Owner, Chef Tetsuya Wakuda

Tetsuya Wakuda was born on June 18th 1959, in the city of Hamamatsu, in the Shizuoka prefecture of Japan Career :  Tetsuya Wakuda, famous for his Japanese and French-inspired cooking at Tetsuya's in Sydney, opened MJU at Millennium Hotel in London in 2001. Tetsuya Wakuda is considered one of, if not the, best in Australia, and one of a handful of chefs whose highly individual style and reputation crosses continents. His origins and self-taught trajectory – arriving in 1982 in Australia from Japan barely able to speak English, working his way up from kitchen hand to chef-patron in seven years – are legendary. In 1983, Wakuda met Sydney chef Tony Bilson (now head chef of the acclaimed Bilson's restaurant), who offered him a job cooking 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. Awards : Tetsuya’s in Sydney 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. Mju in Zagat's Top 40 for both food and service, the award of 3 AA Rosettes and a main listing in The Good Food Guide