Roy Yamaguchi: James-Beard award winner, flyin’ Hawaiian, and culinary comic

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I'm Geicawasaki and this is remarkable people. This episode's guest is Roy Yamaguchi, the founder of Roy's Restaurants Tavern by Roy Yamaguchi and eating house 1849 Roy was born and raised in Japan, but now lives in Hawaii. He's a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and worked for famous restaurants such as Le Escoffier, l' Hermitage and Michaels. He is also a television personality who starred in six seasons of Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi. He has won many awards, including the James Beard Best Pacific Northwest Chef in 1993. I've had some of the best meals of my life because of Roy. Oh my God. For example, I once had a tomahawk steak at his restaurant that changed my life. He and I get a little deep discussing local boy eating in Hawaii. I don't want you to miss anything on your next trip to Hawaii. So in addition to eating at Roy's, be sure you check out Coco Head Cafe. Koko is how you spell koko. Koa Pancake House. Koa is how you spell koa and zippies. I'm Guy Kawasaki and this is remarkable people. And now here's Roy Yamaguchi.

I was born and raised in Japan on an army base. US army base. So I was brought up a lot of GIs military family. And then because my father was from Hawaii, born on Maui but ended up in Okinawa, married my mother and moved to Japan. But since he was a civil servant and not a really career military man, he was able to be stationed in Japan for a long time. So I was born and raised there, US military base. And then one day I took home EC in high school. Yeah, I took home EC in high school and I had invited my school counselor for this lunch that I had prepared, roast turkey and stuff. So he goes, hey Roy, what are you gonna do for the rest of your life? So I said, I'm not really sure. He goes, after eating your turkey that I had made, he Goes, hey, you may have a career in cookie. Really? Yeah. So he goes, I want you to come to my office. Back then, it was in New Haven, Connecticut. Had just moved to New York in Hyde park, upstate New York. And if you want to go, we'll see what we can do. So I said, yeah, why not? You know, he did most of the paperwork, and I went to some teachers that I had, and I said, hey, I need some recommendation letters, and put it all together and applied for the Culinary Institute of America, CIA. And actually, they were full, so I got declined. So my father goes, hey, Roy, since we're applying from Japan, why don't you apply as a Japanese citizen? I said, okay. Anyways, make a long story short, applied and got in and then spent a couple years in upstate New York at this culinary. A great school. It's like the Harvard of cooking school, and it's the best cooking school in the world. Went there, graduated and ended up in Los Angeles and started working in different restaurants.

Did your parents. I mean, obviously, I'm Asian American, you're Asian American. They didn't get disappointed. You didn't go to college. You didn't become a doctor, a lawyer, dentist. You became a chef. You know what's cool with them?

You know what? I'll be honest with you. You know what my dad was. Because when I was, you know, like, maybe sophomore in high school and stuff, I was thinking about really just moving from Japan and just going to Los Angeles and going to a trade school. And there was a school called LACC City College, so I was going to go there. So when I told my dad I was going to go to cooking school, he just said, hey, let's go. He was happy I was going to do something else other than just go to a city college and not know what I was going to do for the rest of my life. So he said, hey, if you're focused in doing something like cooking. But on the other hand, I have to tell you, because back in the early 40s, my grandfather owned a restaurant in Maui, and my father had worked helping him when he was a child, so he kind of knew the restaurant business. And my father loved to cook. So I think that with all of that in mind, he was very, very happy that I actually pursued cooking, because that was my father's love. After work, my father would come home after a hard day's work, and my mother would have some Japanese tsukemono or some sunomono, pickled cucumbers and stuff like that on the table, and my father Would sit there and read the paper and have his beer and after that he would start making dinner for us. Right. So cooking was in the family. And my grandfather same thing. When I used to visit my grandparents on Maui during the summertime, my grandfather would take us and go to the different farms and he would go to the this. Yeah, I don't know where these places were because I was really young. But all I know is that he would buy a chicken and pluck the feathers and drain the blood and all of that stuff. That night we would have chicken hika and that's the way we were brought up. So I think my father was extremely happy. Oh yeah, that's good. Yeah. Plus I would have never made in as an attorney or I didn't have the brains.

I went to law school for two weeks and quit. So at the age of 19 you were already a master chef from CIA?

