“I want to satisfy every customer,” Chef Koji Yoshida tells me. “And I want to close the gap between expectations and reality.”
For Chef Yoshida and his downtown Plano established order Ebesu, the expectancies are large. In 2022, he was once named a semifinalist for the James Beard Award — an honor that Chef compares to the Oscars of meals. “But to be honest, before that, I didn’t know what the James Beard Award was,” he says. Ebesu remains to be lauded with reward, making best-of lists for Dallas and its surrounding towns.
It’s an early spring afternoon. The eating place isn’t but open, and Chef Yoshida is taking a handy guide a rough spoil. He merits it. Making sushi and sashimi is difficult, actual paintings, however that’s no longer all Ebesu serves. The child ribs, particularly, are unbelievable. But so are the salads. And the Japanese fare. And so are the French-inspired scratch-made truffles — one thing that I used to be no longer anticipating to be so darn excellent. But after the scrumptious appetizers have been adopted with unbelievable mains, I will have to have discovered. Everything at Ebesu is excellent.
In 1996 on the age of 21, Chef Yoshida left his local Osaka and arrived from his local Osaka in Washington D.C. He didn’t talk English. He didn’t know what he sought after to do. The tradition was once other. “Everyone said I was going to go back home, but I didn’t want to give up,” he says. He wasn’t making plans on changing into a chef, however he simply sought after to check out one thing new.
Chef Yoshida were given a role at a cafe and temporarily discovered if he labored onerous, he may just prevail. “I came in early and left last,” he says. “I knew if I got better and faster, I could move up.” And that he did.
Ebesu opened in downtown Plano in 2019, with Chef Yoshida, who had labored his manner during the ranks, on the lead. “I wanted to challenge myself here in Texas,” he says. “There are still people who don’t know much about Japanese cuisine.” Chef was hoping that his a long time of enjoy may just prevail right here in Plano — and has it ever.
“I wanted to make a restaurant that served better-than-average food,” Chef Yoshida tells me. He’s being humble, particularly coming off a nomination for a James Beard Award, some of the absolute best honors a chef can obtain. His meals is infrequently higher than moderate. It’s remarkable. The menu is numerous, and for Chef Yoshida, that was once the purpose.
Prep paintings at the night foods starts. The wait body of workers will get in a position for patrons. Chef must get again to the kitchen. “You know,” he says, “I wanted this to be a restaurant where people could enjoy anything, and anyone could find something they liked.” That it’s, that it’s.