Even those who don't follow dining closely know his name. Few chefs have reached the stratospheric notoriety of Chef Nobu Matsuhisa. And there he was, on a warm March evening. Taste of Nobu had rolled into town, with the chef going to Nobu location after location, making in-person appearances.
It's rare to meet culinary icons of such stature. Before I was born, my mom got Julia and Paul Child to sign From Julia Child's Kitchen during an appearance in Dallas (maybe at Taylor's Bookstore?). Going into an interview, I brought a copy of Nobu: A Memoir, with that signed Julia Child book rolling around in the back of my mind.
"I had two dreams: One was to become a chef, and the other was to go to another country," said Nobu, decked out in a white chef's jacket. We were in a small side dining area, an hour before the event was to start. "My dreams of becoming a sushi chef and going to another country were very simple."
"And you did both," I said.
"I did, I did," he replied. But he did more than that — he both popularized and transformed Japanese cuisine, inventing new dishes, like his famous yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, and, at the same time, staying true to the basic fundamentals of Japanese cooking. The Nobu brand, since expanded to hotels and even tequila, is widely successful, but his contributions to food cannot be understated.
"My older brother took me to a sushi restaurant when I was a kid," said Nobu. "There was so much energy." The sound of the sliding doors, and the chef's chorus call of irasshaimase ("welcome") resonated. "We sat at the counter, and I had never had sushi at the counter," he continued. "Then, the chefs made each piece of sushi, one by one. Immediately, at this moment, I wanted to be a sushi chef."
Nobu’s father died in a car accident when he was eight. He missed his dad, and would pull out a photo album, flip through the pages and always linger on an image of the senior Matsuhisa in Palau. He was in the lumber business, which took him to far-off destinations.
"That's why when I was a kid, I wanted to go to another country — not New York, not Paris and not LA," said Nobu. The memory of his father sparked a desire to experience the world outside his native Saitama, Japan. But it was also the memory of a life in Japan that would ultimately provide Nobu's roadmap for his future.
The desire to go abroad and make sushi took a young Chef Nobu to Peru and Argentina. At that time, Japanese ingredients were scarce. The lack of ingredients ultimately led him to create a unique style of sushi and sashimi that were still, at their core, Japanese, but still, transformative.
After South America, Chef Nobu ended up in Alaska in the late 70s, opening a new restaurant. The venture was, according to him, "a bad experience." Just after opening, an electrical fire burned down the restaurant, and he even considered taking his own life. "I lost all my dreams, my money and my possessions."
A decade later, Chef Nobu opened a new sushi restaurant, Matsuhisa, in Beverly Hills. It was a hit. Celebs frequented the place, and one in particular, Robert De Niro, would help change his life forever.
"Right after it opened, Bob [De Niro] came to me with an offer to open a restaurant in New York," said Nobu. But even though a decade had passed, the experience in Anchorage still haunted him. "I didn't want it to be like Alaska — it was too rushed."
Even though he wasn't initially sold on the proposal, Chef Nobu still visited De Niro in New York. "He explained his dream to me, and he showed the building he bought in Tribeca," said Nobu. It was an old coffee warehouse, with leaky pipes and rats. But De Niro showed where he envisioned his future movie production office, his screening room and what he wanted to do. "I told him that I wasn't ready to go to the next step because I just opened a new restaurant and the staff weren't trained enough," said Nobu. But De Niro kept coming to Matsuhisa as a regular. Four or five years pass, and Nobu gets a call from the actor, telling him to come back to New York.
"I did not understand what he was talking about," said Nobu. "I was really surprised because he was waiting. That means he was watching me. So now, I can trust him — not the Hollywood star, but the person."
I thought back to the late 90s. I was in Los Angeles at the time, interning for Quentin Tarantino, who was shooting Jackie Brown with De Niro. I remember just how intimidating the thought of meeting De Niro was — what would I say to the greatest actor of his generation? Gee, you were really good in Taxi Driver? And sitting there with Nobu, I wondered if being free of all the Hollywood accoutrement and building a solid foundation made their inevitable partnership stronger. In 1994, they opened the first Nobu, and decades later, the brand is still going strong.
"For partnerships, you [have to] trust each other," said Nobu. "You know, I like to make good teams. I have to trust the team. Good partners and good teams are the keys of the success to the business."
"I was never looking for success," continued Nobu. "I just wanted to be a sushi chef. I like making sushi. I like to make the guests happy."
After a quick photo shoot to celebrate his birthday, Chef Nobu went out and greeted guests, posing for picture after picture, with grace and a smile. That night he made many guests very, very happy.
For more, check Nobu Dallas’ official site.
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