The making of chef Nobu Matsuhisa

Nobu Matsuhisa’s journey to becoming a global culinary icon started at home.

As his bedroom is near the kitchen, the young Matsuhisa would always wake up to the sound of his mother and grandmother preparing breakfast. The smell of miso soup would fill his mornings.

However, his passion for food kindled when his older brother brought him to a sushi restaurant for the first time. “We sat at the counter and watched the chefs prepare the fish and hand it to us, piece by piece. I ate it in one bite, and I just said ‘wow.’ At this time, I hadn’t started cooking yet, but I knew immediately that I wanted to be a chef,” Matsuhisa recalled.

At the age of 17, he started working as a dishwasher in a restaurant called Matsuei-sushi. Eventually, he became an assistant to a chef and started to learn how to make sushi.

One of his regulars at Matsuei, a man of Japanese-Peruvian descent, invited him to co-open a restaurant in Peru. While leaving Japan is difficult for chef, he decided to accept the invitation as he had always dreamt of traveling like his father.

Being a chef in Peru allowed Matsuhisa to experiment with Peruvian flavors and techniques. He recalled the first time he combined Peruvian and Japanese ingredients and techniques when he encountered ceviche, a technique where fresh seafood is marinated and “cooked” in ceviche sauce containing lemon juice. A trained sushi chef of Japan with deep understanding on working with raw fish, Matsuhisa applied a combination of raw and cooked seafood with ceviche sauce after a guest ordered it.

After Peru, Matsuhisa had a chance to open a restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska.

“The restaurant was very successful and I worked very hard for the first few months. I had my first day off on Thanksgiving after the restaurant had been open for 50 days,” Matsuhisa tells DAILY TRIBUNE.

Then came the darkest moment of his life. “My business partner called and told me that there was a fire at the restaurant. At first, I thought he was joking, but then I could hear the sirens. We drove to the restaurant and could see that the restaurant had burned down,” he recalled. “I had lost everything, and I truly thought about killing myself. It was my wife and daughters who helped me through that time. After that I have always tried to keep going. I learned patience and to never give up.”

He moved on and opened his restaurant, Matsuhisa, in Los Angeles in 1987. Robert De Niro came to visit one day.

“I didn’t know who he was at first, but he asked me to have a drink with him after his meal. He asked me if I wanted to open a restaurant with him in New York. He flew me out to Tribeca, where he had lots of development happening. At the time Matsuhisa was only a few years old and I felt that there was still a lot of work to do on my restaurant, so I said I wasn’t ready,” he said.

De Niro kept coming back to the restaurant every time he visited LA. He made the offer again to Matsuhisa four years later, to which the kind chef finally agreed.

“I could not do this journey without my partners. We have a mutually respectful and trustworthy relationship and have built a strong partnership and friendship on that foundation. They are not just my partners; they are my family,” he said.

At present, Matsuhisa is behind the successful global empire of restaurants and hotels eponymous to his name. He has built over 50 Nobu restaurants, 11 Matsuhisa restaurants, 38 Nobu Hotels, and 12 residence projects spanning across five continents, and more under development.

“Nobu is not just me — it’s also my team. I have strong teams who I have spent years working with and educating personally. They go out and teach everyone my philosophy for good food and good service, so we are all working towards the same goal. I also spend most of the year traveling to visit my teams and am constantly reinforcing my philosophy. We are very hands-on and because of that our quality and standards are consistent,” Matsuhisa added.

Whitefish Tiradito, one of his many innovations, is a sliced fish placed on a plate. Instead of the customary use of soy sauce and wasabi with Japanese sashimi, Matsuhisa used local chili, sea salt and citrus — yuzu (citrus fruit from Japan) and lemon. The rich culinary tradition of Japan also shows in his creations such as the iconic Black Cod Miso.

Matsuhisa’s unrivaled accomplishment in the culinary and hospitality industry has earned him various recognitions including Order of the Rising Sun, Gold, and Silver Rays by the Japanese emperor in 2024, Most Powerful People in American Fine Dining by Robb Report (2023, 2024), and Lifetime Achievement Award by GQ in 2017.

His restaurants have also received notable citations such as One Michelin Star for Nobu San Diego in 2008, Matsuhisa Beverly Hills and Nobu Las Vegas in 2007, Nobu Berkeley St. in 2005, and Nobu London in 1997. His restaurants also received these awards: Three Stars by Frank Bruni of the New York Times in 2005 for Nobu Fifty Seven, Three Stars by Ruth Reichl of the New York Times in 1998 for Nobu Next Door, Best New Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation and Three Stars by Ruth Reichl of the New York Times in 1995 for Nobu, and inclusion of Matsuhisa as one of the Top Ten Restaurant Destinations in the world by the New York Times in 1993.

Matsuhisa’s inventive culinary flair garnered loyal celebrity following which even led to his appointment as the official chef at the Golden Globe Awards Nominations in 2024 and again last January.

On his most memorable celebrity experience, he recalled the time he cooked for Princess Diana in 1997. He shared, “I was so excited to meet her, but when I introduced myself, she knew me already! I am always happy when guests enjoy my restaurants.”

When asked about the biggest lesson he learned after years of being a chef, Matsuhisa said: “Always keep going, even just a millimeter forward. I learned patience and to never give up. Travel has always been very important; I always receive inspiration from visiting new places and it helps me stay open-minded. Always do your best. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and remember to learn from them. Think from your guests’ point of view, and never lose passion for what you do.”