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Nobuyuki Matsuhisa was born in 1949, in Saitama Prefecture. Chef Nobu began his career as a cook at ‘Matsuei-zushi’, a sushi bar in Shinjuku, Tokyo. He moved to Peru at the age of 25, working there and later in Buenos Aires, Anchorage (where his 50-day old restaurant burned down) and Los Angeles before opening his own restaurant, ‘Matsuhisa’ in Beverly Hills in 1987. Many celebrities and Hollywood stars frequented ‘Matsuhisa’.
QUOTES
“Your food is the BEST. Just don’t tell my mother.” – Steven Spielberg.
“Nobu is the one place I eat every time I’m in New York. The melding of flavours is Nobu’s personal HAIKU.” – Robin Williams.
“You can tell how much FUN a city is going to be if Nobu has a restaurant in it.” – Madonna.
“For I always put something special in my food – my heart, or ‘kokoro’ as we say in Japanese – and, you, of course, must put your own heart into your cooking. … I know there are many chefs who are either technically or artistically better than me. But I also know that my food has soul.” – Nobuyuki Matsuhisa.
NOBU New York was opened in 1994 after he finally accepted Robert De Niro’s long standing offer of a partnership, bringing all the qualities of Nobu-style Japanese cuisine to New York. This led to other restaurants opening around the world:
NOBU London 1997
Matsuhisa Aspen 1998
NEXT DOOR NOBU New York 1998
NOBU Tokyo 1998
UBON Beverly Center 1999
NOBU Las Vegas 1999
NOBU Malibu (partnership with Kenny G) 2000
NOBU Milano (partnership with Giorgio Armani) 2001
UBON by NOBU London 2001
NOBU Miami 2001
NOBU Paris 2001
At the time of publication, there are 13 establishments in the Nobu restaurant family.
Although based in Los Angeles, Nobu visits his 13 restaurants in rotation and probably spends 3 days a month in Tokyo. Guess who went to dinner when the Master was in town?
Entrance in south Aoyama district, Tokyo.
Open plan kitchen.
NOBU Tokyo is the only Nobu restaurant without a sushi bar on the premise that Tokyo-ites expect something different from NOBU in Tokyo. Hey! Look who is standing at the end of the counter…
Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa and dining guest.
DRINKS
Yebisu Draft Beer – Tokyo’s local brew.
One of the more hop tasting beers in Japan. A cold glass of beer is mandatory as a pre-dinner drink in Japan, which was good enough reason for us.
The original brewery was in Ebisu only a few miles from Tokyo Tower but the site has long been abandoned and redeveloped into a glitzy entertainment and residential neighbourhood, popular with locals and expatriates. As an acknowledgement of its history, there is still a ‘beer garden’ in Ebisu, which is especially popular in summer.
Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon, 1999 Alexander Valley.
Some of the American and Japanese diners stayed mainly with wines of the grape.
Others, including your intrepid reporter, went for the traditional nihon-shu (Japanese alcohol) or sake, which I think is the best accompaniment for Japanese cuisine.
Sake in fresh, green bamboo decanters.
The fresh green bamboo is cut carefully so that each segment is a watertight container.
Two brands of sake were consumed at dinner:
·‘Onigoroshi’ (Demon Killer) dai-gin-jou (Top Grade), Hokusetsu Brewery, Niigata – extra dry with long finish.
·‘Hokusetsu Daiginjou YK35’, Hokusetsu Brewery, Niigata is exclusive to NOBU – smokey and dry with lingering finish.
‘Onigoroshi’ appears in most connoisseurs’ Top-10 sake list (there are more than 2000 types) but this was my first taste of ‘Hokusetsu Daiginjou YK35’ and it seemed to go very well with the different NOBU courses. The reason why is below.
Chef Nobu tells us about his preferred sake brewery and why its sake matches his food:
“Sado is the largest island in the Sea of Japan, twenty-two miles from the northern port of Niigata. Members of the Hazu family started as purveyors of sake and other alcoholic drinks in 1871 and have been producing their own highly original brews since 1886. The brewery adopted the name Hokusetsu, which means ‘Northern Snow’, in 1993. While maintaining the highest standards of traditional sake brewing, the company has not been too timid to utilize state-of-the-art technology and develop creative storage techniques, some inspired from tales of sake folklore.
