MANILA, Philippines - Who is the Japanese-born Australian chef known as one of the successful exponents of Franco-Japanese cuisine with his Sydney-based restaurants Kinsela’s and Tetsuyas?
He was born and grew up in the Japanese town of Hamamatsu in the Shizuoka Prefecture. With his limited knowledge of English and the country which would become his home, he arrived in Australia at the age of 22, never imagining he would be embraced as one of the country’s favorite chefs.
Landing in Sydney in 1982 with nothing more than a small suitcase and a love of food, he found his very first job as a kitchen hand in a restaurant in Surrey Hills. A year later, he was introduced to Sydney chef Tony Bilson, who was looking for a Japanese cook to make sushi at Kinsela’s.
It was at Kinsela’s that he learned classical French techniques, forming the beginnings of his own style of cooking, marrying the French technique with the Japanese philosophy of using natural, seasonal flavors.
He left Kinsela’s in 1983 and, in partnership with the headwaiter, opened Ultimo’s. In 1989, he went on to open Tetsuya’s on a small site in the Sydney suburb of Rozelle. There were limitations to the space and manpower when it was starting, but the restaurant’s menu would frequently change and the restaurant enjoyed a steady stream of diners including many regular customers. They would come back for his fish confit dish, which began as a salmon dish but eventually evolved using ocean trout.
Other customer favorites included boudin of pork and duck liver and pig’s trotters and port wine and mustard sauce; grilled breast of duck sausage, sage, orange, and ginger; and a warm salad of marinated quail with rice and lemon vinaigrette.
In November 2000, it moved to a larger, more glamorous location in Sydey’s CBD, where it remains today. Many of the modern sculptures displayed around the restaurant were made by his friend, the late sculptor Akio Magisawa, while the ceramics used for plating some dishes are made personally for him and the restaurant by another friend, Mituso Shoji.
Over the years, the restaurant attracted favorable review, and in 1992 the influential Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded the restaurant Three Hats, the highest possible rank, which it has consistently awarded each year since.
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