How is Nobu Matsuhisa taking the dining destination trend to new heights? Celebrity chefs Alain Ducasse, Simon Rogan and Michael Caines all have their own branded hotels already

Feb 7 , 2021

Nobu Ryokan Malibu is a Japanese-style retreat on the Californian coast. Photo: Nobu

Nobu Matsuhisa opened his first Nobu Hotel in Las Vegas with business partner Robert De Niro in 2013 – now he has 13, with six more on the way

The Roca brothers – Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca – opened chocolate-focused Hotel Casa Cacao in Girona after El Celler de Can Roca in the 80s

I met chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa for the first time in 2013, just after his first Nobu Hotel opened in Las Vegas. He was talking about building many more with his business partner Robert De Niro, so I asked him why he wanted to get into the hotel business anyway.

He replied in his usual jovial manner: “To house my restaurants.” Over the seven years since, he has opened 13 hotels, most recently in London and Warsaw, with six more due this year.

The exterior of Nobu Warsaw. Photo: Nobu

It is not a new idea for chefs to open a hotel to house their restaurants, especially restaurants located in small country villages across the United Kingdom and France. Alain Ducasse opened the Provence retreat, La Bastide de Moustiers, in the 1990s, and British chef and restaurateur Simon Rogan opened a few rooms along with his fine dining eatery L’Enclume, in Cartmel, the English Lake District, in 2002.

“We opened rooms at the same time as L’Enclume, but only a handful,” says Rogan, of the eatery that was recognised as top restaurant in the UK for four consecutive years, earning 10 out of 10 in the British Good Food Guide. “[Opening rooms] was very important as it has always very much been a destination spot. We have accumulated more rooms over time as our business has expanded in the village to include Rogan & Co. and Aulis Cartmel,” he continues, referring to his two later ventures.

British chef and restaurateur Simon Rogan opened a few rooms along with his fine dining eatery L’Enclume, in Cartmel, the English Lake District, in 2002. Photo: L’Enclume

“As with the menu and dishes at L’Enclume, the rooms are inspired by the surrounding area and retain some of the original historical features, such as the beams and open brickwork. Most of the rooms are designed with a neutral colour palette, striking the perfect balance between being homely but simplistically luxurious. Local artwork and oak furniture, alongside soaps we have made ourselves, cement the importance of Lake District provenance in everything we do.”

More recently, two-Michelin star chef Michael Caines bought a Georgian manor after years of working in well-known country manor hotel restaurants such as Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons with Raymond Blanc, and Gidleigh Park, a small Tudor-style country house hotel with a Michelin restaurant in Devon. His hotel and restaurant, Lympstone Manor, also in Devon, opened in 2017.