Until Japan’s first railways were built in the late 19th century, sake, like other products, was often transported by boat from the breweries on the Sea of Japan coast to drinkers in Edo (old Tokyo) on the Pacific coast. Connoisseurs claimed that the sake that came across water always tasted better, that it was made smooth and mellow by the undulating motion of the ocean. With the aim of recreating this mellowness, Hokusetsu plays the music of the Japanese composer Kitaro to bottles of its renowned ‘Ongaku-shu’ (musical sake) for three years in a special cellar. Ultrasonic wave equipment is also used to this end. In 1987, Hokusetsu commissioned the world’s first titanium containers to keep ultraviolet light from spoiling the sake.
I first tasted Hokusetsu sake soon after Matsuhisa opened, when my friend, the Japanese rock musician, Ekichi Yazawa, brought a bottle over. At the time Matsuhisa only served a sickly U.S.-made sake and I was amazed at how good the Hokusetsu tasted.
We had to wait about a year to get permission to import. I rather sneakily asked the Hokusetsu brewery to limit exports of their top-ranked sake to me alone and they agreed. Around that time, I was in Hawaii on business when somebody offered me a ‘special’ sake that was unusually hard to come by. I recognised the taste and then the label as Hokusetsu. The same thing happened in Chicago, where I was again offered this sake to which I supposedly had the exclusive import rights. I was angry with the importers, even though I could understand why they wanted to sell as much of it as possible. Nevertheless I begged the brewery to hold off wider distribution, promising to pitch the sake myself.
Grateful for the trust, I took on more and more Hokusetsu brands, until all my restaurants in the US, Europe and even Japan stocked Hokusetsu products only, as will future branches. Thus, a little drink with a friend turned into a global enterprise. But more than the business profits, I believe that valuing the close ties forged in such a process brings its own kind of profit. Now I’ve moved on from experimenting in ways of matching Hokusetsu sales with my food, to creating suitable sake cocktails myself.”
DEGUSTATION MENU
Fresh Oysters with Maui Onion Salsa and Caviar-Coriander Dressings.
Interesting NOBU twists to the raw oyster theme. The Maui onion is used for its sweetness derived from volcanic soil and cool climate.
New-style Sashimi with Tai (sea bream), Uni (sea urchin roe) and Okiuto (laver) slices.
Okiuto is a processed food made from the egonori laver found in Hakata Bay on the island of Kyushu. The bream was as fresh as can be expected with Tsukiji Fish Market (world’s largest sales) in the same city. More importantly, the sea urchin roe was fresh, as ‘ripe’ uni can rival blue cheese in the olfactory stakes. I was not fooled a bit, this was still raw sashimi but the hot oil and citrus yuzu sauce did add a certain bite to the dish.
New-style sashimi came about as a result of a customer’s complaint. Chef Nobu recalled, “ I had gotten hold of some fresh flounder, so I cut it into paper-thin slices and served it raw. But the dish came back into the kitchen because the customer could not eat fish that hadn’t been cooked. I wanted to somehow utilize the fish I’d so carefully and elaborately arranged. So I looked about the kitchen for an idea. My gaze fell upon some olive oil that had been heated in a frying pan. “That’s it,” I thought. Sesame oil would be combined with heated olive oil to add aroma. The raw fish would be topped with ginger spears and menegi (scallions) and then drizzled with ponzu. Then the hot oil would be poured over it. The customer who had claimed not to be able to eat raw fish understood the way I felt and tried a mouthful, then two, and ended up leaving the plate clean. I am supremely happy at times like these. There is no greater compliment to a chef’s skills than to be able to make a diner enjoy something he or she couldn’t eat before.”
Shima-aji (striped jack) Sashimi and Tomato.
This fish is usually served with scallions and sesame oil to tame the strong oily flavour but NOBU uses tomato and a mini-salad for the same effect. Chef Nobu noted that the Japanese love their shiny fish (hikarimono) unlike the Americans when he first started his restaurant. He is unsure if its because Americans do not like hikarimono and never try it, or that sushi chefs in US do not offer them, thinking Americans do not like shiny fish thus perpetuating the myth.
