Roy Yamaguchi - Biography

Biography

Yamaguchi was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan but now lives in the U.S. State of Hawaii.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, he spent time in Los Angeles in apprenticeships at L'Escoffier and L'Ermitage under the late master chef Jean Bertranou. He was soon elevated to executive chef status with stints at Le Serene and Le Gourmet. He then opened the Euro-Asian 385 North in West Hollywood, featuring Asian presentations of French classical themes. He then moved to Hawaii, where he opened Roy's in 1988 and, with other local chefs, helped to pioneer the trademark of Hawaii Regional Cuisine. He is Hawaii's first-ever James Beard Award winner. After opening three other Roy's locations throughout the Hawaiian Islands, Yamaguchi branched out to the continental U.S. and eventually partnered with Outback Steakhouse, allowing greater expansion to areas including Pebble Beach, California; Scottsdale, Arizona; Chicago; New York City; and more recently, Plano, Texas; Jacksonville Beach, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Atlanta, Georgia; Tampa, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Maryland. Besides his 30+ U.S. locations, Yamaguchi's eclectic blend of East, West, and Polynesia can be found in Japan and Guam, and he has partnered with Continental Airlines to produce his cuisine for travelers in Business First class on flights between Asia, Hawaii, the West Coast, and the Southwest.

He is also notable for being the host of the cooking show Hawaii Cooks and appearing as Iron Chef Asian in the first American incarnation of the Japanese television show Iron Chef, Iron Chef USA. He has published four cookbooks: Pacific Bounty (1994), Roy’s Feasts from Hawaii (1995), Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi (2003) and Roy’s Fish and Seafood (2005).

In 2009, Yamaguchi was seen in a less than stellar performance on Top Chef Masters on Bravo TV. He lost with the lowest score. At the judges’ table, Yamaguchi confessed that he was more of a “slow thinker” type of chef and he couldn’t think fast enough to come up with dish ideas.