Well, not master chef. So what happened was at the age of 19 I had art. So I started cooking school when I just turned 18. It's a two year school to get an AOS, so I spent two years at school. So when I graduated from cooking school, I was still 19 years old. And you get a degree, you get an AOS degree. At that time I was just starting out, so I was just a cook. I mean you can be a chef, but I would consider myself more of a cook because when you go to cooking school you get the foundation. So that's a building block to me. So from there on you can step up. So I was fortunate enough to graduate from CIA and then I got a job in different places. But the first place I got a job was at this country club, LA country club. And I was working on the buffet line serving stewed tomatoes and beef stew. And then at the same time I was working at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. And luckily I got a job on the top floor at the Escofier French restaurant by peeling potatoes and making green beans into string beans. They put the green beans into this little machine and he hand crank and it comes out like a string bean. So anyways, did that, but after a couple of months I got fired from both places because they said that I had replaced somebody that came back so they didn't really need me anymore. And the country club, they said the same thing, that the person that I filled in for is back to work again. So sorry, we don't have a place for you.

So what year is this?

That was in 1976, so it wasn't.

World War II or anything.

Obviously you weren't interned, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know, so then was out of both two jobs, and then I took the bus and went to different places and interviewed and ended up getting a job in a Scandinavian restaurant in Beverly Hills. So that was a trip. It was pretty cool. But, you know, things happen, and, you know, you learn different types of other cuisines, so it was good.

So along this journey, do you have heroes? What shifts inspired you?

I've been very fortunate because when I was at CIA, there was two instructors, or should I say more of the. More in the administration. But there was a gentleman by the name of Joseph Almendola, who was a baker, but he was one of the vice presidents for the school. And Leroy Folsom, Duke Folsom, who was also in the administration, but he's a great chef. And these two individuals. And it's kind of crazy because when I was at school, there was three Japanese guys in the entire school, and we all got dorm together.

Coincidence.

So we're in this one dorm, but these two other guys were older and they had traveled a lot, and they were cooking wasn't their thing, but they just, I don't know, ended up in cooking school. I had gone to cooking school to become, hopefully, a chef or to advance in the cooking world. So I was kind of housed with them. So we had nowhere to go. I mean, I had nowhere to go because I didn't have any money. I didn't have any money to go anywhere other than stay in my dorm. But they had gone to Washington, D.C. because they were from D.C. earlier, before going to CIA, but. So I stayed in the dorm. But These two gentlemen, Mr. Folsom and Mr. Amendola, invited me to their house. And they would say, okay, why don't you come for Christmas or Thanksgiving? And he can be with their family. But you have to do one thing, and that is to help us cook. So I would get a task. So, like, he would say, okay, why don't you cook mashed potatoes? Or help make the mashed potatoes. And I was like, wow. I was overwhelmed because I thought to myself, well, this is pretty cool stuff. But still, at the same time, I had to perform, right? Help. You know, I didn't make mashed potatoes. And this gentleman's house, and he's one of the big wigs of the culinary, and he had written a bunch of books for the culinary. And that's how I used to spend my holidays and spending time with these great chefs. And one day, even, like Duke Folsom goes, hey, Roy, after you graduate, what are you going to do? I said, I don't know. I'm going to go work in a French restaurant, I guess. He goes, why French? I said, I don't know. I mean, sounds kind of sounds pretty good, right? He goes, no, just whatever. Whatever restaurant you think can give you a lot of, I guess a lot of happiness, you should pursue not just French, but any type of cooking. So these were gentlemen that have really helped me or kind of mentored me in a different way way back when, when I was 19 or 18 years old. 18 and 19 years old. And. And then after that, worked in a lot of different restaurants. And I would have to say that my biggest impact was at l'. Hermitage. I had worked in this French restaurant because, you know, I was again, that's a big deal, right? Yeah. I was like, wow, man. So Escoffier was French, but yet it was more of a manufactured restaurant. Whereas l' Hermitage was really, really personal. The chef, Jean Bertraneou, Michel Bellanchet, the chef, they were all great individuals. They were real warm and they wanted to help you and they wanted to work with you. And they would show me things and with their hands, they would kind of develop me from just being a walk in kind of cook. And when I left there, I was a sous chef, I was an assistant chef. But they're the ones who really molded me. When I did something great, they praised me. But even like the chef owner John Bertineau, used to work side by side with me on a busy night and tell me, hey, this and that and this and that and this and that, and it was some cool stuff. And their colleagues, their friends were all the great chefs from France. Chef Bocus, Verger, Toagro, Marc Mano, all these great chefs from France were these guys buddies. And they would come to l' Hermitage to cook. So I have to say that when it comes to cooking, these were my mentors. And of course, my dad was always a gung ho type of guy. And I mean, I didn't. My dad and I really didn't see eye to eye when we were going up. But at the end of the day, my dad was a hard worker, extremely hard worker. His whole thing was work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work, work. Then play, play, play, play, play. But work was really extremely important. And he kind of instilled that, hey, man, if you don't work, you're not going to get nothing out of life. So you better just dive into it and put your head down and just take the lickings, and just go for it. So.