Grilled Suzuki (sea bass) with mushrooms, red cabbage, green bok choy and a pickled red ginger shoot (hajikami).
This is a simpler version of Nobu’s classic ‘Chilean Sea Bass and Truffles with Yuzu Soy Butter Sauce’ where the Chilean fish is not a bass at all. It is actually a Patagonian Toothfish a.k.a. Antarctic Cod or Icefish.
Grilled Kobe Beef in Teriyaki Sauce with Autumn Garnish.
Although trained as a sushi and sashimi chef, Chef Nobu is not averse to serving non-traditional dishes. This dish was a more than adequate representative of the ‘art of steak’.
Sushi Sushi Sushi.
Chu-toro (Tuna belly), Kochi (Flathead), Shako (Mantis shrimp or squilla), Kamasu (Pacific barracuda) and Anago (Sea eel) with Gari (pickled ginger). Not your average selection of toppings. It was my first taste of barracuda sushi. As usual the sushi rice (shari) is most important to compliment the taste of really fresh fish, as is the sweetness of red vinegar (shari-su) made from the lees of sake brewing.
Here is what Chef Nobu had to say about his sushi art: “Speaking of variety, I’ve recently expanded my sushi repertoire to include such diverse ingredients as foie gras, Kobe beef, grilled toro, codfish milt in winter and also shark’s fin and caviar. I even made moose sushi in Alaska once when I was given the meat by a hunter! Having said that, I believe sushi is best when made with seafood…”.
Clear soup
By this time, the sake had been flowing and I did not notice what the meatball was made off! As it was served with the sushi course, I assume it was a fish-ball.
DESSERTS
A variety of desserts were offered and it really was a lottery which one you got.
I was very lucky to have ‘won’ this classic Bento Box of Chocolate Soufflé, Sesame Ice Cream and Raspberry Sauce.
The warm chocolate mingled with the cold ice cream interspersed with the tart sauce played soulful music on my tongue.
The other desserts are illustrated below:
Trio of Crèmes Brûlées – (from top) Black Sesame, Ginger & Truffle and Green Tea.
I wish I had scrounged a taste of at least the middle one because black truffles in a dessert sounds quite intriguing.
Green Tea Parfait, Tapioca with Azuki Expresso Sauce and White Chocolate Petals.
Azuki is a type of red beans usually found in sweet rice cakes.
Unknown dessert.
What’s this? Answers on a postcard please…
NOBU – The Cookbook.
Not only a Master chef, the man is a master marketeer too; how’s this for total integration of product? The product line includes tie-ups with British Airways in-flight cuisine on the London-Tokyo route.
This is one of the few cookbooks I have actually read from my large collection. It is interesting enough even if the reader never cooks anything.
In the book, I spotted two tonneau shaped watches on Chef Nobu’s wrist. One had a black dial and the other a light (white or silver) dial. I wonder what they could be? Answers on the back of another postcard please ….
‘Nobu The Cookbook’ published by Kodansha International Ltd Tokyo and Kodansha America Inc. (2001) ISBN 4-7700-2533-5.
CONCLUSION
We had a most excellent dining experience in NOBU Tokyo. The dining room was packed with locals and visitors on a Thursday evening, which must be saying something about the NOBU experience. I had thought that it would be like “taking coals to Newcastle”, bringing back Japanese cuisine to Tokyo, but I was proven wrong.
I now regret declining a previous opportunity to dine at NOBU Park Lane, London. My next objective is to coerce some purists in California to visit ‘Matsuhisa Beverly Hills’ with me so we can sample Chef Nobu’s - “treasured ten-year-old sea urchin shio-kara, made of sea-urchin scraps pickled in salt and sake and left to ferment. Simply eaten heaped on thinly cut squid sashimi, the salty tang of sea urchin shio-kara is the perfect accompaniment to sake – lots of it.” - as he describes it.
‘Itadakemasu’ and ‘Amen’ to that.
Photos and Text copyright Melvyn Teillol-Foo, 2003.
MTF
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