Tetsuya Wakuda
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese-born Australian chef based in Sydney
, Australia
. He is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most original, creative and successful culinary talents. His eponymous restaurant, Tetsuya's
, is celebrated both nationally and internationally. Charlie Trotter
has said of Tetsuya - "Tetsuya is part of an elite group of international chefs that has influenced other chefs through their personal styles and unique approaches to food. His culinary philosophy centres on pure, clean flavours that are decisive, yet completely refined. His amazing technique, Asian heritage, sincere humility, worldwide travels and insatiable curiosity combine to create incredible, soulful dishes that exude passion in every bite."
, Japan
.
A self-confessed “dreamer”, in his early twenties Wakuda decided he wanted to travel the world. Inspired by a documentary he watched about Australia, he made his first visit to the country at the age of 22 knowing little about the place other than believing it was full of koalas and kangaroos.
cooking today. Perhaps even more importantly, Bilson was also the first to begin fostering Wakuda’s drive to discover new flavours that has become part of Wakuda’s culinary philosophy, by encouraging him to experiment during his time at Kinsela’s. Wakuda says of his time at Kinsela's "At Kinsela's was where I realised I wanted to, and discovered that I could, cook. It was where I started learning classical French technique. I made up a lot of things along the way, and luckily for me, people liked the way it tasted."
Wakuda left Kinsela’s in 1983, and together with one of the managers from Kinsela’s set up Rose’s nightclub, where Wakuda worked as a chef for a year. After leaving Rose’s, he was introduced to chef Hans Mohr through the late restaurateur Anders Ousback. He worked as second chef with Mohr for only six months.
After a short stint as head chef at Hunters Hill’s The Post and Whistle, Wakuda started Ultimo’s with a Kinsela’s head waiter Sean Dwyer in 1986. It was here that he began learning the responsibilities of operating a business. Two years later however his partner was forced to leave the business, and Wakuda decided to sell rather than take over due to the high rent and unsatisfactory location.
Wakuda turned his attention to starting a new restaurant of his own together with his wife. He chose a tiny shopfront in the suburb of Rozelle as the location.
In its humble beginnings, the restaurant’s tiny kitchen was run only by Wakuda and his wife, whom he trained to do the cold larder and dish presentation duties. The limited kitchen size forced Wakuda to make many compromises on the menu. The work too, was demanding for the duo, as Wakuda testified at the time:
Despite its limitations, the menu would change frequently and the restaurant enjoyed a steady stream of diners including many regular customers. One dish that remained a fixture on the menu was Wakuda's fish confit
dish, which began life as a salmon
dish but eventually evolved into using ocean trout.
Other dishes featured on the menu at the time included ‘boudin
of pork and duck liver and pig’s trotters with port wine and mustard sauce’, ‘grilled breast of duck with duck sausage, sage, orange and ginger’ and ‘warm salad of fried marinated quail with rice and lemon vinaigrette’.
Over the years, the restaurant attracted favourable reviews, buoying the restaurant to new heights. In 1992 the influential Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded the restaurant Three Hats - the highest possible rank, and a rank which the restaurant has been consistently been awarded each year since. Wrote one 1990’s GFG reviewer:
The restaurant was remodelled in 1993, increasing seats to 65, with an expanded and re-fitted kitchen. Kitchen staff eventually consisted of three chefs working alongside Wakuda as well as one or two kitchen hands, while up to four waiters manned the floor on fully booked nights.
Brimming with patronage (typically booked out weeks in advance) and now enjoying a reputation as a leading Sydney restaurant, in November 2000 Tetsuya’s moved to a larger, more glamorous location in Sydney’s CBD where it remains today.
Many of the modern sculpture works displayed around the restaurant were made by his friend, the late sculptor Akio Makigawa. The ceramics used for plating some dishes, meanwhile, are made personally for Wakuda and the restaurant by another friend Mitsuo Shoji.
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most original, creative and successful culinary talents. His eponymous restaurant, Tetsuya's
Tetsuya's
Tetsuya's is a restaurant in Sydney, Australia, owned by Tetsuya Wakuda. Tetsuya's cuisine is based on Australian, Japanese cuisine and classic French cuisine, and makes use of Australian ingredients including Tasmanian Ocean Trout, which forms its signature dish.-Location:Tetsuya's is housed in...
, is celebrated both nationally and internationally. Charlie Trotter
Charlie Trotter
Charlie Trotter is a chef and restaurateur.-Biography:A graduate of New Trier High School, Trotter started cooking professionally in 1982 after earning a degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. For the next 5 years, he worked and studied in Chicago, San Francisco at...
has said of Tetsuya - "Tetsuya is part of an elite group of international chefs that has influenced other chefs through their personal styles and unique approaches to food. His culinary philosophy centres on pure, clean flavours that are decisive, yet completely refined. His amazing technique, Asian heritage, sincere humility, worldwide travels and insatiable curiosity combine to create incredible, soulful dishes that exude passion in every bite."
