Chef Nobu Matsuhisa: 'The aim is to use only the best of the best when it comes to fish'

At 28, Nobuyuki Matsuhisa would set his alarm for 5am and head down to the local fish market to battle his way to the freshest cuts.

More than 30 years later at 61, even though he's now one of the most famous chefs on the planet, Matsuhisa still sets his alarm for an early morning wake-up.

"Life has changed, of course," said Nobu, as he's more commonly known, in his restaurant at Atlantis recently. (He will not be in Dubai this weekend.)

"But I still work just as hard. Now a lot of my schedule means flying here, there and everywhere. But the ultimate aim is the same — to make sure restaurants run efficiently enough and use only the best of the best when it comes to fish."

Born in Saitama, Japan, Nobu has known little else than life on the inside of restaurants. After high school, it was straight into the kitchen with various roles from Tokyo to Peru.

In 1987 his hard work paid off — he opened Matsuhisa in Beverly Hills and things really took off. The restaurant quickly became a hotspot for Hollywood celebrities, including Robert DeNiro, who invited Nobu to set up a restaurant in TriBeCa, New York. In August 1993, the Matsuhisa-DeNiro partnership Nobu was born to critical acclaim.

"I have never forgotten how hard it is to work in a sushi restaurant and never will," said Nobu, who boasts restaurants in some of the world's biggest cities, including Milan, London, Athens, New York, Tokyo, Honolulu, Cape Town, Melbourne and here in Dubai at The Atlantis.

"People think because I have restaurants all over the world I am simply flying from one to another enjoying the travel. It's actually harder work than I ever imagined, because my heart is still in the kitchen. It's still at the fish market at 5am, ordering vinegar at 11am for the lunchtime rush and even in the dirty dish water when all the cleaning up is done after dinner."