If you see these TV specials about Gordon Ramsay and. And he's ripping everybody. What do you think?

Hey, that's the real world, man.

That's how it is.

At the end of the day, circumstances to me are extremely important, and timing is extremely important. And to me, when you're teaching somebody, there's two ways to teach, right? Of course, with hand on, you nurture someone. But at the same time, when someone does something wrong, you have to let them know. And time is of the essence. And if something sucks, I mean, you have to let them know that it sucks. It is not acceptable. And, you know, you can't take eight hours to explain to someone, hey, listen, this is not acceptable. But start over again. And I was taught in a way, like in a Hell's Kitchen environment, that's the way that I was taught, hey, listen, it's no good. It gets thrown away. You start over again. There's no. You hold your hand and say, you got to make it better. This sucks. There's people waiting at the table for a great meal, and if you can't produce it, we got to find somebody else to produce that meal. So I can understand that. And at the same time, believe it or not, Gordon Ramsay is an incredible human being. He's a very, very personable, caring individual. But. No, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. So it's under the circumstances of tv, and. And maybe I'm not sure. I've never been in an environment in a restaurant. I've been in. In a show with him and stuff, but I've never been in a. In his restaurant where he's, you know, commanding and stuff. And maybe, maybe. Maybe it could be different. I don't know.

Is that how you are here?

No. I mean, I used to be. I used to be a lot more aggressive in the kitchen because. I understand. Because, listen, at the end of the day, we're all about time. It's all about time. Because if you can't produce fast enough, people get angry. It doesn't matter how great food is. You have to do it in a timely manner, and you have to set the tone. So there's people that have been anxiously waiting to have dinner. And of course, you have to pace it, right? I mean, people don't want to be rushed, but at the same time, they can't wait forever. So we in the kitchen have to observe that and know that a customer, our guests, are here to have a great experience, but we have to make sure what is that? We have to be able to read that and say to us, okay, what does that guest really want? Is it more time, less time? Perfection in the meal, great service, what is it? So if we want to deliver all of that, we have to understand that and then be able to deliver that in a timely fashion. Greatness in a timely fashion.

How does one go about winning a James Beard Award?

James Beard Award is like, you know, of course, the Oscars in the cooking world. And I guess there's a bunch of so called individuals that are in different cities that would nominate you and after the nomination is there there's a bunch of other ones that might write in, whether it be professionals or whether it be individuals that dine a lot or their gourmands in different cities. And things have always changed and you know, are ever evolving in that type of business when it comes to nominations and stuff. But back in 1995 or something is when I won the James Beard Award. So I was the first recipient of the James Beard Award for Hawaii. And to date there's only been three award winners. So myself who was the first, and then Chef Alan Wong and Chef Marvel. So the three of us have won the James Beard in Hawaii and hopefully there'll be more. But what I wanted it was best chef Pacific Northwest and then Hawaii, and then later on they threw California in there. So it became a little harder or a lot harder to get the award. And now it's I think back to California, back to Hawaii, and I think Washington and Oregon, the Northwest and stuff. So hopefully there will be more James Beard Award winners from Hawaii because there's a lot of great talent in Hawaii. So hopefully we'll be able to see more. So.

And when you win an award like that, does life change? Does your restaurant immediately become immensely popular?

Well, the life really doesn't change, but at the same time there's a lot more recognition and there's recognition from your colleagues and your peers. So I mean, it's a great award because then it's like when you win the award, it's like them saying, hey, listen, Roy, you know what, you've done great work. And we want to tell everybody that you've been doing a lot of great work. And we want to make sure that we substantiate that by letting people know. So you get, of course you get to, you get the ribbon. And with that, of course, you have to maintain. Right, because you just can't win it. And you know, one, you know, walk away or something. But when you. When you win that war, there's a lot of pride that goes into it. So you want to continually do a great job. But, yeah, you get recognized for, you know, the outstanding work that you've been doing. So it substantiates all the great stuff you've been doing. So to me, it was more. It was because I didn't get a chance to go to the James Beard Award gala when they nominated me and when they gave me the award. So when I got the award, I wasn't there to receive the award. So I wish I would have had a chance to at least go on stage and grab the award or something. But anyways, it's been great because a lot of people will say, hey, I didn't know you were a James Beard Award winner, because he can get nominated and there's a lot of nominations. But to really actually win the award, there's not that many. Right. Every year, I take it with pride, and I take it with a lot of goodness with it. Yeah.

