Tetsuya Wakuda

The culinary history of Tetsuya Wakuda started in Tokyo, in a hotel restaurant where he worked for three years before making the major move in his life to Sydney, Australia. In that fi rst hotel establishment, at a very young age, he learned the basic aspects of western and Japanese cuisine before he had even realised that he wanted to be a chef; indeed, he never attended gastronomy school.

As surprising as it may seem, one who is now seen as the maximum expression of what is known as fusion cuisine (a term which he refuses to accept, by the way), after adjusting to his new home over the fi rst year – he spoke hardly any English when he arrived – is now the most renowned and infl uential oriental chef in the west. He started as a dishwasher until, when he fi rst came into contact with a well-known local chef, it was suggested that he could prepare sushi and other Japanese dishes in his kitchen.