Chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s Muse? His Own Hand

Nobu Matsuhisa would never cover his hands with a glove while making a piece of sushi.

“I don’t like this [idea],” says the chef, who owns 55 restaurants across 24 countries. “A glove is something that creates a barrier. I cannot transmit my heart to other people.” (There’s a caveat: “Always wash hands, clean and cut the nails. Always be clean, clean, clean.”)

No matter how technical and detail-oriented sushi-making can be, heart and passion are what separates the good sushi chef from the great one, explains the 76-year-old. This sentiment runs through Nobu, a new documentary about his life and career that premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and hits theaters today. Matsuhisa built his empire upon tenacity, passion, and an unusual approach to sushi preparation that incorporates Peruvian spices. Nobu explores it all, from the chef’s childhood in a small town outside Tokyo to his move to Lima at 24 to open a Japanese restaurant. The venture only lasted three years, but he amassed a wealth of knowledge about Peruvian herbs and flavors. Take tiradito, for instance, one of Matsuhisa’s signature dishes: raw, thinly sliced scallop served with chili paste and cilantro—wholly South American garnishes.

With recipes like these, he transformed the sushi scene in the United States, beginning with his first restaurant in Beverly Hills, which opened in 1987. A few years later, he opened a Nobu in Tribeca at the behest of his business partner, Robert De Niro. Today, Nobu restaurants all over the globe are hotbeds for celebrities, with regulars including Gwyneth Paltrow, Kendall Jenner, and Cindy Crawford, who has a menu item named after her.

“Each chef makes sushi slightly differently,” Matsuhisa explains. That’s why, when asked to identify his muse, Matsuhisa didn’t choose, say, De Niro—nor did he choose a piece of black cod. His answer was much more straightforward: his muse is his hand.

“My hand is like my tool,” says Matsuhisa. “Sushi is made with just 10 fingers, a sharp knife, and sliced fish. We don’t use pans, grills, or anything.”

The chef’s “one-through-six” method—which he demonstrates to a young, aspiring sushi chef practically quivering with nerves during one scene in Nobu—is a roadmap: take a piece of sliced fish in your left hand, take a nugget of rice in the right, add wasabi to the fish, press the two together, rotate, and serve. “Technically, I can teach the one-through-six method.” But “each step has heart. Sushi is made by hand, between my fingers, and when people eat it, they can feel my heart.”

To take care of these precious tools, Matsuhisa does stretches and exercises, especially while he’s traveling. “I use hand creams,” he explains. “I do steam bath. And sometimes, a little hyperbaric chamber.”

Once or twice a year, he’ll invite his friends and family to his home in L.A., where he serves them pieces of sushi in his built-in sushi bar. He makes each piece in front of the guests, and “I watch how they eat it,” explains Matsuhisa. “This moment is beautiful. I’m happy because they enjoy eating my sushi.” It’s especially important for the guest to eat his creation “as soon as possible so they feel energy and my heart inside the piece of sushi.”

Matsuhisa’s hands are also famous for another reason. In the countless photos with the celebrities who frequent his restaurants—Leonardo DiCaprio, Selena Gomez, and Angelina Jolie among many, many others—the chef always points at whoever he’s standing next to. This, he explains, is his signature.

“I made my own hashtag, #NobuPose,” Matsuhisa explains. “A lot of people ask me to take pictures with them, and they know, ‘Hey, Nobu, can you do the #NobuPose with me?’ I don’t want to just stand there. I like some action.”