Nobu Matsuhisa

Nobu Matsuhisa is a Japanese celebrity chef, restauranter, and actor with world renown and a global business empire. He currently operates more than a dozen of his Nobu hotels across the world, in exclusive locations including London, Las Vegas, Barcelona, Miami Beach, Malibu, Palo Alto, Ibiza, Manila, and Marbella. His signature dish is an exquisite black cod served in miso. Resident in America since the late 1970s, he won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award in 1995 and has also been nominated for it several times. Whereas many celebrity chefs end up hosting reality shows, Matsuhisa has gone one further and appeared in three Hollywood blockbusters: Martin Scorcese’s Casino, Austin Powers: Goldmember, and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Born in Saitama, Japan, Matsuhisa was a particularly well-travelled child, experiencing an esoteric blend of different cultures at a formative age. After leaving high school at 15, he moved to Tokyo where he worked as a dishwasher at the Matsue Sushi restaurant. Here, he also learned the art of sushi, becoming a master of it. After several years in Tokyo, he was invited to run a sushi restaurant in Peru, which he did. Unable to find authentic Japanese ingredients, he had to improvise, and so was born the fusion of Japanese and Peruvian styles and ingredients that would become his calling card.

After establishing himself in Los Angeles, Matsuhisa met screen icon Robert De Niro in the late 1980s, and it was he who encouraged Matsuhisa to open his own restaurant in New York, ultimately becoming his business partner in the venture. It paid off, and Matsuhisa was on his way to the worldwide reputation he enjoys today.