The ‘dirty’ word Japanese maestro refuses to use to describe Nobu restaurants
Over five decades Nobuyuki Matsuhisa – the world’s most famous sushi chef – has built a hotel and restaurant empire and influenced western tastebuds. But at 75 he’s showing no signs of slowing down.
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‘I don’t want to say fusion food. Fusion means confusion.” Nobuyuki Matsuhisa isn’t mincing his words, or ingredients. The Japanese maestro behind global restaurant empire Nobu swears off using that dirty word to describe his cooking.
Instead, the 75-year-old chef prefers another, friendlier, “F” word. “The Nobu style of food is more fashionable,” he explains.
“It uses a product that is clean and simple, but it’s not exactly like traditional Japanese food … in the beginning, a lot of people didn’t get Nobu’s food.”
It’s safe to say, after almost 20 years in Australia, the city has wholeheartedly embraced “Nobu style”.
No longer do we turn our noses up at raw fish and cold rice dinners. Sushi is a staple at supermarkets and train stations, and even rounds out the school lunch. Ingredients such
as miso and kombu have entered our vernacular and pantries.
Japanese restaurants are a dime a dozen in Melbourne – see Kisume, Yakimono, Robata, Kenzan and Supernormal – with even more local chefs and restaurateurs drawing influence from the cuisine.
Not only has the Nobu restaurant empire taken Australia by storm, it continues to hold a reputation as a swanky, star-studded eatery abroad, with celebs including Robert De Niro, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and George Clooney among some of Nobu’s biggest fans.
So after five decades in the game, and 55 global restaurants to his name, how has Nobu stayed relevant – and why do his restaurants still have such a hold on diners?
He’ll tell you it has everything to do with his customers.
“I always try my best and I don’t want to ever say no to the customers,” Nobu says via Zoom, from his New York headquarters ahead of his Australian tour this week.
“I’ll have customers ask me if they can have (their food) made in a certain way, and I’ll try to do that for them to make them happy.
“That way, they will come in and eat again. Without our customers, we aren’t a business.
“Always, every day and in every moment, we have to try our best.”
And then a pointed message for Melbourne chefs and restaurateurs: “Never pay late, always pay (your suppliers) on time. Business has to be clear; it is very important.”
Simple yet wise advice from a man who has overcome adversity to become one of the most recognisable figures in Japanese cooking.
Nobu was born in Saitama, Japan. When he was eight, his father was killed in a car crash, leaving his widowed mother to raise him and his two older brothers. After a rough trot at school, leading to his eventual expulsion at 17, Nobu decided to travel the world.
He worked as a dishwasher at Matsuei Sushi in Shinjuku, Tokyo, before he was invited by a regular customer to open a Japanese restaurant in Peru in 1973.
At 24, he moved to Lima to open Matsuei Sushi’s first Peruvian outpost, but there was one problem: Nobu no longer had access to a bounty of fresh Japanese produce.
This led the ambitious chef to think outside the box, using local ingredients to recreate traditional Japanese dishes.
Sadly, the restaurant was forced to close after three years of trade. And the hard times kept coming. After a failed attempt to open another restaurant in Argentina, he opened a restaurant in Anchorage, Alaska only to see it burn to the ground two weeks after opening.
In 1977, Nobu moved to Los Angeles. For the next decade he worked at restaurants Mitsuwa and Osho before his big break.
In 1987, he opened the restaurant Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills and one night actor Robert De Niro came to dinner.
After the Hollywood heavyweight fell in love with his food, he began a relentless pursuit to convince the chef to go into business with him and open a New York restaurant. Nobu eventually caved, and in 1994, Nobu New York opened.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Nobu’s first Australian restaurant came in2007, in Melbourne. Perth followed four years later and Sydney in 2020.
Crown Resorts doubled down on its longstanding relationship with Nobu in 2015, by investing a 20 per cent stake in the business.
Nobu says he’s visited Melbourne at least once every year since the restaurant opened at Crown (excluding the Covid years), as part of his annual global tour to visit “his children”.
“I am travelling 10 months of the year, but Australia is really special,” he says.
“I’ve been coming every year since 2007; it used to be twice a year.”
Nobu is back in town next week for a “Taste of Nobu” event at Crown Melbourne on Friday night, a sold-out sushi masterclass on Saturday, and a Mother’s Day lunch on Sunday.
This week he visited Sydney and Perth as part of the Aussie tour.
“Since we opened, the restaurant is getting busier slowly, little by little. Melbourne, even (though) we have Perth and Sydney, is more busy. A lot of tourists go there.”
And the reason?
“Nobu style.”
The elusive term, which the chef mentions several times in our interview, is what I interpret to be the respectful marriage of flavours between two cultures at his global restaurant behemoth.
Nobu says he honours traditional Japanese flavours in his cooking, though all of his restaurants menus from around the world inject playful flavour touches from his current Californian home base: sushi tacos filled with raw tuna or salmon, jalapeño-dotted kingfish sashimi tiles, calamari “pasta”.
Nobu explains chefs find inspiration from all over, referencing the inclusion of kangaroo on his Perth restaurant’s menu, but vows to never “copy” others.
Instead, he prefers to lead the charge.
“At Nobu I was using jalapeños, and (cooking dishes such as) new-style sashimi and black cod miso. When I started cooking black cod in 1987, nobody was making it. Now my black cod has inspired kitchens all over the world, from South Africa to China,” he says.
“All chefs try to use different ingredients from different countries. The French never used kombu or soy sauce – now they do. Even with Japanese food, we never used caviar or truffles or foie gras, and now Japanese chefs all over the world use these ingredients.”
“I don’t want to say fusion. Fusion is confusion. Nobu style honours basic Japanese food. We combine different ingredients, just a little, but not mix them together. I like to call it ‘Nobu style’ not ‘fusion food’.”
Nobu believes staying true to his roots has helped him survive over the years, and will help the brand’s longevity in the years to come.
“That’s why all the customers are still coming,” he says. “When we opened New York (30 years ago) we had customers coming in with kids and … now it’s the same family but the third generation.”
“Food is like fashion, clothing, music or art. People look to others to see what’s popular and then people copy to make their own style.
“Nobu’s style of food, since I opened in Melbourne, has been very unique. It’s not known to everyone. There are new generations of chefs coming through who are trying to copy Nobu’s food, and even Nobu’s food keeps changing. It’s never ending.”
After more than 50 years in hospitality, the 75-year old is showing no signs of slowing down.
This month, Nobu announced plans for its 40th hotel in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, scheduled to open in 2026, with an ambition to have 80 hotels in its global stable by 2030.
This week he signed a deal to open Nobu Hotel and Restaurant in East Cairo, Egypt.
“Nobody knows what the next 20 years will bring, but I’ll always try my best and even today or 20 years to come,” Nobu says.
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