How would you describe your style of cooking? What would you call it? And then how would you explain it?

Yeah, so it's one of these things where if you try to explain it real fast, it just never works. Yeah. And so at the end of the day, it's a Hawaiian fusion. And fusion is, you know, a lot of. When I first started, people go, hey, you shouldn't call it fusion, because there's a lot of negativity in fusion. But at the end of the day, it's all about learning cultures. I was born in Japan, learned more Japanese culture, the American culture, and then at the same time, learning about the French and the different types of cultures that I blend my food with. So making French sauces is what I love to do. But at the same time, as I continue to evolve, and I started to add Chinese or Korean, Vietnamese or the countries in Southeast Asia, etc. But to me, I learned about the culture and learn about the types of food that they wanted to make, whether it be spicy or whether it be more on the subdued side, stuff like that. And then when I start to kind of make my own style of cooking, which was more Japanese and French in the very, very beginning. Right. And I started to add more cultures. I try to understand, and the end result's got to be there, meaning that you just can't start mixing things. And, you know, whatever happens, happens. But to me, I have an end result, but I try to figure out how I can get to that end result, meaning that I want to have French sauces. I want to have a very colorful plate as much as possible. I want to have a balance of, whether it be spiciness or sweetness, a little saltiness, making sure that all the different ingredients I put in there becomes round, meaning that there's a certain flavor that I want to achieve. And if it's a sauce at the end, I want to make sure I get there. So at the end of the day, it's called Hawaiian fusion because I want people to have a Hawaii state of mind. But yet it's, I can call it Euro, Asian or whatever, getting the Asian flavors with the French sauces and the Hawaii state of mind. And then at the same time now, because of the Hawaii regional cuisine movement, I want to make sure that I try to add as much local ingredients as possible. Sometimes it's not 100% possible only because the amount of business the restaurant might do and the amount of ingredients we need for a certain dish. But some dishes could be 90% local ingredients, some could be 100, some could be 50, depending on the type of dish we want to make. And because some of the times a guest may be craving for scallops, right? And there's no scallops in Hawaii. So in order to have a scallop dish, which is the main item, naturally it can't be 100% Hawaiian, right. Or local ingredients. So depending on what we want to accomplish is depending on what we use. So at the end of the day, you know, Hawaiian fusion, Hawaiian state of mind, local ingredients, but yet French and a lot of Asian cultures mixed in.

How does it go from an idea to the menu? Is there testing? I can tell you how that's done in tech.

Yeah.

Ok, how does it go from. Roy says, okay, I'm gonna pulleju ribs.

And yeah, at the end of the day, what happens is I can visualize a certain dish and I can visualize what I really want. So I say to myself, okay, I want to make a salmon dish or I want to make a beef dish, or I want to make a whatever it may be. And then I say to myself, but I want it with sauce or no sauce. So when I think about all these different things, I say to myself, okay, at the end of the day, I'm going to come up with a salmon dish. Okay, I'm going to come up with a salmon dish and I want some sweetness to it. So I'm going to add teriyaki or I want to add some sort of a soy based, maybe sugar based marinade or a sauce. And Maybe because I'm doing that, I'm going to grill it. And because I'm grilling it, maybe I want. It's going to be a lighter dish. So maybe I want. Instead of rice, maybe I want some couscous or whatever it may be. So once I start thinking about all those different elements, I can visualize not only the dish, but I visualize the flavor. So I visualize the flavor, and then I visualize the ingredients that I want to have in order to make that dish. So that's the way that I do it. So then I start building the dish. I build it in my mind first, okay? And then after I build everything in my mind, and then I say to myself, okay, I'm going to go into the kitchen and I'm going to start working on it. And then sometimes it tastes like crap. Not going to work. So then I dump it or, hey, some of these elements are good, okay? So I'm going to keep some of these different elements. I'm going to move to the next step. I'm going to add this, I'm going to add that, add this, add that, and then I continue to move on. And then at the end of the day, after a couple of trials, sometimes more, I end up with the dish that I want. And then after that, it's done, then I go to my guys and say, okay, this is the dish that I want to have on the menu.

