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ARN: How would you describe the cuisine at your restaurant and in your seafood cookbook?
Chef Roy Yamaguchi: Hawaiian Fusion fresh local ingredients, bold Asian flavors, European sauces with an emphasis on seafood.
ARN: What is the greatest appeal and benefits for using seafood in your dishes?
Chef Yamaguchi: You can be very versatile when working with seafood. Very easy to adjust flavors from light, rich, spicy, sweet, etc. You can utilize all of the cooking techniques: braising, broiling, deep-frying, grilling, pan-roasting, etc.
ARN: What do you think are the most popular types of seafood in Asian cuisine?
Chef Yamaguchi: Sea bass, salmon, sea bream, tuna, yellowtail.
ARN: What are the considerations for adding a seafood dish to your menu?
Chef Yamaguchi: I like to add different types of seafood in which I can utilize different cooking techniques.
ARN: Is there a preferred technique for cooking that you like to use for seafood?
Chef Yamaguchi: The technique depends on the seafood. Is it buttery, lean, fishy, thin, or thick?
ARN: What are the most popular seafood dishes at your restaurants?
Chef Yamaguchi: Black cod, salmon, moi, opakapaka, kampachi.
ARN: What do you think are the most innovative seafood dishes in your cookbook?
Chef Yamaguchi: Twice cooked salmon with green tea risotto and sour plum broth,
Sesame seed crusted steamed opakapaka with lobster red miso sauce.
ARN: What are your personal favorite seafood dishes?
Chef Yamaguchi: Chinese-style steamed fish with ginger, cilantro, soy and peanut oil.
ARN: Is there any other information/ advice that you would give to our readers regarding seafood at Asian restaurants?
Chef Yamaguchi: Don't be afraid of experimentation and ordering different types of seafood and preparations.
Born in Tokyo, Chef Roy Yamaguchi vividly recalls visits with his grandparents to Maui, where he had his first tastes of fish, crab, octopus and lobster bought fresh at Oceanside piers. He graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York at the age of 19; after several years of intense training, he became a "Master Chef." Roy found the confidence to tackle his first experience as executive chef at Le Serene in Los Angeles in 1979. This was followed by a few memorable months at the eternally posh Michael's in Santa Monica, working for California Cuisine originator Michael McCarty.
In 1984, he opened his own restaurant in Los Angeles called 385 North. However, the desire to further expand his culinary horizons while getting closer to his roots led Yamaguchi to move to Hawaii in 1988 and open Roy's. Soon after the original Roy's opened in Honolulu, Food & Wine Magazine dubbed it the "crown jewel of Honolulu's East-West eateries," and it was named one of Conde Nast Traveler's "Top 50."
Yamaguchi is now regarded as a pioneer who mastered a distinctive style, which brought his cooking to the forefront of contemporary gastronomy. As testimony to his success, there are now 31 Roy's, including 22 in the Continental US, 6 in Hawaii, 2 in Japan and 1 in Guam. Honored early in his career with the prestigious James Beard "Best Pacific Northwest Chef" award, Yamaguchi has hosted six seasons of the PBS-TV show, Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi. Equally notable, he was a featured chef on the acclaimed TV Food Network program, My Country, My Kitchen which takes viewers back to his roots in Japan. Yamaguchi has also published three cookbooks, Roy's Fish and Seafood, Roy's Feasts from Hawaii and Hawaii Cooks: Flavors from Roy's Pacific Rim Kitchen.
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