The four most recognizable letters in fine dining

When I was walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes in January — not as a nominee, of course, but as a reporter weaving through the usual maze of security, publicists and press lines — I noticed something unusual. One man, not an A-list actor or a big-name director, was drawing a surprising amount of attention.

As he made his way down the carpet, stars and nominees of all ages stopped what they were doing to greet him. He wasn’t there to promote a movie or collect an award. He was there to serve dinner.

His name? Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, known simply to his global fans as Nobu. Although he’s not a movie star, he's treated like one. And that moment said everything about what Nobu has become: a name, a brand and a global symbol of cool.

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Watching celebrities fawn over him wasn’t just a testament to his culinary skills; it was a glimpse into the rare kind of cachet Matsuhisa has built over the past three decades. What he started as a small sushi spot in Los Angeles has grown into a global empire of not just restaurants, but also hotels that have become synonymous with luxury, status and aspiration. It’s a place celebrities love, and non-celebrities clamor for reservations.

That enduring mystique is exactly what filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer explores in his new documentary Nobu, currently available on demand. The film peels back the curtain on the famously private chef, tracing his rise from a kitchen in Peru to the upper echelons of international fame. With a little help from Robert De Niro and an army of A-listers, Nobu isn't only a restaurant, but a cultural phenomenon that helped define how food and fame intersect.

One of the 1st celebrity restaurants

Nobu was at the forefront of a new kind of dining experience that took off in L.A., along with Wolfgang Puck’s Spago.

"Nobu — and I hate using this phrase — was one of the original celebrity restaurants,” Tyrnauer tells me, crediting the chef for helping to change the concept of fine dining in Los Angeles in the ’80s. He opened his first namesake restaurant, called Matsuhisa, in Beverly Hills in 1987. Tyrnauer explained that trendy eateries around L.A. "used to be white tablecloths and maître d’s and waiters in tuxedo white coats with gold buttons."

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Matsuhisa would usher in a whole new style.

"He took all that away, but you would still have a luxurious — even more luxurious — experience because it was comfortable and it was contemporary," he says.

Gone were the tablecloths, and instead the feel of a local neighborhood favorite joint. When you enter, there is a silhouette of Nobu painted behind the sushi bar. There are other silhouettes inspired by local patrons. The decor is purposefully low-key. "That really was a Los Angeles idea that Nobu was part of. That idea went around the world, but people don’t realize that it started in Southern California, and in large part, with this man."

Matsuhisa poses at his flagship restaurant in 1988. (George Rose/Getty Images)

Born in Japan, Matsuhisa started his culinary journey in Tokyo working at a restaurant called Matsuei. He later moved to Peru, a decision that would change the course of his life. It was there, blending Japanese techniques with local ingredients, that he began developing the signature style now known around the world as Nobu cuisine. His unique take on traditional dishes — light, citrusy and laced with Peruvian flair — helped propel him beyond the kitchen and into the spotlight.

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“He did a great deal to popularize the whole spectrum of Japanese cuisine,” Tyrnauer, who followed Nobu around the world for two years, explains.

In Japan, sushi was traditionally a high-end, special-occasion experience. Over time, it’s become something much more mainstream.

“I think [Matsuhisa] has a lot to do with that, partly because he has a lot of cooked food. But one of the bigger revelations in the film is how he combined it with Peruvian cooking — what’s called Nikkei — and made it his own. He brought that to L.A., and it took off in a big way," Tyrnauer continues. Think classic dishes like ceviche and tiradito. "That’s the essence of the Nobu origin story.”

Of course, even the most visionary chefs benefit from the right partners, and in Matsuhisa’s case, those happened to be of the Hollywood variety. Enter actor Robert De Niro and Meir Teper, a businessman who’s produced films like From Dusk Till Dawn and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

The De Niro effect

De Niro was a frequent diner at Matsuhisa's first restaurant in Beverly Hills and saw a business opportunity. In the documentary, Matsuhisa's daughter reveals that her dad didn’t even know who the actor was at first. De Niro repeatedly encouraged the chef to open a restaurant in New York. Matsuhisa turned down De Niro down for four years as he wasn’t ready to expand as he wanted to continue building a solid foundation for his flagship first.

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But you can only deny an Oscar winner for so long. Nobu eventually opened in New York in 1994. Matsuhisa, De Niro and Teper would go on to become the three founding members of the Nobu empire.

"[Robert's] very hands-on. He came up with the name Nobu. They could have called the restaurant Matsuhisa or something else and it was De Niro who said, ‘Call it Nobu,’" Tyrnauer says. "I think it’s fair to say a lot of famous people put their name on a product and capitalize off of it, but I think he’s one of the few people who’s been a big movie star for decades — which is hard enough to achieve — and he’s really involved in a very successful other business, and that’s this enterprise."

De Niro didn’t just lend his name — he became a brand builder and behind-the-scenes force in helping turn a single sushi restaurant into a global lifestyle empire. His presence brought credibility, prestige and the kind of A-list magnetism that made Nobu not just a place to eat, but the place to be seen.

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa and Robert De Niro. (Courtesy: Altimeter Films)

In 1997, Nobu opened its first international outpost in London, followed by Tokyo in 1998. Two years later, the restaurant arrived in Malibu, Calif.