And from beginning to end, how long is that process?

Well, it's kind of interesting because sometimes it can take a day. You can have it in a day. Sometimes it'll take two weeks, and I got to dump it sometimes, you know, I can work on it for two weeks, and after that, it doesn't work. So I just dump it and then come back to it maybe two, three months later. So it really depends on my mood. At the same time, if I looked.

At your menu at Roy's January 1st, then I looked at 365 days later, how much has changed?

A lot would be changed, because when we look at the ingredients and we look at all the different things we can get, not everything would always change. But there's certain ingredients that may change, because depending on the type of ingredients that we're able to get and the type of ingredients that we want to feature during certain parts of the season, even though Hawaii is pretty much one season, there are certain things that we can get better in certain months. Right? So when we utilize those different items, we may have salmon, but. And we may have a salmon dish that May stay the same throughout the entire year. We may have another salmon dish that we may change during the season. So taking that into account, a lot of things change.

Do you think spam gets a bad rap?

I love spam. I mean, to me, without Spam for breakfast, not worth living. But I like Spam a certain way. So when I eat Spam, I like it a little charred on the outside. So I try to cut it thick enough where I can. I built a little so called crust right on both side of the Spam. So it's. So it's kind of like, it has a little crispiness to it, but yet the inside is nice and moist, you know, and then kind of put a little glaze, like a soy glaze on it, you know what I mean? And just kind of slice it and. Oh, oh, no. Right.

About, about a month ago, I interviewed Andrew Zimmerman for this.

He hates. Oh, he hates spam.

Yeah. I think spam and maybe durian are the only two things.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not a durian fan, but I do love spam.

Do you think that social media has changed the restaurant business?

Yeah, it really, it really has. Social media has changed a lot. And, and it's kind of interesting because at the same time, it's like these reality shows has really changed chef's, I guess, status and because, hey, listen, at the end of the day, I think these reality TV shows, whether it be Top Chef or Hell's Kitchen or all these different shows that's out there, I think they've done a lot, a lot of good. But I think that it has also given some chefs false, I guess, like, like they think that they can go on TV and become a world renowned chef, or they think that it gives them a status that can't be beat. But what happens a lot is that these chefs, the good ones, they go on tv, they do a lot of great work and they become winners and they can produce great food, right? So they go into the restaurants because a lot of times with these TV shows, they get backers, they get people that want to back them up and put them in restaurants and stuff. But owning your own restaurant and being on a TV is two different things. When you own your own restaurants, you know, you have to produce profits, you have to manage people, you have to make sure that at the end of the day there's great food that the public wants and people leave happy. To go on TV show is one thing, so you get all the national reputation recognition. And sometimes when they open their own restaurant, they can't cook, they can't.

In the quantity.

In the quantity and the quality, all these different things. So it's kind of a false promise that they've been told that they're great, but yet when they get into their own restaurants, they become failures. So that's why it's extremely important that you understand or they understand that. Hey, listen, at the end of the game, at the end of the day, the game is if you're going to open a restaurant is you got to take care of your guests and you have to produce great food, timely fashion, and every guest that walks into your restaurant has to leave happy. There's no if, ands and buts. What you do on TV is one thing, but what you do in the restaurant kitchen is far more important. So. And along with that, the social media is the old days used to be, you know, you open a restaurant, you make good food. I'm talking about when I first started in this industry, like 40 years ago, like all the great restaurants, 40, 50 years ago, a lot of great restaurants like L', Hermitage, the Escoffier Room, the Rex Restaurant in LA, La Francaise in Chicago and Wheeling, they make great food, right? No social media, no nothing, right? Yeah, just great food and people write about it and people flock. And if you don't do a good job, people stop coming. But anyways. But today it's interesting because social media really attracts different types of people into different restaurants. And it's a different way to get different types of people into your restaurant. So, I mean, it's. I'm not a pro at it, and I don't consider myself anywhere near knowing what I'm doing. But it's interesting how you can attract different types of people into your restaurants at different times, and it's a just different way of approach of getting people to consider you as a dining experience.

Have you changed the menu so that the food photographs better? Have you changed the lighting? Have you done anything like that, like, consciously because of social media?

I'll be honest with you, for myself, no. Only because we've been very fortunate because some of the restaurants that we built recently, the lighting has been. Because people are telling me, hey, listen, Roy, not sure if you ever thought about this, but you know what? Your lighting in this restaurant is incredibly good for people to photograph food. I said, yeah, I knew, I knew about it, but, you know, it was all done by mistake.

