Ian Froeb | |
Noboru Kidera, the eponymous 74-year-old chef of Nobu’s in the Delmar Loop, likely won’t say much while you eat dinner at his sushi restaurant. He will greet you and now and then make some small talk. He will ask if you liked a certain dish and answer questions. Still, as he explained on one of my visits here, he isn’t used to today’s expectation that chefs and diners should interact.
Besides, Kidera is busy at dinner. Nobu’s design places him not only at the sushi counter, but also at the head of the open kitchen, and not as a mere ornament. He cuts fish, of course. I’d spend the rest of this paragraph extolling his knife technique, but the counter seats sit below his station, not level with it; you can’t observe his every action without rudely straining or standing. I could see him mold the rice for nigiri, however, a movement deft, efficient and featherweight.
Nobu’s
