi restaurant – an exclusive and expensive treat at the time – was so memorable that he decided then and there that he would one day be a sushi chef. Despite being classically-trained, Chef Nobu has nonetheless brought something new to the way diners experience this quintessential dish. As for the vast empire which now bears his name, it was borne out of largely unanticipated and sometimes painful experiences, which makes his current successes all the sweeter. T H E E A R L Y Y E A R S — A native of Saitama, Japan, Chef Nobu worked his way up from an apprenticeship in Tokyo, where he spent his first three years washing and cleaning, then helping with the marketing and cleaning the fish. Only in his fourth year was he allowed to prepare sushi and promoted to chef status, but he is thankful for the early experience as a dishwasher and busboy which made him tougher and more able to empathise with his workers. After seven years, Chef Nobu opened his own sushi bar in an unlikely place: Peru. At only 24 years of age, he uprooted and spent three years in Lima, where the on-going challenge of using regional ingredients and introducing Peruvian influences led to the gradual development of his trademark ‘Nobu Style’. At the time, there were few Japanese restaurants in town, yet the presence of many large Japanese corporations meant a steady stream of fellow countrymen looking for good sushi. Although the restaurant was successful, irreconcilable differences between Chef Nobu and the restaurant co-owners prompted him to leave for a short stint in Argentina before returning to Japan. However, his wanderlust could not be quelled and before long he moved on to another venture in Alaska. Tragically, his intense personal and monetary investments literally went up in smoke when the weeks-old restaurant burned down. Heartbroken and heavily in debt, Chef Nobu hit a low point. Returning to Japan, he had no work and, it appeared, no prospect of ever rebuilding his dream. Depression and even the thought of ending his life was only held at bay by the thought that his wife and daughters needed him – as he said in one interview, “If not for myself, I had to do it for them.” With this in mind, he hopped on a plane to California where a friend offered him a position in his family-run sushi restaurant and started on the long journey back to solvency. During this time, he received his green card and moved on to another position which allowed him to slowly rebuild his savings. All in all, after nine long years, a friend’s loan enabled him to open his own Matsuhisa restaurant in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles in 1987. With his wife as his business partner, the first years were tough – his artistic vision meant buying only the best fish, which kept food costs high. Barely making any profit, they could just about make ends meet but he was happy as long as his customers enjoyed his food. Thankfully, despite the difficulties, word soon spread about the affordably-priced food, great quality and service, bringing more customers and media attention. This LA venture marked a change in Chef Nobu’s fortune – it was in LA that he first met actor Robert De Niro, who became both a good friend and business partner. It was De Niro who encouraged Chef Nobu to open his first self-named Nobu restaurant in New York with the help of restaurateur Drew Nieporent. It was 1994, and a steady string of openings followed over the course of the next two decades. During this time, he gathered accolades from the likes of Los Angeles Times Magazine as one of “America’s 10 Best New Chefs”, the Zagat Survey as “the man who may be the best Japanese chef in the world” and the New York Times as one of the “Top 10 restaurant destinations of the world”. T H E N O B U P H I L O S O P H Y — On the surface, it would seem that gathering accolades is a favourite pastime of Chef Nobu, but despite his successes, this Michelin-starred chef remains humble and very much in touch with his first love – sushi. Cooking is something Chef Nobu takes very personally, as he feels that food is “imbued with the feelings and personality of the cook,” explaining that even the most faithful recreation of his recipes will never result in a perfect replica of his food. In essence, it is about putting one’s own heart – or kokoro – into one’s cooking, which is exactly what he does. L O O K I N G AHEAD — To-date, Chef Nobu has 25 restaurants in 21 different cities, with the most recent in Cape Town, Moscow and Mexico City. His latest venture has brought him full circle, working together with long-time friend Robert De Niro to open the first-ever Nobu Hotel, located in Ceasars Palace, Las Vegas. Its premium location on the Strip guarantees this 180-room hotel something none of its neighbouring hotels can match – a (relatively) cosy boutique environment. Furthermore, in keeping with his cultural roots, the interior decor features Japanese themes such as custom-made lanterns inspired by origami. But since it is Vegas, where ‘over-the-top’ is the order of the day, the hotel is also extraordinarily luxurious and features a generously-sized new Nobu restaurant which occupies all of 11,000 square feet, complete with private dining areas and a 327-seat lounge and bar serving Nobu-branded sake. This incredible feat is only matched by yet another Nobu hotel on the other side of the world, in Riyadh where it bears the honour of being the first boutique hotel in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Opulent yet breathtakingly elegant, the Nobu stamp of excellence will soon also welcome visitors to London and Bahrain, where two new Nobu hotels are planned. With such a massive empire, it is hard to imagine what is next for this inspiring individual. As he and his string of restaurants and hotels continue to attract glowing reviews from critics, customers and celebrities alike, fans can rest assured that he will not disappoint. SEPT/OCT <strong>2013</strong> | TA 69
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