FT Globetrotter meets actor Robert De Niro, celebrity chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa and film producer Meir Teper to hear about how they started Nobu Matsuhisa’s eponymous sushi restaurants, how the business navigated the pandemic, fears about inflation and which city in the world they think has the best restaurants. Read more at
Robert would you mind just giving us a clap one two three great you’ve done this before i was in matuhisa nobu’s restaurant in l.a roland jaffeine the english director took me there one night and i after being there like a half an hour of that i told him if you ever want to open a restaurant in new york let me know and that’s how it all started really then he gave
To me the chance and also he bought the mayor and like we had the good teams and uh last night new york restaurant the huge success i’m a chefs i’m thinking about how max guests are happy so it means best product good food good service i like the people working with my restaurant i want to be happy to everyone happy makes more bigger when noble said i’m ready now
To do new york bob asked me if i would like to invest and i said sure nobody’s first restaurant was called matsuhisa which is his last name in los angeles and i said why don’t we call the restaurant in new york also matsurisa because it’s already has a name it has and bob said we just call it nobu it’s much easier i said let’s call noble a simple years later we
Opened another store open opened up as an addition to the restaurant and we didn’t know how to call it and we said how are we going to call this restaurant next door and bob said why don’t we call it noble next door then we thought about doing another one around the corner we were going to come around noble around the corner my basic menus all over the restaurant
Are the same we use local product as much possible and especially here in london’s we have scottish salmons scallops lobsters even adobe so you know very unique product we cannot get in the united states even japan’s australia you know each restaurant the chefs create the new dishes then i can work together then finally to make on the menu for the especially
In london’s special dishes no australia special dishes no tokyo special dishes that’s why i don’t have it in the 10 months here so see the chefs 2020 when the pandemic was in full swing full swing thank you uh yeah and there was no cure there was no vaccines and most of the restaurants and the hotels were closed we survived and we actually kept them on most of
Our employees working and and then when we reopened we did so well a customers just came back we have a very good customer’s support to this between the pandemic some people’s like order two us almost every day so now business with inflation we have to pay more to buy the the materials the food we have to raise prices people have started to think about it’s too
Expensive to go out so i’m concerned but so far we haven’t felt it in in our business for me best meal in the world is tokyo is that because there are a lot of different restaurants or just the because tokyo we can get the best product so fish meat vegetable even the fruits to me the best city would be new new york there’s a certain excitement in new york and
And an energy which the best chefs trying to make it in new york and there are some great ones around even in brooklyn and all over that open up all the time and i wish i could go but they’re good i hear about them a lot i cook at home every sunday i do a pasta for the family and some some we invite friends and so i cook it every sunday between the pandemic you
Know i stay home i love it because the same blue things every day so breakfast and argentina so three meals and one day i cook next is my wife cook i cook home very happy to be better than restaurants because we not necessary foreign cookies are for me the most best comfortable i don’t cook but i we have good food summer cooks at home yeah he makes a nice uh martini for the shakers
Transcribed from video
De Niro and Nobu: the origin story | FT Globetrotter By Financial Times
