Some of the most meaningful culinary journeys begin not in a professional kitchen, but at a family dinner table.
For Chef Yuki, it was his mother's ebi furai, a classic Japanese deep-fried shrimp dish, that first made him fall in love with fried food. Growing up, frying at home was not something done every day. The oil, the heat, the effort, it was a special occasion. And so when his mother made fried food, it meant something. He savored every bite.
That childhood memory followed him into his career. He trained rigorously across multiple disciplines of Japanese cooking, mastering genre after genre. But it was a quiet moment, years into that journey, that changed everything. He was sipping a bowl of osuimono, a delicate Japanese clear soup made with dashi broth and seasonal ingredients, when a deep sense of calm washed over him. The simplicity of it. The balance. The way it said so much while asking so little. This, he thought, was the heart of Japanese cuisine. And in that same stillness, the memory of his mother's fried food came flooding back.
The two feelings met, and a direction became clear. He would build a restaurant rooted in the philosophy of washoku, the Japanese culinary tradition of harmony, seasonality, and quiet precision, but express it through kushiage, Osaka's beloved tradition of skewering and deep-frying seasonal ingredients in a light, crisp batter. Merging kushiage with washoku was not a compromise. It was his voice.
At SOUI KUFU, that voice comes through in every skewer. The approach is distinctive: Chef Yuki takes the building blocks of Japanese cuisine, breaks them apart, and reconstructs them on a single skewer. Some combinations may raise an eyebrow from traditionalists. But nothing here is arbitrary. Beneath every unexpected pairing lies a clear logic, a culinary reasoning grounded in Japanese thinking and refined through years of trial and care.
The Osaka dining world took notice. SOUI KUFU has held a place in the Michelin Guide for eight consecutive years, earning features across television and major food publications along the way. The acclaim has not changed the process. Every skewer is still made one by one, with the same deliberate intention that has defined this kitchen from the start.
Now, Chef Yuki is bringing his cuisine to the United States, and he admits the prospect genuinely excites him. How far can this food travel? How will American diners receive a kushiage built on washoku logic? He is eager to find out.
SOUI KUFU is joining YUU Japanese Food Hall, offering American food lovers their first chance to taste a cuisine shaped by a mother's cooking, a quiet bowl of soup, and a chef who found his own voice one skewer at a time.
