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Renowned sushi chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa ’s eponymous restaurants and hotels are all over the world. He left Japan in the 1960s, created his signature sushi flavors with citrus, cilantro, and spice at a Peru-based restaurant, then eventually landed in LA. He’s the focus of a new documentary called Nobu , directed by Matt Tyrnauer.
Matsuhisa grew up outside Tokyo in Saitama Prefecture in the post-war era. At age 8, his dad died in a motorcycle accident, and his mom raised him single-handedly. The family didn’t have a lot of money.
He tells KCRW that as a kid, he dreamt of becoming like his father. One day, his older brother took him to a sushi restaurant, where he watched chefs make the pieces one by one, and he ate them at the counter for the first time. He wanted to become a sushi chef at that moment.
After going to Peru and Argentina to pursue his career, a friend invited him to come to Anchorage, Alaska, where he opened restaurants, but they caught fire 50 days later. “I lost all my dreams and passions, and almost [tried] to kill myself,” he says. However, the thought of his wife and two daughters saved him.
After Alaska, Matsuhisa returned to Japan for a week, then flew to Los Angeles to visit a friend, who introduced him to a small Japanese restaurant, where he got a job for two years. He worked at another restaurant before opening his own in 1987 in the Beverly Hills area.
Tyrnauer describes that original restaurant: “It was just an absolutely trend-breaking revelation in a city that was getting to be crazy about sushi. … That's the launching pad for a 30-year story that's been one success after another.”
Though he lives in LA, Matsuhisa spends 10 months out of the year traveling globally to visit his restaurants and hotels.
Tyrnauer says his team followed Matsuhisa to six or seven places.
“Something that interested me about this is: How do you do this incredible service for people that is at a very high price point, and spread it around the world like this? … I think the movie answers that — is that Nobu goes around and he has to train vast numbers of people to do things his way, and he's a perfectionist,” Tyrnauer explains.
The chef also has a background in architecture and graphic design, and the plate is his canvas, Tyrnauer says. “He designs the plates in the restaurant. The plate is white with a very spare detail on it. And the food is graphically laid out on the plate. And this was something that he devised in the ‘80s. And if the chefs don't do it correctly and the balance is off, it's not just the taste of the food and the ingredients, which are, of course, primary, but it's also the presentation. … When the plate’s put on the table, it has to be at 12 o'clock. And there's actually a little insignia on the plate that tells the server where to put it on the table. … This is the level of precision that has to happen at 55-plus restaurants around the world at a price point sometimes of $700 a head.”
But now that Matsuhisa must travel extensively to monitor his businesses, he says he does miss being a chef in his own restaurant. However, he recalls that a few weeks ago, he did a class that lasted a few hours at a sushi bar. “[A] customer asked me …‘Hey Nobu, make me something.’ Then I [went] to [the] kitchen in the sushi bar, and I made that dish for customers too. I like to make [guests happy], because the customer smiling is my most happy time,” he says.
Tyrnauer notes that he was surprised by many things Matsuhisa invented: black cod and miso; soft shell crab roll; popcorn shrimp with ponzu sauce; crispy rice with tuna; yellowtail with small pieces of jalapeno and sauce.
When in Peru, Matsuhisa was blown away by the flavors of ceviche with lime, cilantro, and jalapeno, which transformed his cooking style. He tells KCRW that Peru has had Japanese immigrants since over 150 years ago, and each generation influences the next.
Matsuhisa is now 76 years old. Does he plan to retire? “Maybe one day, I cannot [travel]. I cannot [cook]. I cannot [make] sushi. That day [is] my ‘retire day,’” he says. |
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