Chef Matsuhata Taminobu sees each piece of sushi as its own individual dish. If the poet William Blake saw the world in a grain of sand, Chef Matsuhata sees it in a nigiri. He draws the distinction between “food” and “cooking” as such: food is simply something edible. But cooking is seeing the potential in food, and drawing out the flavor and deliciousness within.  

As such, with the mission of making his diners happy, Chef Matsuhata’s embarks on his journey of “creative sushi” in his Fukuoka restaurant. He draws upon multiple schools of cooking from both within and outside of Japan to make some creations that only exist within the four walls of Tatsumi Sushi.   

But this creativity is nothing without solid fundamentals to rely on, he is quick to remind. A chef must care about not just his cooking methods, but also the nutritional value and flavor therein. And it’s not just the cooking that’s important: equally essential to the dining experience is the service from the chef and the staff. It’s an inseparable part of why people dine out in the first place, he says.   

Speaking of fundamentals, good sushi requires good ingredients, and Chef Matsuhata does not compromise. His ingredients come from all over Kyushu and the rest of Japan, with particular attention paid to rice, soy sauce and vinegar. With a keen eye for seasonal changes, he changes the blends of each accordingly, sculpting them carefully into gorgeous nigiri spreads right before his customers’ eyes at an open counter.