Chef Nobu Matsuhisa is best known for his Japanese-fusion restaurants which have become celebrity haunts both in Australia and abroad. Here, the 77-year-old talks about the important women in his life, including his wife, and his meetings with Princess Diana and supermodel Cindy Crawford.
My father, Shintaro, who worked as a lumber dealer, passed away in a car accident at age 45, when I was seven years old. My mum, Masue, had to work full-time to take care of the family. I stayed home with my paternal grandmother, Kiku.
My grandmother taught me how a boy should behave. One day, I was playing with some boys and got in a fight. At the time I was wearing geta – traditional wooden shoes. When I got back home with one shoe, my grandmother asked why was I crying. I told her I got punched. She asked where my other shoe was. She told me to take the shoe off and use it next time; the message was to never give up.
When Mum became a widow in her 40s, she had four children. My brother Noboru, who is 12 years older than me, took over the role of my father. Mum had a lot of patience for us; she would cry to herself a lot. She was very lonely. My brother Keiichi is 10 years older than me and my sister, Mitsuko, is four years older. We were very close growing up, but didn’t have much in common. Mitsuko always looked out for me; she passed away at the age of 65.
My bedroom was next to the kitchen. I always saw my mum and grandma making breakfast in the morning and would wake to the sounds of Mum chopping vegetables or making soup. I invited Mum to the opening of my restaurant in Los Angeles when I was 38, but she was too old to travel. She was proud of me and passed away at the age of 92.
I met my wife in 1970, when I was 21 years old, on the way to the Osaka World Expo. I was travelling with my best friend, Sakai, and we ended up at the Ohara Museum of Art – the head of the museum was a customer of mine in Tokyo. The museum was located next to a small ryokan [inn], and as I checked in I saw Yoko, who knew the owner. She looked so cute but nothing happened at that time.
Cindy [Crawford] asked me to create a recipe for her, so I came up with a tempura and vegetables dish. She loved it.
A year later, Yoko came to the Tokyo restaurant I was working in and we remembered our first encounter. Our first date happened on February 28, and we married on October 1. We’re still together.
Yoko is a lovely lady. She’s always supported and trusted me, and I am here because of my wife. After 50 years of marriage, we’ve had lots of good and bad experiences. Life is up and down, and I almost tried to kill myself. Now I can say I am here because of her. We have two daughters, Junko and Yoshiko, who are in their late 40s now.
I met Princess Diana when she dined at Nobu London in 1997, shortly before her death. My business partner at the time invited her, and I was very nervous to greet her. She said, “Chef Nobu, I’ve read about you and your restaurants.” She was lovely and it was so tragic to hear that she passed so young.
Supermodel Cindy Crawford has been a regular customer at my Los Angeles restaurants since 1987. I have cooked for many celebrities over the years – including being chef for the Golden Globes three times, serving the likes of Ariana Grande – but to me they’re not celebrities, they’re customers.
Cindy asked me to create a recipe for her, so I came up with a tempura and vegetables dish. She loved it and it became known as “Cindy Rice”. Later, she went to Nobu in New York asking for the same dish, but it wasn’t on the menu. They called for the recipe. Now her daughter, Kaia [Gerber], comes in requesting the same dish.
Lifeline: 13 11 14.
Nobu has outlets at Crown Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
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Jane Rocca is a regular contributor to Sunday Life Magazine, Executive Style, The Age EG, columnist and features writer at Domain Review, Domain Living’s Personal Space page. She is a published author of four books.Connect via X or email.
