- Company
- Nobu Hospitality
- Role
- Founder & Chef
- Est. Net Worth
- $50 Million
- Stage
- Established
- Industry
- Hospitality
Nobu Matsuhisa
Founder & Chef at Nobu Hospitality
About
Nobu Matsuhisa opened his first restaurant in Beverly Hills in 1987, fusing Japanese cuisine with Peruvian ingredients and techniques he learned during years cooking in Lima. His miso-marinated black cod became one of the most iconic dishes in modern gastronomy. Partnering with Robert De Niro and Meir Teper, he expanded Nobu into a global luxury hospitality brand encompassing over 50 restaurants and 30 hotels across five continents. Nobu Hospitality transformed the chef-driven restaurant model into a full-service luxury lifestyle brand.
Current Company
Nobu Hospitality — Founder & Chef
Japanese-Peruvian Fusion Before Fusion Was a Word
Nobu Matsuhisa left Japan at 24 to open a restaurant in Lima, Peru, where he discovered that Japanese culinary techniques and Peruvian ingredients — especially the aji amarillo chili, rocoto pepper, and Andean potatoes — created flavor combinations that neither cuisine could achieve alone. Years later, after a devastating restaurant fire in Alaska and a period of depression, he started over in Los Angeles, opening Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills in 1987.
The restaurant's miso-marinated black cod, yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, and rock shrimp tempura became some of the most imitated dishes in the world. Matsuhisa proved that Japanese cuisine could be reimagined through the lens of other cultures without losing its precision and respect for ingredients — a culinary philosophy that predated the 'fusion' movement by a decade.
From Chef to Global Hospitality Brand
A chance encounter with Robert De Niro led to a partnership that transformed Nobu from a single restaurant into a global luxury brand. De Niro, along with producer Meir Teper, helped Nobu open his first New York restaurant in 1994, and the trio expanded to over 50 restaurants and 30 Nobu Hotels worldwide. The brand became a fixture of the global luxury circuit — from Malibu to Milan to Mykonos.
Nobu's expansion model was unusual for a chef-driven brand: rather than franchising or licensing, Nobu Hospitality maintained operational control and creative consistency across its global portfolio. The hotels, designed to reflect Nobu's aesthetic of Japanese minimalism with local inflections, extended the brand beyond dining into a full luxury lifestyle experience.