Happy Thursday

It's rare to see the level of execution and standards that exist at Nobu be able to be maintained at scale and for as long as it has, now with over 60+ restaurants worldwide.  

The company is very systems-driven, and of course, Nobu himself has impeccably high standards, coupled with a world-class leadership team, many of whom have been with the company for multiple decades. That in itself is already a tell-tale sign that they are doing something right. When a leadership team stays that long, it means there is constant growth, nurturing, meaningful challenges, and, of course, an inspiring vision that motivates the team to continue building the organization together. You'll see the same thing at almost every great business that has longevity.

Other common threads you'll see across successful businesses like Nobu are two critical characteristics that create the bedrock of that sustainable growth. Overinvesting in every single new restaurant opening, and developing and nurturing close relationships with your purveyors.

This week, we're highlighting my conversation with Chef Thomas Buckley. I flew down to Miami to sit down with Chef Thomas at Nobu Miami, who has been leading culinary for Nobu globally for almost 3 decades, and we discussed these two attributes, among other things. Sharing more on this below.  

In the spirit of Japanese cuisine, this week I'm sharing a recipe for Dashi Awase.

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🤔🌶️ Hot Take

Overinvest in Every New Opening

Every single new restaurant opening is stressful. No matter what happens, there are always curveballs. And add to that, you're not generating revenue, but you're spending dollars. Oftentimes, there is pressure to minimize the cost of opening; sometimes, you have no choice.

But you never get this time back pre-opening.

As stressful as it is, investing in spending enough time training your team and making sure (especially when it's not your first location) that you bring your rockstars along to help train, guide, mentor, and knowledge transfer. It costs a lot more. At scale, likely you have a team whose job is not tethered to a single location, and they support these openings.

The difference between overinvesting in the people and time required to get it right is what will impact the entire life of that location. As we all know, once the doors are open, the clock never stops. Pausing to reset if things are not right is not an option.

Every great operator I speak with that has scale in their business takes this approach. I have many close friends who spend much of their time on these new openings, and even when it's done well, there is still, of course, work to be done post-opening. But getting it right at the start is critical.  

Thomas shares a bit about how this works at Nobu during our conversation.

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🎙️ The meez Podcast

28 Years Inside Nobu with Chef Thomas Buckley

Thomas Buckley is Nobu's corporate executive chef and co-culinary director. He's been there 28 years, opened restaurants on nearly every continent, and co-wrote the Nobu Miami Party Cookbook with Nobu Matsuhisa. We recorded in the kitchen at Nobu Miami and got into how you actually keep 60-plus restaurants tasting like Nobu.

• Tempura Station to 60+ restaurants worldwide
• The origin story of tiradito
• Why salads are the hardest dish to keep consistent
• Supply chain at a global scale
• Opening Nobu Miami: Madonna on night two, then 9/11
• Thomas' $250 grilled cheese

👉 Listen to the episode

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📔 Chef Notes

Relationships Are What Create Longevity

Making incredible food consistently over the years is really hard. But if you look at any business that lasts, there is a pattern of genuinely nurturing relations and community with team, customers, purveyors, and investors.  

I remember hearing chefs Michael Mina and Suzanne Goin speaking about this very same topic on a panel last year we did for the LA Chefs Conference. We often think about profit margins and efficiency as the underlying factors for longevity. Clearly, those are important table stakes.  But they don't seem to be directly correlated with the long-term success of the business. The people are the business.

Nobu has done this since the Matsuhisa days in LA, 30-some years ago. Thomas shares with me the story of how Nobu asked the founder of Hokusetsu sake brewery on Sado Island to sell to him exclusively in the US back when he had one restaurant. One. Not only is that some incredible confidence to be able to ask that, but also to commit to a vendor that early on is really special. I imagine that same culture is why Thomas and many other Nobu team members have been with the company for decades.  

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Recipe:

Dashi Awase

This was not something discussed on the episode with Thomas, just thought I'd share a recipe that I think really helps to highlight what makes Japanese cuisine so special, and why doing what Nobu does is that much more difficult to execute at scale.

I learned to make dashi at Bouley. Chef Bouley worked closely with Yoshiki Tsuji, who ran the Tsuji culinary school in Japan, to blend classic French technique with Japanese food culture. The Tsuji team would come cook with us, and there were some incredible techniques that were blended into the menu that were just a lot of fun to witness. I remember them bringing in live baby soft-shell turtles to make Chawanmushi. Great to learn how to make the traditional custard, not so great to see the cute little turtle crawling around on the table.  

There are different variations of Dashi, this one being the most common that you likely experience.  It's called Dashi Awase, and it's three ingredients: katsuobushi (dried skipjack flakes or what some see as bonito flakes), kombu, and water. So, like all Japanese cuisine, what matters most is the quality of those ingredients and the care taken in preparing them. Part of it is chemistry: glutamic acid from the kombu and inosinic acid from the katsuobushi work together really nicely to create umami.  

On the flakes (the Katsuobushi), there are different types as well. Arabushi is skipjack that's been poached and smoked, a three-month process. It's the workhorse and what most Japanese chefs use most often, and it creates that really nice light smokiness to the broth. Karebushi takes it further, inoculated with a good mold and sun-dried in cycles over six-plus months. It's gentler, less smoky, with more aroma, a rounder and more nuanced umami.

Kombu matters just as much, and also many kinds like rishiri or rausu, the latter of which is used more often when the dashi will be used as a base for more complex variations of broths that use dashi as the base.

Huge shout-out to Chris and Greg at The Japanese Pantry, who sell the best katsuobushi and kombu I've found in the States and who shared a lot about these products on a podcast a few years back. If you want to go deep, that episode has a lot more detail on this and other products. Check out that episode here.  

👉 Get the full recipe on meez

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