Chef Daisuke Mori on why you cannot ‘cheat’ the palates of Hong Kong diners
- The executive chef of Takumi by Daisuke Mori has a background in French cuisine but finds it heavy
- He uses lighter Asian ingredients such as abalone liver and crab roe to add creaminess to his dishes
When did you know you wanted to be a chef? “I was six years old the first time I remember going to my father’s restaurant, and automatically I wanted to be a chef, too. But really I wanted to be with my father. He was not home a lot; when I went to school he was still sleeping, and when I came home, my mother was out, too, so it was just me and my older sister.
“My father didn’t come home for dinner, so that’s why I wanted to stay in his restaurant, but he told me to go back home because he was busy. I don’t have much memory of playing with my father.”
Tell us about your father’s restaurant. “He was born in 1946, after World War II. When he was four years old, he lost his parents and he and his siblings grew up in an orphanage. In high school he got a job offer in Tokyo. My father said Japan was so poor you had to have a skill so he worked in a restaurant.
“He quit high school and worked at Sicilia, the first Italian restaurant in Japan, in Roppongi. Then they opened a second branch in Ginza and he became executive chef. He later went back to his hometown of Ehime prefecture, got married and opened his own place in 1976, also called Sicilia.”
What was it like to study at the prestigious Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka? “I was not a good student, I only enjoyed hanging out with my friends. I already had basic cooking skills, so when I went to culinary school, the first class was how to clean a knife, how to chop, and it was so boring. I didn’t go to school for half a year, but I eventually graduated. My parents paid a lot of money for the tuition. Now I can say sorry for that.”