Top restaurant comes to your place

Q&A: Business well done

Who started Nobu and where was the first restaurant? Nobu Matsuhisa, a Japanese celebrity chef, started the first Nobu in Lima, Peru. A Peruvian of Japanese descent asked if he would consider moving there to open a sushi restaurant with him, which he did. However, the relationship later soured so he left.

What did he do next? He moved to Buenos Aires, where he worked as a sushi chef before returning to Japan. He then opened a restaurant in Alaska with a Japanese actor, but it burnt down. Deeply in debt, he returned to Japan. A friend who had just opened a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles offered him a job.

When did he start to think about opening his own restaurant again? When the owner of the restaurant put it up for sale. A friend loaned him the money to start his own in Beverly Hills. Hollywood stars started visiting. A year later, the actor Robert De Niro asked him to open a restaurant with him in New York. He said no at first because of his bad experiences, but the actor persisted. Four years later he accepted the offer. He now has 22 restaurants in 18 cities all over the world.

Eating in is usually the cheaper option - unless a chef from the world's most famous Japanese restaurant is doing the cooking.

Nobu in Dubai offers fans the chance to hire the services of their kitchen staff for cocktail events and dinner parties. But it can be pricey. A dinner for six could cost upwards of Dh6,000 (US$1,633).

"We can adjust the menu depending on what your needs are," says Luke Bjoin, the general manager.

"Typically we will go to the house first to see what kind of facilities you have and then we can make the menu around that. We have special set menus that we can adjust based on your needs."

Nobu brings its service staff for events, so the dinner party host will not have to lift a finger. Prices start at Dh400 per person.

"For Dh400 you can get great dishes, Nobu signature dishes, because everything we use is premium, but if you want to go more, the sky is the limit," says Mr Bjoin.

One of the restaurant's most famous dishes, black cod, costs Dh190 per fillet. But you will pay Dh860 for 160 grams of Wagyu beef, from a breed of cattle that used to be raised exclusively in Kobe, Japan.

Dubai restaurant staff have visited Saudi Arabia a couple of times to cater for private events and they have catered for half a dozen or so cocktail and dinner parties in the Emirates over the past year. "We have done some as small as 10 people and one as big as 50 people," says Mr Bjoin.

The Dubai restaurant has two head chefs, chef de cuisine Herve Courtot and head sushi chef Ouchi Masami, plus another 20 kitchen staff. Those hiring the services of Nobu could potentially receive a visit from one of the head chefs, says Mr Bjoin. "Yes, it's possible that the head chef could be there. Anything's possible if you want to pay for it, for sure."

Top 5: Most popular dishes at Nobu, Dubai

1 Black cod

2 Yellowtail Jalapeno

3 Rock shrimp tempura

4 Lobster salad

5 Wagyu beef flambe

The Quote: Because of our Beverly Hills location, Hollywood stars starting visiting us soon after we opened. Nobu Matsuhisa, Japanese restaurant owner and chef

gduncan@thenational.ae