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“Needless to say, the crowd is a very Malibu one,” the Los Angeles Times wrote at the time. “Locals don’t have to ask which way to point their SUVs. Just find an empty space, next to that black Porsche or silver Jaguar.” Despite the designer clothes its patrons wore, the restaurant kept its California-casual vibe — wooden tabletops, black chairs and all.

No matter which location you go to, chances are high that you will spot someone famous. Jennifer Lopez apparently introduced Ben Affleck to her family at Nobu New York in 2002. It was featured in Season 5 of Sex and the City. Madonna has had to wait for a table. Tom Cruise has been turned away. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Rihanna, Justin Bieber — you name it — have all been spotted at one of the more than 50 Nobu restaurants that have popped up around the world.

TMZ outside, power moves inside

If there’s one location that defines the Nobu experience, it’s Malibu. The restaurant moved from its original spot at the Country Mart and opened its waterfront location down the road in 2012, and has been a staple of celebrity culture ever since.

The elegant atmosphere at Nobu Malibu. (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

Some stars just get their own table, if they’re lucky. Others get a dish named after them. Supermodel Cindy Crawford is such a regular that “Cindy Rice” is on the menu — a playful spin on kakiage, a Japanese tempura dish.

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On any given day, you can likely spot a member of the Kardashian-Jenner family dining there. It’s where Lauren Sánchez met Gui Siqueira — the boyfriend of Domenico Dolce — while eating with her friend Kris Jenner. Dolce & Gabbana went on to design Sánchez’s wedding dress, which has become a cultural moment of its own following her Venetian wedding to Jeff Bezos.

But Nobu restaurants don't just attract stars — they curate the conditions for their presence to mean something. The lighting is perfect. Architectural design is intentional and stunning. The ocean views are so cinematic that, for non-famous people, posting a photo to social media feels mandatory. The tables are spaced just enough for privacy, but close enough where you can spot someone famous. From menu to music to mood, every detail is curated for a cast of cultural main characters. In an era when fame is increasingly manufactured, Nobu remains the rare place where it still feels earned.

Yet, beneath the fame and flash, Nobu’s foundation has always been about quality.

Scaling up without compromising down

In the documentary, Matsuhisa explains that in his generation, sushi was considered a high-end, special-occasion food. From the beginning, he made a conscious decision not to compromise on quality — even if it meant charging more. These days, given the clientele Nobu attracts, few seem to mind.

A meal typically runs $100–$150 per person for a few appetizers, like his signature yellowtail Jalapeño starter, a hot dish (miso black cod, anyone?) and some sushi rolls. Add wine or cocktails and it’s easy to hit $200 a head. But if you're seeking out a Nobu restaurant, you know what you're signing up for and people rarely complain. Why? Because the food really is that good. Whether you’re dining at Nobu in Miami, Cape Town, South Africa, or Mexico City, the food quality is consistent.

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"I did wonder at the outset how he controlled the quality and kept all of these restaurants around the world going. Was it formulaic?" says Tyrnauer. "There’s a great skill to making sushi. How did he train all of these chefs? It’s a wonderful thing to be witness to, actually, he goes around from country to country. There are young chefs and he needs to teach them his method."

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa trains a young sushi chef at one of his restaurants. (Courtesy of Altimeter Films)

That level of control isn’t just reserved for what’s on the plate. It’s now baked into the entire Nobu experience, from sushi bar to hotel suite.

When the brand becomes a destination

Nobu is now more than just a restaurant name — it’s a luxury brand. In 2013, the first Nobu Hotel opened inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Within a few years, it had become the most Googled hotel brand in the world. Over the past decade, the empire has expanded into high-end properties in destinations like Mykonos, Greece, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and Ibiza, Spain, each offering a chic design, five-star service and the promise of a Nobu restaurant just steps from your suite.

The locations themselves play a major role in maintaining Nobu’s mystique. These are not just popular tourist hubs, but aspirational destinations chosen as carefully as the fish on the menu. At one point in the documentary, De Niro is seen pushing back on his partners as they talk about their next hub to make sure they never settle for anything less than top-tier real estate.

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“They choose carefully. Mykonos comes to mind. Aspen. London, which was instrumental in changing the food scene in the ’90s,” Tyrnauer says. “People don’t really remember how important it was. “But that gets into the concept of luxury branding — which can be a little uncomfortable when you’re dealing with a chef who started as a single-restaurant, artisanal guy.

Filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa. (Courtesy of Altimeter Films)

“The question I explore becomes: How do you expand and keep the quality high without destroying what has become a brand? There’s something antithetical about food being a brand. Fashion, yes — there’s a kind of scarcity and false scarcity in luxury branding and fashion. But restaurants are a little more populist than that. You do need a crowd to make a restaurant seem like something’s happening. So how do you balance that?”

We agreed they seem to have figured it out.

The vibe may be global, but the heart is personal

Beyond the global scale, the branding and the steady stream of celebrity diners, Nobu thrives because of the unique feeling it has created. I asked Tyrnauer what those four recognizable letters of Nobu mean to him.

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“There’s something special about it — it still feels like an occasion to go,” Tyrnauer says. “The food is consistent and very pristine, and after all these years, it’s still quite particular. There are dishes you can’t get anywhere else, at least not done the way they’re done there. And yet, the menu evolves just enough to keep it interesting. But most of all, it’s the people, the sense of family behind the scenes. There’s a certain kind of heart that goes into it, and that comes from Nobu himself.”

It turns out the secret ingredient isn’t what’s on the menu or which A-lister might be nearby: It's the man behind it.

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