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Japani Sushi legend Jiro Ono was three michelin Having been a star for more than a decade, he is the oldest head chef in the world to do so. He has served the world’s elite and his sushi art was featured in an award-winning film.
After all these achievements and even at the age of 100, he is not ready to retire completely.
“I plan to continue for the next five years,” Ono said last month before her birthday, marking Japan’s “Respect for the Elderly Day” with a gift and a certificate.
What is the secret of his health? “To work,” Ono answered the question. tokyo Governor yuriko koikeWho congratulated him.
“I can’t come to the restaurant every day anymore… but even at 100, I try to work if possible. I believe work is the best medicine.”
Ono, the founder of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a small 10-seat sushi bar in the basement of a building in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district, turned 100 on Monday.
search for perfection
She is now among about 100,000 centenarians in Japan, one of the world’s fastest-aging countries, according to government figures.
Born in the central Japanese city of Hamamatsu in 1925, Ono began his apprenticeship in the Japanese restaurant of a local inn at the age of 7. He moved to Tokyo and became a sushi chef at the age of 25 and opened his own restaurant – Sukiyabashi Jiro – 15 years later in 1965.
He has dedicated his life to the pursuit of perfection in making sushi.
“I have not yet reached perfection,” Ono, 85, said in the film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” released in 2012. “I will keep climbing trying to reach the top but no one knows where the top is.”
Director David Gelb said his impression of Ono was “of a teacher and a father figure to everyone who came to his restaurant.”
Initially, Gelb was intimidated by the “seriousness” of the legend, but was soon disarmed by Ono’s humor and kindness, he told The Associated Press in an interview from New Orleans. “He’s very funny and very sweet.”
“I was filming an octopus being massaged for an hour and he was worried about me,” Gelb recalled. Ono told him that he feared the director was making the most boring film ever and that he could leave if he wanted.
“He was very generous and gracious to do that,” Gelb said. “Of course I was determined, and I was like, no way… massaging octopuses is fascinating to me.”
regular people come first
Ono is dedicated to the service he provides to his regular customers, so much so that he turned it down when the Japanese government demanded a reservation for the then-U.S. President. Barack Obama and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014.
“I declined because the restaurant was fully booked, then they agreed to come in the evening,” Ono recalled. “But (Obama) was enjoying sushi and I was happy.”
Ono’s son Yoshikazu, who worked with his father and now serves as head chef at the Ginza restaurant, said Obama smiled and winked at him when he tasted the medium-fat tuna sushi.
His restaurant earned three Michelin stars in 2007, as he became the first sushi chef to do so, and retained this status until 2019, when he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest head chef of a three-Michelin-star restaurant at the age of 93 years and 128 days.
In 2020, Sukiyabashi Jiro was removed from the guide as it began taking reservations only from regular or top hotels.
In recent years Ono serves sushi only to his special guests, “because my hands don’t work so well.”
But he has not given up. His son Ono says that after watching television news about the death of Japan’s oldest man at 113, he said another 13 years seemed possible.
“I’ll aim for 114,” Ono said.
“I value my life so I get to work long hours,” says Ono. He doesn’t drink alcohol, walks regularly and eats well.
When asked about his favorite sushi, Ono quickly replied: “Maguro, kohada and ango (tuna, gizzard shad and saltwater eel).”
Gelb wished Ono a happy birthday in Japanese, saying, “It’s an incredible thing that this tradition continues and is still going strong 100 years later… It’s an inspiration to everyone.”