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Nobu San’s arrival at the Ibiza hotel Nobu Ibiza Bay could have been worthy of being filmed for the movies. Many of the hotel’s employees were waiting at the entrance of the hotel for the arrival of the popular Japanese chef and when he finally descended from the large minivan that had picked him up at the airport, the ovation resounded throughout the lobby.
Nobuyuki Matsuhisa (1949, Saitana), one of the great masters of the fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine, first came to the hotel that bears his name for its inauguration in June 2017, and now – last May 31 – he did so to inaugurate the rooftop terrace with which the hotel aspires to become one of the main tourist attractions of the island of Ibiza and Formentera, and to personally cook for a select group of guests.
In every restaurant I stop to visit, I go to the kitchen and join the chefs to create new dishes,” he says of his travels. Sometimes customers discover me and ask me to prepare something for them, and then I go to the kitchen or the sushi bar and prepare something for the most loyal and special customers”.
That “let him prepare something for them” to which he refers is his famous omakase, actually, a Japanese expression meaning “I leave it in your hands”, and is said by customers as a sign of trust towards the cook, as he is required to prepare whatever he wishes. The traditional respect in saying omakase obliges the customer to accept whatever is served on the plate, without a choice. For Nobu San, the chef’s expertise is fundamental to serving omakase. “It’s that omakase involves a harmony, like a symphony, from beginning to end. It’s not just doing anything: it’s a responsibility for which the cook has to stop and think.”
His most characteristic hallmark is fusion, a challenge to which he was forced by circumstances: these had led him to open his first restaurant in Lima, Peru, in 1973, at the age of 24, which he then christened Matsue. There he could not have all the usual ingredients he was used to cooking with and had to replace some of them with local products. This has been the same trend he has followed throughout his upward trajectory.
“I DON’T LIKE BUSINESSES THAT ONLY LOOK FOR MONEY. THE IMPORTANT THING IS QUALITY”.
“The menus we offer in Nobu restaurants are 70 to 80 percent identical around the world,” he explains, “but there is also 20 to 30 percent that is completely local. In Marrakech, for example, where I’ve just been, they use that clay pot they call tayin and we also use it there to make dashi or fish cooked with sake. It’s always about combining my normal style with local foods and cultures. I try to make people like my food as much as possible and that’s why I like to use local ingredients as much as possible.”
With 55 Nobu restaurants open on five continents, Nobu San admits that his job is as much about cooking as it is about running a business and acknowledges that he is forced to travel the world “almost ten months of the year”. However, business is not, for Nobu San, about money. “I don’t like businesses that are only after money,” he explains. Money is very important, of course; we can’t lose it. But I don’t see the business in the short term, but in the long term. The fundamental thing is the quality of the food and the service to the customers, so that they are happy. That’s how the long term is generated, which is what leads to business success in the end.
With 55 Nobu restaurants open on five continents, Nobu San admits that his job is as much about cooking as it is about running a business and acknowledges that he is forced to He knows what he’s talking about: after four years in Lima he moved to Argentina, but there he failed to attract the public and returned to try his luck in a diametrically opposite place, Juneau, the capital of the state of Alaska…. “Just 15 days after opening there was a fire, due to an electrical problem, and everything burned, down to the ground. I lost all my money, my mind became completely clouded and I lost, also, all my energy. I tried to commit suicide, but the family saved my life. That experience was the hardest moment of my life, but it was a turning point to change my path: when I was young, I tried to do everything fast and earn more and more money. But after this experience I learned to take it one step at a time. Some people make mistakes, but others learn from mistakes”. around the world “almost ten months a year”. However, business is not, for Nobu San, about money. “I don’t like businesses that are only after money,” he explains. Money is very important, of course; we can’t lose it. But I don’t see the business in the short term, but in the long term. The fundamental thing is the quality of the food and the service to the customers, so that they are happy. That’s how the long term is generated, which is what leads to business success in the end.
In 1977 he moved to Los Angeles and started again from scratch, working as a cook in Japanese restaurants before being able to open, ten years later, Matsuhisa, on La Cienega Boulevard, the first of the 55 he currently runs. Contrary to what one might think, Nobu San is not the owner of all his establishments. In each new project, he allies himself with strategic partners. And he always goes hand in hand with Robert De Niro, who met him at the restaurant he ended up opening in Los Angeles and proposed that he open Nobu in New York. Nobu San, who doesn’t usually go to the movies, didn’t know who this man was who was proposing business to him, and ignored him. But the actor’s insistence made it possible, in 1994, for the brand’s definitive takeoff to begin in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood.
“When they propose to open in different countries and different cities, my team goes, talks to them, they see the locations and explain our philosophy. All Nobu restaurants have the same concept: we use the best products but, above all, the most important thing is that I always talk to the chefs, because they have to cook from the heart. I want a customer who comes to Ibiza, Tokyo, New York or London to say immediately: ‘I feel like I’m at Nobu’, and that means feeling welcome. We have to know how to recommend to the diner”.
Something similar happens with the hotels, which Nobu names but does not own. We currently have 15 hotels open,” he says. And we will open 15 more by 2027. With the hotels, as with the restaurants, we see what they propose, and we look for the equivalent of what we do in the kitchen, paying attention to the quality of the materials and the taste for design or art”.
