Respecting one’s masters is highly essential in all fields of work. It is important to always hold on to the history, the basics that would tighten pillars of strong hope further leaping into the future generations to come. And when it comes to the mastery of cooking skills, specifically in the traditional, authentic Japanese cuisine, Chef Norihito Endo has never seen to always be glancing back towards what brought him today, but also looks straight forward to the future – a future he realizes that can further be leaped into.
Chef Norihito Endo is now the owner of Ebisu Endo, a famous Japanese restaurant known for its modern fusion Japanese cuisine, specifically sushi. Chef Endo believes that the food culture in Japan will not leap forwards unless the new generations would exceed the older generation. Despite his strong respect towards his masters and his teachers, Chef Endo still sees them not only as his pillars of strong hope but also the milestones he could go beyond.
Surprisingly, when his profile was known to the public, most people would be shocked to know that he attended college in the United Kingdom in order to become a professional football player – a drastic contrast to his current profession. His experiences living abroad gave him a dream; a new perspective to enjoy and grasp the concept of Japanese food culture from the views of people living abroad, outside of Japan. He became so much immersed in the Japanese food culture he sees could go further with the fusion and the blends of multi-nationalities. Later, he came back to Japan and trained under a famous Chef named Saito, Takashi who owns a Michelin star restaurant where people would wait in long lines just to take a bite of the mysterious, mouth-watering sushi dishes.
Under just a year after his hard training, Chef Endo opened up his very own sushi restaurant and named it ‘Ebisu Endo’. His restaurant became Japan’s top Japanese restaurant in within a year – proving his mastery, skills, and the dedication poured into all of his hand-crafted dishes and signature menus well-loved by all of his customers. From different places, his customers would come, to just have a chat and enjoy what people call the best sushi ever.
As earlier mentioned, Chef Endo has always treasured the essentials he had learned and mastered from the professionals he had worked with. His strong respect towards his master not only made him who he is today, but also a strong motivation towards his goal to further push forward the next generation sushi. Adding ideas of his own to create signature dishes and new menus out of the classics like Ebi Nigiri, Eel Nigiri, Salmon Nigiri, and Fatty Tuna Nigiri, Chef Endo wishes to push the boundaries of the authentic, traditional Japanese Nigiri and create unique tastes of originality each dish has to offer.
Chef Endo also believes strongly that the past is what provides us, the new generations, with all the required understanding, skills, and practices to develop modern techniques and recipes. However, following the exact same path can also result in a boredom of tastes as there are no adaptations made to what we have in the past. Chef Endo’s approach to traditional Japanese sushi seems a little different but he is among the world’s best sushi chefs known for his idealistic approaches, idealism, motivation, passion, and dedication to his food crafts. Never letting his customers and diners down, Ebisu Endo is also one of the most visited Japanese restaurants in Japan and also widely loved and accepted throughout the globe.