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INTERVIEW
Food and hospitality have always been a great passion for the former Executive Chef of Matsuhisa Paris. Chef Endo Hideki was born and raised in Hokkaido Island, Japan and grew up in a household with his chef father, and a hotel managed by his family. Following this path, Hideki developed a passion for cooking and worked at multiple award-winning fine-dining restaurants, where he perfected his Japanese gastronomy. Loved by Gigi and Bella Hadid, Chef Hideki is ready to take on his next big project in Niseko.
Holding the warm Japanese hospitality and his years of experience abroad to his heart, Chef Hideki returns to his land of fond childhood, Niseko. The city is one of the world's most popular winter resort destinations and hosts many international travellers. As the winter approaches, Hideki is ready to take on a new culinary path by opening his new restaurant MAME (meaning 'bean' in Japanese)!
We chat with Chef Hideki on his greatest accomplishments and his new venture at MAME:
1. What’s your cooking philosophy?
It is essential to visit production areas all over the country with your own feet. In order to maximise the latent power of each material, it is necessary to connect with producers with high aspirations and skills and learn the background of how life was created.
2. Name 3 ingredients that you can not live without.
Bluefin tuna, Wagyu beef and Japanese rice.
3. What do you love about being a chef?
Working with new staff and getting to the point when they have the same goals as me. It makes me happy.
4. What are some core values you learned at Matsuhisa Paris?
Our restaurant group has almost 70 restaurants around the world. And our mission is to provide all of those regular customers with Nobu's unwavering standards. And our customers want it. That's why our group is so successful and Nobu-san is great for showing that and I learned it from him directly.
5. Who are some of your celebrity fans?
Gigi and Bella Hadid!
6. What’s next in your culinary career?
I am quitting Nobu Matsuhisa group and opening my own restaurant in Niseko, Japan this December.
7. Tell us a little about your new restaurant, MAME.
Matsuhisa is a great sharing concept restaurant, however this time my restaurant is very small with only 22 seats. My staff and I are going to go forward while watching the timing of the customers. It will be cooked at the perfect timing with important/critical temperatures and carried to the customer. I will cook Hokkaido's seasonal seafood and vegetables with my experience.
Seeing the smiles of customers while cooking seasonal Hokkaido ingredients is a key factor that brought me back to Hokkaido.
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All imagery is provided by Endo Hideki.