Tetsuya Wakuda

Tetsuya Wakuda (和久田 哲也, Wakuda Tetsuya) is a Japanese-born Australian chef based in Sydney, Australia. He is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most original, creative and successful culinary talents. His eponymous restaurant, Tetsuya's, is celebrated both nationally and internationally. Charlie Trotter has said of Tetsuya - "Tetsuya is part of an elite group of international chefs that has influenced other chefs through their personal styles and unique approaches to food. His culinary philosophy centres on pure, clean flavours that are decisive, yet completely refined. His amazing technique, Asian heritage, sincere humility, worldwide travels and insatiable curiosity combine to create incredible, soulful dishes that exude passion in every bite."

Background

Early life

Tetsuya Wakuda was born on June 18, 1959, in the city of Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan.

A self-confessed “dreamer”, in his early twenties Wakuda decided he wanted to travel the world. Inspired by a documentary he watched about Australia, he made his first visit to the country at the age of 22 knowing little about the place other than believing it was full of koalas and kangaroos.

Kinsela’s and beyond (1983–1989)

In 1983, Wakuda met Sydney chef Tony Bilson (now head chef of the acclaimed Bilson's restaurant), who offered him a job preparing sushi at Kinsela’s in Taylor Square. Under Bilson, Wakuda learnt many of the classical French techniques that underpins much of Wakuda’s Japanese-French fusion cooking today. Perhaps even more importantly, Bilson was also the first to begin fostering Wakuda’s drive to discover new flavours that has become part of Wakuda’s culinary philosophy, by encouraging him to experiment during his time at Kinsela’s. Wakuda says of his time at Kinsela's "At Kinsela's was where I realised I wanted to, and discovered that I could, cook. It was where I started learning classical French technique. I made up a lot of things along the way, and luckily for me, people liked the way it tasted."

Wakuda left Kinsela’s in 1983, and together with one of the managers from Kinsela’s set up Rose’s nightclub, where Wakuda worked as a chef for a year. After leaving Rose’s, he was introduced to chef Hans Mohr through the late restaurateur Anders Ousback. He worked as second chef with Mohr for only six months.

After a short stint as head chef at Hunters Hill’s The Post and Whistle, Wakuda started Ultimo’s with a Kinsela’s head waiter Sean Dwyer in 1986. It was here that he began learning the responsibilities of operating a business. Two years later however his partner was forced to leave the business, and Wakuda decided to sell rather than take over due to the high rent and unsatisfactory location.

Wakuda turned his attention to starting a new restaurant of his own together with his wife. He chose a tiny shopfront in the suburb of Rozelle as the location.

Tetsuya's restaurant

Rozelle years (1989–2000)

The eponymous Tetsuya’s opened in 1989, an unassuming space with an upstairs room located on Darling St in Sydney’s Inner-West suburb of Rozelle.

In its humble beginnings, the restaurant’s tiny kitchen was run only by Wakuda and his wife, whom he trained to do the cold larder and dish presentation duties. The limited kitchen size forced Wakuda to make many compromises on the menu. The work too, was demanding for the duo, as Wakuda testified at the time:

Despite its limitations, the menu would change frequently and the restaurant enjoyed a steady stream of diners including many regular customers. One dish that remained a fixture on the menu was Wakuda's fish confit dish, which began life as a salmon dish but eventually evolved into using ocean trout.

Other dishes featured on the menu at the time included ‘boudin of pork and duck liver and pig’s trotters with port wine and mustard sauce’, ‘grilled breast of duck with duck sausage, sage, orange and ginger’ and ‘warm salad of fried marinated quail with rice and lemon vinaigrette’.

Over the years, the restaurant attracted favourable reviews, buoying the restaurant to new heights. In 1992 the influential Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded the restaurant Three Hats - the highest possible rank, and a rank which the restaurant has been consistently been awarded each year since, until 2011 when it was moved down to Two Hats. Wrote one 1990’s GFG reviewer:

Tetsuya Wakuda is one of our most successful exponents of fusion cuisine, and the subtle Franco-Japanese creations […] are subtle, elegant, exquisitely balanced and in no way designed to draw attention to their creator.
-– The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide

The restaurant was remodelled in 1993, increasing seats to 65, with an expanded and re-fitted kitchen. Kitchen staff eventually consisted of three chefs working alongside Wakuda as well as one or two kitchen hands, while up to four waiters manned the floor on fully booked nights.

Brimming with patronage (typically booked out weeks in advance) and now enjoying a reputation as a leading Sydney restaurant, in November 2000 Tetsuya’s moved to a larger, more glamorous location in Sydney’s CBD where it remains today.

Kent Street (2000 – present)

Tetsuya’s occupies a large, heritage-listed property on Kent St in Sydney’s CBD that once housed the former Suntory Restaurant. The restaurant seats comfortably up to 140 people, including private dining rooms and two larger main dining rooms overlooking a Japanese garden.

Many of the modern sculpture works displayed around the restaurant were made by his friend, the late sculptor Akio Makigawa. The ceramics used for plating some dishes, meanwhile, are made personally for Wakuda and the restaurant by another friend Mitsuo Shoji.

Awards

Tetsuya’s continues to garner top awards and is internationally recognised as a leading Australian restaurant. The restaurant still maintains its Good Food Guide Three Hat status and was named Restaurant of the Year (again) in the 2008 edition. Tetsuya’s has also ranked within the top five “world’s best restaurants” as nominated by UK publication Restaurant magazine in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the 2010 list, Tetsuya's is ranked 38th. Tetsuya has won an award every year from 1992-2009.

External links

• Tetsuya's Tetsuya's Restaurant website