< PreviousLast Bite caterermiddleast.com January 2020 50 How has the industry changed since you started 30 years ago? Do you miss the small, family-run restaurants you used to have? What does the future hold for the Nobu restaurant brand? His name is synonymous with Peruvian-Japanese cuisine, and his Dubai restaurant has been a mainstay of Atlantis’s culinary offering for over a decade. We sit down with the Nikkei master in Dubai Last Bite Nobu Matsuhisa My fi rst restaurant opened in 1987, only 38 seats. Then Robert De Niro asked me to open a restaurant and we spent a lot more money – it was like 160 to180 covers. It used to be that Japanese restaurants were very small like a family business, but now investors spend fi ve to 10 million dollars on much bigger operations. And the restaurant scene is much more fashionable. After we did New York, London, and Milano, often Japanese restaurants invested a lot of money in beautiful restaurants. The fi rst time I came to Dubai there was not so many restaurants, but for me the competition is good for us. Competition means you always have to upgrade. Customers are always looking for good restaurants, which means good service. We do have a very large group now but it’s still more like a small family. We all know each other. I think the philosophy comes down to the chefs from the restaurant owners. I like to travel 10 months in a year so I see each restaurant, see the staff, regular guests. The family just gets bigger and it grows organically because so many of us have so many years history with the company. It has grown but that family essence has grown too. People working for 10 years is a very common thing so there’s loyalty to the brand. We give people a chance for the next step. Nobu restaurants keep opening and the people working with us haver the techniques and the qualities, so these are who we send to the next openings. So it's a good chance for the chefs and the managers. Madonna said that when Nobu opens in a city, the city is going through a change, so she gave us very good comments. I started Nobu in New York, then it was a success so went to London. I like to do the business one-by-one and I’m not looking for the next city. I do one to make it perfect, then if somebody comes to me with an idea for a new location then I start thinking and look for more details on the people, the product, and the culture. I don’t mind any country but it’s important to be able to easily import products. And also big cities are better than small cities. Food is like fashion. We have to keep the philosophy and the quality but always have some new ideas. The guests have to come back so we have to give them something to keep them happy.Next >