Hiroyuki Terada 寺田弘行
Title: 2 million people subscribed to the channel! Guinness Certified Record Winner!
2 million people subscribed to the channel! Guinness Certified Record Winner! Meet Chef Hiroyuki Terada, a native of Kochi Prefecture who now resides in Miami, Florida.
I was working as a Toshiba appliance sales representative, but my days were not fulfilling at all, and I felt stuck. Then a friend from junior high school told me that he had decided to go to culinary school and asked me if I would like to go. I immediately went to the culinary school and while looking at the enrollment information, I found an advertisement for job openings from overseas. This was the beginning of a major change in my career path. Many people of our generation had always wanted to go to the U.S., whether it be for movies, music, or, in my case, American cars, but in reality, I had always wondered "How can I live in the U.S.? But in reality, I stopped at "How do you live in America? I had also seen a TV program about a Japanese man working at a sushi restaurant in New York City, and I immediately decided to enroll in the program. I quit my job at Toshiba and worked full time at a ramen restaurant while attending culinary school.
It took some time, but in September 1991, I moved to the United States. Washington DC was my first time in the US. I currently live in Miami. I have been working as a chef for a long time, but I started my YouTube channel in 2011 and have been working full time since 2018. I have been traveling more and more to other states or overseas for sponsorships, collaborations, etc. Recently, in collaboration with my home prefecture of Kochi, I went to various places in Kochi Prefecture last October for interviews and filming. I met many producers, and I hope I can help Kochi Prefecture's current goal of expanding overseas and promoting Kochi's food products to the rest of the world. In addition, I am often asked in messages and comments on my YouTube channel by people who are working as sushi chefs in the U.S. and other countries that they would like to go to Japan to learn the real thing, learn more about Japanese ingredients in Japan, and work at sushi restaurants in Japan. I often hear people say that they want to go to Japan to learn more about Japanese ingredients and work at a sushi restaurant in Japan. In order to help these people, I have started a non-profit organization, Culinary Culture Connections, with Andy Matsuda, the principal of a sushi chef training school in Torrance, and Yuko Motoki. Our first visit to the Kansai Osaka area is scheduled for this May. We are looking forward to meeting many new people through this activity. My advice to new sushi chefs is to hone your skills and study hard every day. There is no rule that says you have to do something this way, so be flexible and learn how to do various jobs and preparation methods. However, the basics are very important, so you have to learn the basics first.
My advice to those who are changing jobs is that, for some reason or another, changing from another type of work to become a chef without any cooking experience is a very high hurdle to overcome. It is not possible to "enjoy cooking every day" when it comes to work, so I would say that you can do anything if you work hard, but it is not a kind world where you can get by with effort alone. If you can't make a serious effort, you might want to change your career path as soon as possible.
Since you are in the business of cooking food for others to eat, provide your customers with food that they are 100% satisfied with. If you are not that satisfied with the taste of other restaurants, think about the reasons why, and serve food that will satisfy them. However, in the restaurant industry, you can never be 100% sure that all customers will be satisfied with the food you serve, even if you think they are, so it is not a bad idea to go for a line that appeals to everyone.
If you want to be a restaurant owner in the future and you want to run the same kind of restaurant that can be found anywhere, that is fine. However, if you want to run an original and unique restaurant, it is necessary to have something special that cannot be found in other restaurants, a special dish, or in the case of a sushi restaurant with a counter, good ingredients and rice,
In addition, the personalities and characters of you and the other chefs are also important. Conversation with customers is also important. Communication with other chefs and employees is also important. We hope that you will challenge yourself in your new job by further refining your cooking skills and your character.”
Chef Terada's activities are endless, including the Terada Sushi Dojo, sushi trips to Nashville, visits to the only sushi restaurant in the Faroe Islands, and a live broadcast of the Gordon Ramsay Show (Scottish chef with a total of 17 Michelin stars) to challenge the Guinness World Record. Chef Terada's activities are endless.
We look forward to hearing his reports on the Sea Food Show in Barcelona starting in the middle of this month and his training in Kochi Prefecture and other parts of the Kansai region starting in May as part of the NPO Culinary Culture Connections project he launched last week.