It's better to be lucky than smart.

I got lucky on all those different things. But, yeah, it's extremely important for people to Photograph Food today in restaurants. I mean, I would have never thought that when I first started this industry that people, number one, that people will be taking pictures of food at the table, more or less. Just taking so much pictures and making albums and sending them out to different people as they eat. I mean, it's incredible.

It doesn't offend you as a chef that what are these people like?

And I tell you the answer is no. And I tell you why. Because I'm here to make sure that we provide our guests with memorable experiences. Because that's all we can do. At the end of the day, if we can't provide our guests with memorable experiences, we're not going to be in business. So we want to make sure that our guests are having a great time when they eat. And today, taking pictures and being involved and engaged in a conversation with people that they're not with as they eat is part of their dining experience. And that's how they create happiness for themselves. So if they're happy, I'm happy. Okay. Because if you're not happy, you're not going to come back. As simple as that. Okay.

What's your opinion of the food truck movement?

If I would probably do it over again, I would just have a bunch of food trucks running around.

Really?

Listen, listen. When you think about the investment that we have to make as a restaurant, building this, I mean, it's extremely expensive. It's a huge investment. And to create something that we think that could last forever sometimes doesn't. So when you get a food truck, you can give that experience. I'm talking about the end result, okay. I'm talking about the experience of the guest. Sometimes the guest doesn't need the entire hundred yards. They're happy with a little portion of happiness. And you can get that through food truck or you can get without a building and mortar, right? You can just get that through a little something that you do. So, you know, I wouldn't go as far. I'm obviously kind of exaggerating, but I wouldn't go as far as owning just food trucks. But I think food trucks is a great venue to get people to really show their characteristics and their talent.

If you were advising someone who wanted to be a chef, would you say start as a food truck, test it, and then go brick and mortar?

To be honest with you, Food truck, to me, there's two things. Food truck or to be a kind of a chef. To promote yourself to do a chef and do gigs at people's houses. Those things are pretty cool. This Netflix Thing one time on television or whatever it was, or on the airplane where this couple ended up having a. What do you call this? Pop up in their own apartment. But what they did was every Saturday night they would have enough for 12 or 10 seats or something. And they would cook. She would take care of the serving and he would cook and they would have this dinner. And that kind of became bigger. So once a week became twice a week. And sooner or later they decided she would quit her own job and kind of work into it full time. And they started doing more dinners at home. And at the end of the day, they ended up opening a restaurant.

Last night, literally last night, I don't know how my wife found it. We went to a home on Diamond Head, Korean woman. And it was seven of us and three more people. Just 10 workstations, 10 blocks, 10 knives. Then we make Spam, musubi, coconut shrimp poke. And then we sit down and eat. Oh, and it was a great experience. It's much more participation, like conversation. I mean, it's really an event, right? Yeah, it's Hollywood. But it was very fun.

Oh, good. Yeah. See, so those are again, so when it comes to providing memories, if you have a great memory that can attach itself to the next thing that somebody wants to do. So somebody can start off by doing these things at homes or whatever it may be, and it can translate to a business later on in the future. And at the same time, for a guest that goes to these things, they have a great experience, they see themselves, hey, wow. Maybe if you open a restaurant, I would go to your restaurant, whatever it may be.

If you could have dinner with three people, who would they be?

Three people.

Any three alive.

Three people alive. Oh, man, that's always a hard one. Because, I mean, well, one would be you. I never had dinner with you, so.

We can fix that.

I've always, you know, made arrangements for you to have a good.

I've had some great meals without you.

But you know what I like? I'm a type of guy that I'm really low key and I like to have fun. So I like to eat with people that I can have fun with. So probably like a comedian or something.

Okay. Okay, man. Okay. Two more questions for you. All right, so on Oahu, where does Roy go for breakfast?

But it's interesting because most of the time I go to Koa Pancake House in Hawaii. Kai.

Koa Pancake House in Hawaii in Hawaii.

Kai. I usually get there about 6:30, between 6:30 and 7:00 clock. And I have My Denver omelette fried rice. Or I go to Zippy's Hawaii Kai and I get to take out and I still eat it there, but it's a takeout large saimin for breakfast. For breakfast there's Simon for breakfast is the thing. Or then. Or I get the spam or I go to Licky Licky Drive in. Licky Licky Drive in. And when it opens and I have a large bowl of saimin, I think.

