He looks every bit like a top chef. Becoming, in a black double-breasted jacket, his name embroidered cursively in red, an invisible Michelin star pinned to his chest. And yet, rising from behind the table to greet, he steps forward in a pair of white dress shorts and sneakers, beaming! At 58, Masahuru Morimoto, a Nobu alumnus, continues to shock and surprise in person as on the plate. All of it with a practised ease that comes with success and with the habit of taking intelligent risks that usually pay off. One such was his arrival in India eight years ago with Wasabi by Morimoto at The Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai. Venturing out of his comfort zones, Japan and the US, for the first time, it was a move seen, at the time, as a professional hara-kiri by his contemporaries in the West and by his own guru Nobu Matsuhisa, who turned down the offer before him.

Back in India after five years to mark the fifth anniversary of the Wasabi at Delhi’s Taj Mahal Hotel (better known as Taj Mansingh), Morimoto says, “When I opened in Philadelphia, they said, why Philadelphia? When I opened in Mumbai, they said, why Mumbai? But it wasn’t really a leap of faith — Wasabi wasn’t a standalone; it had local muscle.”

Much sake has flown since in the capital, and Morimoto’s success as the first international celebrity chef here, is largely responsible for it. Megu laid its tables at The Leela Palace two years ago; more recently, Akira Back welcomed diners at the JW Marriott Hotel Aerocity. Is Morimoto worried about competition, especially from Back, who claims to be his acolyte (a claim he rubbishes outright)? “Not at all. If Indian customers have more high-end Japanese options, they can understand what we do better. In an equilateral triangle, the wider the base, the higher the apex will be, right?”

He should know. With 10 restaurants to his name (and three more in the pipeline this year in Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas) his success in the restaurant business is only matched, exceeded even, by his popularity on the cult-hit Iron Chef, a Japanese cook-off first telecast in Japan in 1993 and later in the US. Known both in reel and real life for his unorthodox use of ingredients and techniques in a cuisine famously unforgiving and rigid, has earned him mixed reviews and an equal share of critics and patrons, including the Obamas.

But he continues to do what he does best and allows his travels to feed his food (French, Italian, Spanish and “Indian too”). “I make my own épicé or garam masala for my signature dish lobster masala and marinate angry chicken Morimoto in tandoori and Peruvian spices. And have you tried the rock corn tempura, a variant of my rock shrimp tempura? Or the carpaccio fish substitute made of tofu and tomato? All inspired by vegetarian diners in India.” (Aside: crucial in a country where, of the 10 richest people seven are vegetarian.)

Does he cook any of this for his wife though? “No. In my personal time, I don’t chop, I don’t slice, I don’t watch Food Network either. Not even Iron Chef.” “Besides,” he says of his partner of 34 years and his finest unofficial protégé, Keiko Morimoto, “she’s the better-looking and better-cooking Morimoto.”

comment COMMENT NOW