THE SECRET TO SUCCESS: A SOUL-SEARCHING JOURNEY

Kenji Gyoten was born in 1982 in a seaside town in Yamaguchi. His grandfather ran a sushi restaurant, so sushi was part of his everyday life from when he was little. He still remembers the mornings when, around the time he would leave for school, his grandfather would come back from the market and place the fish of the day in the kitchen.

Gyoten, however, was hesitant to inherit the family trade at first. At eighteen years old, when his peers were deciding on their future, he flew to New Zealand alone and reflected on himself. Through his travels in an unfamiliar land, he learned many things, and at the same time, he became committed to the path of becoming a sushi chef.

“What influenced me most was when I became aware of taking responsibility for myself. As I was away from home for the first time, I had to depend on myself and myself alone in order to survive. From this experience, I realised that, to succeed as a chef, I need to take full responsibility for all of my actions and decisions.”

Later, he graduated from Tsuji Culinary Institute, then gained more experience at a well-known restaurant in Tokyo from when he was twenty-one to twenty-six, at which point he became independent. He opened a sushi place in his native prefecture of Yamaguchi.