I'm two for three on this trip already. The first stop we made was Licky Licky. And the only reason why we went to Likiliki first is because Kuala Moa shut down. Broke my heart. Okay, so now where does Roy go for lunch?

Lunch is hard because I hardly ever eat lunch. Okay. Yeah, so lunch is something that I don't really do because I come to work. So usually my thing is that I come to work so I try to have breakfast, a small breakfast because I don't eat breakfast every day. I just have breakfast once in a while, maybe once a week or twice a week. So after that I come to the office. So once I come here I don't leave.

Okay, so that's hard.

And then, you know, if you ask me for dinner. Yeah, I am. If you ask me for dinner. I live in a Diamond Head area and I don't like to drive too much when it comes late. So I catch Uber and stuff. I ride sharing. So. But I like Izakaya Nombe. Izakaya Nombe, where is that? Izakaya Nombe is on Olu street. So it's across from the south Safeway parking Safeway Shopping center there on. On Kiyamoku, not Kiyomoku, but what do you call it? Kalakawa.

Okay, that's a first.

How about this is. It's not oldest, but anyways, it's Isakaya Nombe and it's. I go there. It's a neighborhood restaurant. So how about Main Street?

Is it Main Street?

What's the.

It's at the edge of the golf course, like across the street from Zippy's on Kapahulu Avenue. Is it Main street or.

Yeah, there's one there. Kapahulu, you mean? Yeah, Kapahulu.

Yeah. No, no, it's called Main street or.

Side street or side street? Side street. Side street, yeah. Site Street's a great place. Yeah, yeah, Site street is great.

Okay, and my last question, I also interviewed Martha Stewart and so I love to have a little practical tip. So for someone who's cooking, what's like A Roy Secret tactical, practical cooking tip.

Well, number one for me, whenever I cook, and I love to cook, I really enjoy cooking because to me, cooking and cleaning is very therapeutic to me. And I can stand in a kitchen, whether it be at home or whether it be in a restaurant, and I can stand in the kitchen early in the day and make sauces and just look at a saucepot for four or five hours and it brings me so much enjoyment and it takes the stress out of my life completely. But then, of course, when production starts, then that's a different story, right? Because you're fighting time and it's chaotic. But when I'm cooking, it's very therapeutic, the prepping stages. But I have to say that like anything, you have to have a game plan. To me, you have to have a game plan, okay? And the game plan is, is that I write everything down. So in the very, very beginning, I write things down for the meal, what I'm gonna buy, what I'm gonna get. And once I get all of that done, I put all the ingredients all lined up and then I start cooking. And then as important as it is to cooking, cleaning is important. So I clean along the way. So as I take one thing and make one thing dirty, I always wash it so I don't have a huge mess. Because a mess to me clogs up your mind. So I want to make sure that the stove is clean. You don't have all these pots and pans that are laying around. You don't have all these dishes that are dirty, that's piling up in your sink, that as you cook, you clean, you get the ingredients, you chop. To me, it's Zen. You chop and then whatever you make, taste. I see so many people make stuff, they don't taste it. And especially home cooks. Home cooks always go by the recipe. You have to understand recipes are not a bible. Recipes are a guideline to what you want to do. Because depending on the size of the pot, depending on Whether it's a 10 inch pan or a 7 inch pan, it's going to make a difference on how things reduce, how things cook. Depending on how many ingredients you have in a pan, whether electric or gas, or if it's on 10 or if it's on 2, all of these things will change the outcome. So you can't go by recipes, use it as a guideline, but you have to use your heart and you have to use your eyes to see, see what's happening, right? So you see all of that and then, and it's you got to make it joyful. It can't be a task, right? Even when I cook for a thousand people, it's not a task. I enjoy it. It's my life. It's fun, right? So when you get all of that and you cook and clean and you taste everything and you make sure that you're washing things and adding things you taste, then it becomes enjoyable. Because what happens is it's the journey that you're on. So instead of start and finish, you're carving your way from A to Z. So you're cooking, you're tasting, you're adding things, you're looking, you see things. As you keep on going, you get the final result. And when you get the final result, you say, hey, that was a great journey. Instead of just speeding through the mountains and everything else. And you get there and you go, hey, I'm here. And then you go, ah, right. But enjoy that ride.

If I went to Roy's house on Diamond Head, do I see your kitchen? Is your kitchen Wolf ranges Sub Zero refrigerator? Is this like amazing architectural daisies kitchen?

