新澳门开奖结果

The Most Famous Japanese Chefs

When it comes to Japanese cuisine, the majority of us know of sushi, sashimi, tempura, and ramen. Yep, Japanese food culture is much richer than that.

Japanese chefs experiment with different ingredients to create world-class cuisines that are bound to give your taste buds an experience unlike any other.

Below are the most famous Japanese chefs;

1. Jiro Ono

Jiro Ono serving Barack Obama and Shinz艒 Abe at Sukyabashi, 2014 – Wikipedia

Jiro Ono is regarded by his contemporaries as one of the greatest living sushi craftsmen and is credited with innovating methods used in modern sushi preparation.

Ono was born in the city of Tenry奴, present-day Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He started working at a local restaurant from the age of seven, before moving to Tokyo to study as an apprentice.

He became a qualified sushi chef in 1951 and opened Sukiyabashi Jiro, a Japanese sushi restaurant in Ginza, Ch奴艒, Tokyo, Japan. Sukiyabashi is a three-Michelin-starred restaurant.

Ono has served former Japanese Prime Minister Shinz艒 Abe and President Barack Obama at Sukiyabashi Jiro. Obama stated, “I was born in Hawaii and ate a lot of sushi, but this was the best sushi I’ve ever had in my life.”

2. Natsuko Shoji

Natsuko Shoji – The Best Chef

Natsuk Shoji is the 2022 recipient of the Asia鈥檚 Best Female Chef Award by Asia鈥檚 50 Best Restaurants. She is also the recipient of the Asia鈥檚 Best Pastry Chef Award in 2020.

Shoji began her career at

 the French-inspired Floril茅ge in Tokyo. She spent three years working under Hiroyasu Kawate. In 2014, she opened 脡t茅, her own cake laboratory, in the city鈥檚 very trendy Shibuya neighbourhood.

She is renowned for her signature fashion cakes that pay a beautiful tribute to the fruit and fashion of the seasons, each presented in a small black box, delicately crafted to resemble a jewelry box.

3. Masaharu Morimoto

Iron Chef Morimoto – Flickr

Masaharu Morimoto is known for his unique fusion cuisine. His cuisine takes advantage of Japanese color combinations and aromas and uses Chinese spices and simple Italian ingredients, while maintaining a refined French style of presentation.

Morimoto received practical training in sushi and traditional Kaiseki cuisine in Hiroshima, and opened his own restaurant in that city in 1980. Influenced by Western cooking styles, he decided to sell his restaurant in 1985 to travel around the United States.

He established himself in New York City and worked in some of Manhattan’s prestigious restaurants, including the exclusive Japanese restaurant Nobu, where he was head chef.

While working at Nobu he got his start on the Iron Chef television show. At the of the show, he collaborated with Starr Restaurants and opening his own Morimoto restaurant in Philadelphia in 2001.

Morimoto continues to open multiple restaurants around the world.  

4. Harumi Kurihara

Harumi Kurihara animation – Flickr

Harumi Kurihara has often been called the “Martha Stewart of Japan”. She is a celebrity homemaker and television personality who has hosted numerous television shows.

Kurihara was born in Shimoda, Japan. She has never had professional training as a chef. However, her cuisine is known for combining traditional and newer Western influences, while accounting for the real-world time constraints of a housewife.

Harumi is the author of Suteki Recipe, a quarterly recipe magazine which has sold 5 million copies, as well as over 20 bestselling cookbooks and style magazines, has a line of cookware named after her, and owns a chain of stores.

5. Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa

Nobu Matsuhisa – Flickr

Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa is a Japanese celebrity chef and restaurateur known for his fusion cuisine, blending traditional Japanese dishes with Peruvian ingredients. His signature dish is black cod in miso.

Nobu was born in Saitama, Japan. At fifteen years, he began working as a dishwasher at the Matsue Sushi in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It was in the same restaurant, where he was trained as a Sushi master.

In 1987, Nobu opened his own restaurant “Matsuhisa” on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. By 1994, he laid the foundation to a new restaurant chain, as he opened the first “Nobu” in Tribeca, New York in a joint venture between Robert De Niro, Drew Nieporent, Meir Teper and himself.

In 1995, he received the James Beard Foundation Award and was nominated for it several times in the following years.

6. Niki Nakayama

Niki & Carole from n/naka – Flickr

Niki Nakayama is a Japanese-American chef who specializes modern Japanese kaiseki cuisine. She is the owner of Michelin-starred n/naka restaurant in Los Angeles.

She attended culinary school in Pasadena, after which she worked at Mori Sushi. “Committed to exploring new techniques,” she then began a three-year working tour of Japan.

 Her experiences with Japanese cuisine deeply influenced her, and upon returning to California, opened her now famous n/naka restaurant in Los Angeles, where she works with Carole Iida, who is a partner and sous chef at n/naka.

She is known for serving 13 course meals, in which all the dishes have a natural flow and progression to them, and uses highly seasonal ingredients, some of which come from Nakayama’s own home garden which provides plenty of vegetables and herbs.

7. Hiroyuki Sakai

Hiroyuki Sakai – Flickr

Hiroyuki Sakai is best known as the second, final, and longest-serving Iron Chef French on the Japanese television show Iron Chef. He was named the “King of Iron Chefs” after emerging victorious from the show’s grand finale, a tournament involving all the active Iron Chefs.

Sakai specializes in French cuisine. He was mentored by the Japan’s pioneer of French Cooking, Fujio Shido for three years.

In 2009, Sakai was named a recipient of the Gendai no Meiko (Contemporary Master Craftsmen) awards, honoring Japan’s foremost artisans in various fields.

8. Chen Kenichi

Chen Kenichi – Flickr

Chen Kenichi is a chef best known for his role as the Iron Chef Chinese on the television series Iron Chef. Nicknamed The Szechuan Sage, he wears a yellow outfit and rises into the Kitchen Stadium holding a large Chinese chef’s knife in his hand.

Chen is the son of Chen Kenmin, who is regarded as the father of Sichuan cuisine in Japan. He runs the Shisen Hanten group of restaurants, which he inherited from his father.

Chen’s special dish, “prawns in chili sauce” (Ebi Chili), is an adaptation of a dish that his father had introduced to Japan.

9. Kei Kobayashi

Kei Kobayashi – Identita Golose

Kei Kobayashi is the first Japanese chef to earned three Michelin stars in France. He is the owner of the restaurant Kei in Paris, which earned him the three Michelin stars in 2020.

After viewing a documentary about Alain Chapel, Kobayashi opted to specialize in French cuisine. He trained at French restaurants in Japan before moving to France in 1998 to work with Gilles Goujon and Alain Ducasse.

10. Yoshihiro Narisawa

Yoshihiro Narisawa – Flickr

Yoshihiro Narisawa is a Japanese chef known for promoting organic and natural ingredients as a part of Japanese cuisine, saying, 鈥淢ost of the vegetables and fruit in Japan contain pesticides. It鈥檚 the role of the chef to support (organic) producers.鈥�

In 2003, Narisawa moved to Tokyo and opened the restaurant “Les Cr茅ations de Narisawa” in Aoyama, renaming it Narisawa in 2011.

Restaurant Narisawa was ranked #20 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2009. It also received the inaugural Sustainable Restaurant Award from Restaurant Magazine, after an audit by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.