"It comes down to preference," says Executive Chef Leo Kekoa. "Some people like one way of sushi, and other people like another way." When Chef Kekoa is serving omakase at Kinzo in Frisco, he is watching his customers to make sure he is serving dishes they like.
"If you are looking closely, you can feel what they like — and what they love," he says. "It's hard to explain."
Kinzo opened in late 2022, bringing omakase — a multi-course meal decided by the chef — to Frisco's border with Little Elm. For omakase, people are paying for the chef's experience — and the experience of eating a multi-course meal selected and prepared for them.
Chef Kekoa previously worked at Nobu, but first cut his teeth at a local sushi restaurant while in high school in his native Hawaii. But after leaving the restaurant industry and creating a name for himself in the music business, cutting hip-hop albums in South Korea and making music in Japan, he return to where he got his start, sushi, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, an omakase chef.
Sushi is hard. It was not an easy journey. As Chef Kekoa points out, some fish taste better sliced thicker and some fish taste better sliced thinner; some fish go well with salty rice, and some go well with hot rice or room temperature rice. Every fish is different. But omakase isn't only about the fish on the plate, but about the customer sitting across from the chef.
"'Omakase,' meaning, how my grandpa taught me, is earning their trust so they leave it up to you," says Chef Kekoa. "It's not, leave me alone, and this is my style."
"With every piece I serve, I learn how the customer eats," continues Chef Kekoa. "That's what I learned in Japan. There, it's automatic. I think a lot of US restaurants skip that process of intimacy. The food might be the same but the way they serve it and the energy are different."
For more on the restaurant's omakase course, visit Kinzo's official site.