No, my kitchen is very, very simple. Simple. Matter of fact, I bought the house and I never remodeled it. And then whatever I want to use, my wife always tells me, put it in the garage, put it in the closet. I'll take something out, put it back, don't leave it there.

Really. Does she ever cook?

Matter of fact, she doesn't really cook. No, she cooks. But last night she was making mochi for the New Year's.

For New Year's?

Yeah. So she was, you know, she had.

Pounding the whole thing.

No, she puts it in the machine. I make food. You know, my whole thing is about you don't need expensive gadgets to make great food. It helps to have certain machineries and certain technology, of course. But to me, what makes a great meal is your heart. Your heart and it's you. Why do people think? Well, there's two ways to me, my mother and my father both passed away, but their food was the greatest. And why is it so great? A lot of love. A lot of love. A lot of feeling into the food. But some people go, hey, my mom and my dad's cooking were the worst moments.

My mom made the best takuan in the world.

I can tell you see, I mean, there's certain things that your parents make that you really love. And you say to yourself, and some of it is because it's great, because it tastes great, but some of it is because there was so much feeling into it. And it just makes that dish so much better. I remember a lot of great things that my dad made. My dad would make stew. Beef stew. Because his beef stew was more Hawaiian, more local style. Tomatoes, broth, and he may thicken it up. Potatoes, tough stew meat that soften up. Yeah, but then. But he had that. He would make that first big pot, big pot. And then the next day, he turned that damn thing into a curry.

He went from the stew to a curry.

You just throw the curry, Japanese curry blocks in there, curry paste in there. Right. Curry the next day. Man, it was great.

When my mom ate stew, which I was going to say is also the greatest stew I've ever had. It was a big treat for us. If she made dumplings out of bisquick and put it on top of the stew, that was like a big deal. Those are the days. I'm from Kalihi Valley, so.

Yeah, okay. That's great stuff, man. See, so there's foods that you always remember as a kid that your parents made. And it's one of these things that are just go to foods. And my mother made like this. She's from Okinawa, so she made these green beans with bacon. And she had eggs in there and she had miso in there, man.

Did she make donuts?

Andagi. She used to make andagi. Man, fry that damn thing. It'd be hard as hell. You can throw it against the wall and crack the wall. But it was great, right? It tasted great, you know, I mean, but those are things that you never forget. Oh, man. My mother would make the andagi and like, oh.

I hope my kids talk about something I make for them like this someday.

My dad had this teriyaki thing, teriyaki mix that he put in this jar. And the base of it he made, like, when I was probably really, really young and when I left home, it was still the same. Really. Same pot, like yeast. Oh, it just. What he would do is he would keep on adding to it and once in a while he dump it in a pot and bring it to a boil and stuff. But that damn thing, he kept it going for like 16, 17 years, man. But that was his teriyaki sauce. So you dunk your meat in there and chicken and you grill it. Oh, unbelievable.

My happiest memories were going to Ala Moana beach park with a little hibachi beef. Teriyaki skewers.

Yeah, right on.

I mean, with my mom's musubis. Oh, my mom's musubis, which she hand shaped into perfect triangles. Not one of these plastic stands.

Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. It's all hand. Yeah. Y. Yeah.

Oh, my God. With ume.

With ume. Great.

And her Takuan.

And Takuan. Because my mom used to always, when I was a kid, we go on field trips or something, and my mom would make me sandwiches and Japanese white bread. She make me tonkatsu sandwiches, whether it be with, you know, the pork tonkatsu sandwiches. And then she make me a musubi, and then she make me fried chicken. Oh.

I hope that Roy and I didn't. Local boy out too much for you. When two people from Hawaii start talking about local food, it's hard to stop. I hope you notice that Roy, unlike Andrew Zimmern, likes Spam. The next time you're in Hawaii, if we ever fly again, you have to grab a meal at one of Roy's restaurants. Here's what you should order. Big eye tuna poke. Sichuan spiced pork ribs. Blackened island ahi. Roy's melting hot chocolate souffle that you have to order in the middle of your meal because it takes a long time to make that. The most important lesson that I learned from this interview is that you should clean as you cook. That's my new goal. I'm Guy Kawasaki, and this is remarkable people. Mahalo to Jeff C. And Peg Fitzpatrick, who are the melting hot chocolate souffles of podcasting. Be healthy, be safe. Mahalo and aloha. This is remarkable people.