Early life
Tetsuya Wakuda was born on 18 June 1959, in the city of Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka PrefectureShizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
A self-confessed “dreamer”, in his early twenties Wakuda decided he wanted to travel the world. Inspired by a documentary he watched about Australia, he made his first visit to the country at the age of 22 knowing little about the place other than believing it was full of koalas and kangaroos.
Kinsela’s and beyond (1983–1989)
In 1983, Wakuda met Sydney chef Tony Bilson (now head chef of the acclaimed Bilson's restaurant), who offered him a job preparing sushi at Kinsela’s in Taylor Square. Under Bilson, Wakuda learnt many of the classical French techniques that underpins much of Wakuda’s Japanese-French fusionFusion cuisine
Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...
cooking today. Perhaps even more importantly, Bilson was also the first to begin fostering Wakuda’s drive to discover new flavours that has become part of Wakuda’s culinary philosophy, by encouraging him to experiment during his time at Kinsela’s. Wakuda says of his time at Kinsela's "At Kinsela's was where I realised I wanted to, and discovered that I could, cook. It was where I started learning classical French technique. I made up a lot of things along the way, and luckily for me, people liked the way it tasted."
Wakuda left Kinsela’s in 1983, and together with one of the managers from Kinsela’s set up Rose’s nightclub, where Wakuda worked as a chef for a year. After leaving Rose’s, he was introduced to chef Hans Mohr through the late restaurateur Anders Ousback. He worked as second chef with Mohr for only six months.
After a short stint as head chef at Hunters Hill’s The Post and Whistle, Wakuda started Ultimo’s with a Kinsela’s head waiter Sean Dwyer in 1986. It was here that he began learning the responsibilities of operating a business. Two years later however his partner was forced to leave the business, and Wakuda decided to sell rather than take over due to the high rent and unsatisfactory location.
Wakuda turned his attention to starting a new restaurant of his own together with his wife. He chose a tiny shopfront in the suburb of Rozelle as the location.
Rozelle years (1989–2000)
The eponymous Tetsuya’s opened in 1989, an unassuming space with an upstairs room located on Darling St in 9Sydney’s Inner-West suburb of Rozelle.In its humble beginnings, the restaurant’s tiny kitchen was run only by Wakuda and his wife, whom he trained to do the cold larder and dish presentation duties. The limited kitchen size forced Wakuda to make many compromises on the menu. The work too, was demanding for the duo, as Wakuda testified at the time:
Despite its limitations, the menu would change frequently and the restaurant enjoyed a steady stream of diners including many regular customers. One dish that remained a fixture on the menu was Wakuda's fish confit
Confit
Confit is a generic term for various kinds of food that have been immersed in a substance for both flavor and preservation. Sealed and stored in a cool place, confit can last for several months...
dish, which began life as a salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
dish but eventually evolved into using ocean trout.
Other dishes featured on the menu at the time included ‘boudin
Boudin
Boudin describes a number of different types of sausage used in French, Belgian, German, French Canadian, Creole and Cajun cuisine.-Types:*Boudin blanc: A white sausage made of pork without the blood. Pork liver and heart meat are typically included...
of pork and duck liver and pig’s trotters with port wine and mustard sauce’, ‘grilled breast of duck with duck sausage, sage, orange and ginger’ and ‘warm salad of fried marinated quail with rice and lemon vinaigrette’.
Over the years, the restaurant attracted favourable reviews, buoying the restaurant to new heights. In 1992 the influential Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded the restaurant Three Hats - the highest possible rank, and a rank which the restaurant has been consistently been awarded each year since. Wrote one 1990’s GFG reviewer:
The restaurant was remodelled in 1993, increasing seats to 65, with an expanded and re-fitted kitchen. Kitchen staff eventually consisted of three chefs working alongside Wakuda as well as one or two kitchen hands, while up to four waiters manned the floor on fully booked nights.
Brimming with patronage (typically booked out weeks in advance) and now enjoying a reputation as a leading Sydney restaurant, in November 2000 Tetsuya’s moved to a larger, more glamorous location in Sydney’s CBD where it remains today.
Kent Street (2000 – present)
Tetsuya’s occupies a large, heritage-listed property on Kent St in Sydney’s CBD that once housed the former Suntory Restaurant. The restaurant seats comfortably up to 140 people, including private dining rooms and two larger main dining rooms overlooking a Japanese garden.Many of the modern sculpture works displayed around the restaurant were made by his friend, the late sculptor Akio Makigawa. The ceramics used for plating some dishes, meanwhile, are made personally for Wakuda and the restaurant by another friend Mitsuo Shoji.
Awards
Tetsuya’s continues to garner top awards and is internationally recognised as a leading Australian restaurant. The restaurant still maintains its Good Food Guide Three Hat status and was named Restaurant of the Year (again) in the 2008 edition. Tetsuya’s has also ranked within the top five “world’s best restaurants” as nominated by UK publication Restaurant magazine in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the 2010 list, Tetsuya's is ranked 38th. Tetsuya has won an award every year from 1992-2009.External links
- Tetsuya's Tetsuya's Restaurant website