IN A world where anybody with a huge bank account can afford anything, do we still know what true luxury is?

BusinessWorld had a bit of an idea of what true luxury was when Nobu Matsuhisa — you know, that guy whose first name is plastered across luxury hotels across the world — made us sushi.

“One, two, three, four, five, six,” counted Mr. Matsuhisa as he touched rice to fish. Mr. Matsuhisa’s prowess and innovation with Japanese food — combining traditional Japanese techniques with South American, and later, local flavors wherever his name goes — earned him a number of accolades, including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 British GQ Food & Drink Awards. He’s also quite well-known in Hollywood: even in that town, a meal in his restaurant is still a status symbol, and he counts Robert de Niro among his friends and business partners.

Nobu placed the rice ball on top of sliced fish with a touch of wasabi. He flipped it over, and shaped the sides with his thumb and index finger. He gently pressed the top with his index finger to ensure that the fish would stick to the rice, and then evened it out on both sides. After which, he gave one final press to shape the sushi. He then tried it out with something a bit more complicated, a bit of squid, which he conceded some people might find chewy. After his folding and stretching technique, he said that it would now be a dish more comfortable to eat, and “more tasty.”

In making sushi cups, meanwhile, he refrains from using too much soy sauce, and instead sprays it on with an atomizer. He decries waste, and said, “I’m not cheap, but I don’t want to waste anything.”

“Even a grain of rice takes up a whole year,” he said, discussing the effort to make one whole meal, if one counts the efforts of the people beyond the kitchen who made it possible.

His visit here is part of his Asia-Pacific tour, and on the weekend of his visit, he hosted two dinners: one for the public (for a fee), and a special one for VIP patrons.

He then taught a gathered audience in his namesake restaurant on Sept. 27 how to eat sushi. He tipped the sushi to its side, and dipped a tiny segment into some soy sauce. “Great,” he said, but then, he himself made it.

“This process, I always say, has more heart.”

Mr. Matsuhisa always finds a way to say that it is always important to cook with the heart. He compares the experience to when a mother cooks for her children. He then said that because he made his sushi with his own hands, a part of himself is now in it; literally leaving his fingerprint. “It means that when people eat it, ‘feel my heart,’” he said.

Asked him what luxury meant, when his gilded name has become associated with luxury. “It’s not money. It’s not high-end. Luxury means health, happiness, great family.” — Joseph L. Garcia

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