The Address Sept-Oct 2013

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 2013 | TA 69