Nobu Grand Wailea Opens to a Breadth of Local Fanfare 

The story of Maui chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s signature dish goes back decades. Over 30 years ago, he and five other chefs arrived at Haliʻimaile General Store in Upcountry to work a charity event. After it wrapped, when the chefs were ready to relax and have something to eat, Matsuhisa put together a late-night snack with leftover ingredients: yellowtail, serrano chile peppers, cilantro, lemon, and garlic with a drizzle of soy sauce. What surfaced was something between ceviche and sashimi. The chefs loved it, and when Matsuhisa returned to his namesake restaurant in Los Angeles, he took the idea and developed his signature dish: Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeño. 

On April 14, Grand Wailea Maui, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, welcomed the first Nobu restaurant on Maui and second in Hawaiʻi. The grand opening, complete with hula, fire dancing and a lei ceremony, concluded the luxury resort’s $350 million renovation and expansion of dining destinations. At Nobu’s 13,000-square-foot beachfront location, led by executive chef Kyle Marston—formerly of Matsuhisa Denver and Nobu London—diners can expect to find “Nobu style” dishes alongside new creations that highlight the ingredients of Hawaiʻi. 

Nobu Style White Fish Tiradito.
Photo: Courtesy of Grand Wailea Maui, A Waldorf Astoria Resort/Eddie Sanchez

“We ingratiate ourselves in the community and we develop our dishes based on the city, the people, our clientele and the friendships we develop,” says Gregorio Stephenson, Nobu’s corporate executive chef. “We’re just kind of getting our feet wet in developing the product and making sure that we hold true to Nobu standards.”  

Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa was born in Japan, where he began his career learning the art of sushi in Tokyo. He then moved to Peru, where he began developing a cooking style that incorporated traditional Japanese cuisine with Peruvian flavors. In 1987 he opened Matsuhisa in Los Angeles, where he dazzled actor Robert De Niro with his culinary skills—so much so that he teamed up with the two-time Academy Award winner and Hollywood producer Meir Teper to open the first Nobu in New York City. The trio has since opened over 50 Nobu restaurants across five continents. All together, there are now over 70 Matsuhisa and Nobu restaurants worldwide.  

Black Cod with Miso.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

What makes Matsuhisa standout as a chef is his innovation. You can find it in his Nobu style White Fish Tiradito, a riff on ceviche that incorporates paper-thin sashimi, yuzu and lemon juice, cilantro and Rocoto chile paste. And in his Black Cod with Miso, Matsuhisa’s take on Gindara Saikyo Yaki—miso-marinated grilled cod with miso yuzu sauce and apricot syrup. He’s inspired chefs all over the world to rethink what Japanese cuisine could be and has pushed the culinary fusion concept into the mainstream.  

Hawaiʻi restaurateur Peter Merriman, co-founder of the Hawaiʻi Regional Cuisine movement, met Matsuhisa 35 years ago at the original Matsuhisa restaurant in Los Angeles. Shortly after, Matsuhisa came to Hawaiʻi Island to be a guest chef for a charity event at Merriman’s first restaurant in Waimea and the chefs have been friends ever since.  

“I think [Matsuhisa’s] like the ultimate crossover,” Merriman says. “He’s classic Japanese cuisine, but at the same time, he integrates so many Western ingredients. … Like, the chile peppers were meant to be in Japanese cuisine, but we didn’t know it until Nobu showed us.”  

Chris Cosentino, a nationally acclaimed chef who recently opened Koast restaurant on Maui, remembers his time working as an unpaid intern in the Nobu kitchen in Tribeca, New York, in 1997. Cosentino says he encountered ingredients he had never heard of before and learned how to work with fish in new ways. And he picked up techniques that would strengthen the Mediterranean nose-to-tail cuisine he would later become known for.  

The sushi bar is led by head sushi chef Bora Oh, previously of Nobu Malibu.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

“New style sashimi was a game changer for all of us,” Cosentino recalls. “I remember the first time I saw that—our heads were blown. … [Matsuhisa] has stood the test of time. He is something for all of us to look up to because of the way he’s grown professionally … the consistency, the quality and the humbleness along the way.” 

And a chef of his stature deserves a dining room to match. Rockwell Group—the renowned architecture and design firm that’s been designing Nobu restaurants since the first Tribeca location—created a sexy, arena-sized restaurant with dimly lit indoor dining, comfy oceanfront lānai dining, a 10-seat sushi counter, a lively cocktail bar and a private dining room where the craft of elevated cuisine and design meet.  

Rockwell Group chose San Francisco-based artist Windy Chien to create a 14-foot high, 233-foot-wide rope sculpture that wraps the entire perimeter. Chien, born on Oʻahu, hired a group of Maui locals to help her create the piece she calls “Kua Nalu Hitching Post”—a pattern she chose due to the restaurant’s proximity to the ocean. Kua Nalu in Hawaiian means “cresting wave.”  

“Kua Nalu Hitching Post” by Windy Chien. Boasting over 2,000 pieces of art, the Grand Wailea says it has the largest privately owned art collection in the state.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

“Nobu raised the craft to its highest level,” Chien says. “What all craftspeople around the world have in common is our reverence for our materials and the fluency in the materials. And so, knowing that my work is based in craft and that it was going to be located in a space that also reveres craft made me feel really good.” 

Two weeks after the opening of Nobu Grand Wailea, Matsuhisa opened a new Nobu in San Diego at the Hotel del Coronado, proof that the 76-year-old chef and restaurateur is not slowing down any time soon. In fact, he says he’ll never retire.

Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa says he’ll never retire.
Photo: Courtesy of Grand Wailea Maui, A Waldorf Astoria Resort/Parker Burr

   “To finish work means my passion is gone,” Matsuhisa says. “I’m cooking all my life. I appreciate God, too, because I’m still working, keeping my health so that business keeps growing. … Thank you to my world. I like to see people happy. So, I will try my best every day.”   

3850 Wailea Alanui Drive, Wailea-Mākena, Maui, nobugrandwaileamaui.com