Nobu

Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa (松久 信幸 Matsuhisa Nobuyuki; born March 10, 1949) is a 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. When he was only seven years old, his father died in a traffic accident, and he and his two older brothers were raised by his mother. After graduating from high school, he worked at the restaurant Matsue Sushi in Shinjuku, Tokyo, for seven years and was invited by a regular customer, who was a Peruvian of Japanese descent, to open a Japanese restaurant in Peru. In 1973 at age 24, he moved to Lima, Peru and opened a restaurant with the same name of Matsue in partnership with his sponsor. Nobu was unable to find many of the ingredients he took for granted in Japan and had to improvise, and it was here that he developed his unique style of cuisine that incorporated Peruvian ingredients into Japanese dishes.

He later moved to Alaska, and opened his own restaurant, but it was destroyed almost immediately by a fire.

In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles and worked at Japanese restaurants "Mitsuwa" and "Oshou", and in 1987, he opened his own restaurant "Matsuhisa" on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California. The restaurant quickly became a hot spot and was frequented by Hollywood celebrities, including Robert De Niro, who invited Nobu to set up a restaurant in Tribeca, New York City. In August 1993, the two opened up in partnership NOBU to critical acclaim. Nobu restaurants were later opened in Milan, London, Greece, Dallas, Tokyo, Honolulu, Moscow, Dubai, Mexico City, Budapest, and Hong Kong.