A few highlights from Uchiko year one:

1. opening in July with over a month of reserved seating and invites from list compiled through all of our staff and our Uchi database. The baby got thrown in the deep end of the pool from the get go!

2. Staff changes: lost my GM, head sushi chef and a number of key people within the first 3 months. Revenue wasn’t up to expectations in the beginning…i asked everyone to be patient….and then….

3. Word of mouth spread. North Austin although expected, was a much different challenge than south of the river as we had done before. We worked diligently to study, improve and make necessary menu changes including bringing 7 key signature dishes over from Uchi upon demand.

4. By the spring Uchiko was getting hitting stride. Food was gaining pace, a daily special sheet had begun, and

halibut,onion candy,yuzu kosho oil,coconut milk.

service was improving daily and we started to see the most important necessary change for longevity: regulars that lived near by. The neighborhood peeps are the lifeblood of any successful restaurant.

5. Then suddenly the James Beard nominations came out and both Phil and Paul and myself were all named! But best of all: Best new restaurant nom in America: Uchiko, as well!

6. Within weeks a buzz had been had. Danny Devito worked the whole floor at Uchiko one service with Rosario Dawson, and Andy Roddick was suddenly a regular. Uchiko started to set  full bloom and show it’s potential self.

7. The culmination came in NYC with the James Beard awards in May when i was honored to win the best chef in Southwest USA category, on my 4th nomination and first time finalist. Speechless. A night in New York that night that i’ll never forget. Pride was shinning out of my pours, and i was elated to have Paul and Philip both there with me. There’s are still to come i’m sure…

Thanks to everyone that’s put in all the work and dedication over the past year into helping Uchiko become what it is today….and even more so thanks to our guests and loyal cliental that give us the reason to get out of bed every day to chase perfection in every bite. Onto year 2!

End of May on the way and for my peeps that means a trip out to Lost Pines resort where we take them out for a couple days of much needed R&R, great food, swimming and just overall good times together away from the restaurants. This is the first year with Uchiko in the mix, which means altogether it’s likely to be 200ppl +! On sight catering all set up too: the best new BBQ in the world coming in to feed us: Franklin bbq!

Kyoto restaurant is where my life as i know it today began, and why it’s sad to see it go. I’ll never really be able to figure out what possessed me to apply there in the beginning; i kinda wanted to work downstairs below at the Elephant Room to be a bartender, but when i went to apply in the afternoon they were closed, so i went up the stair instead of down and applied at Kyoto instead.

Working in the Catskills; the year before i started at Kyoto.

Serendipity.

Work at Kyoto was tough. I started on dish and had to prove myself to the other dishwashers right out of the gates. One of them was nicknamed “Uzi”, and he would always show me the large pocket knife switchblade he carried when he got upset…and i’m pretty sure half the time he was stoned anyway because he always tried to sell me weed from friends of his who would bring it up “from the valley”. Overall he was all talk, and a nice enough guy..i got him on my side and eventually got promoted to fry cook/prep cook…but the older Japanese women named Kiyoko who was the kitchen chef there didn’t want any part of a white guy in her kitchen so i got relegated to lunch time waiter.

I hated being a waiter. My uniform was terrible. Slip off Japanese sandals,black rubber trays, and a dayglow pink t-shirt with the Kyoto logo on the front, it was the early nineties and i felt like a gay member of “Wham!”. lol. Waiting tables there was super hard too! The restaurant was shotgun style, with the sushi bar in the front with 18 seats, a sushi dining room, a regular dining room with about 15 tables…and the tatami room with its own challenges and another 12-15 tables as well. The kitchen was tucked in the back and a long hallway circumvented the entire space. There were 2 dishes on the menu that were prepared tableside: Zosui and Sukiyaki. As the waiter if someone ordered it; i would panic. It meant i had to bring portable gas burner out the table…and all the ingredients,etc to set it up..and then start the pan on the stove and add each ingredient one at a time in progression to cook the dish correctly. Then i had to serve it in bowls to the guests upon completion. It was alone the hardest thing i’d ever done; i didn’t even know hot to cook!; but the real icing on the cake: sometimes id have 3-4 tables in my “section, (there were no sections), all order sukiyaki at the same time! id literally be running from the kitchen to the sushi bar to the tables like lightning, my pink t-shirt covered in sweat…a mad crazy chaos of panic and urgency; it was one of the most stressful jobs of my life. i was working double shifts waiting tables, lunch and dinner and sleeping in the tatami room on the floor between shifts to save bus fare.  I needed to get out of the waiting tables thing asap.

I started to befriend the Japanese chefs while i was a waiter. They would make me dishes to try, and over time i started to really like the food. Id go out with them every night after work to the bar downstairs, then to their apartments late at night and watch VHS tapes of Japanese tv and game shows. I started to fall in love with the originality of everything Japanese; it was such a departure from everything that i knew and i was full on committed to learn everything i could from the people i worked with and so respected. My chef Kiyohisa Hara would later take me under his wing as an apprentice, and later after that i worked side by side with the owner Kasuga-san making sushi rolls as well. It was the genesis of my sushi career, and some of the most valuable memories i possess.

A shock of electric ecstasy shot down my core to my feet when they called my name at the awards in front of everyone who is anything in the food world today. I was pacing the gigantic Avery fisher hall; a kinetic bundle of nerves. I saw it on screen that i’d won and it was almost a relief. I was so incredibly nervous i drank 5 bottled waters waiting to hear the results! (they wouldn’t server any alcohol until the end of the show and the beginning of the tasting; i’ve never needed a shot of liquor so bad in my life!) My lips were numb as i gave the acceptance speech, and walked from there off stage into a flurry of flash bulbs and anxious reporters & industry peeps. A culinary oscar? Why, yes it is! Completely surreal.

So many hours of work. So many nights away from my wife and family. And, so many people whose commitment and dedication to my vision of what Uchi could become to make this all come to fruition. I’m the sum of all that we’ve created and owe it all to my staff , my partners and my family. Congratulations to all.  So very excited now to bring this award to Austin and continuing our push to make this city into one of the premier dining destinations in all of the country.

Next step: Uchiko’s adolescence into maturity, and Uchi Houston open by years’s end.

My hero Jose Andres and me. James Beard winners!

Uchi Houston update: Looks like we’ll be open by Nov.1. So much to do before then, i’ll get to know the drive well. Thinking about a larger,heavier car with that in mind too. The space of the old Felix restaurant is now cleaned out, (it was horrible when we first went inside after being empty for almost 3 years, a couple fires and homeless living inside), but now you can really see the bones of the building and the space; very little of which we’re going to change too drastically in order to pay respect to a place that was so iconic to Houston for so many years in the past. We’ll bring new life to it, updated, and ready to serve the best Japanese food in the city. Uchi,again.

Hiring like crazy now in preparation for the opening; we’ll dilute both our ATX restaurant in order to open Houston and will need to fill those spots pro-actively in time to get everyone up to speed and trained to our standards. We’re sending our director of opps, 2 mgrs, 2 chefs, and 2 sushi chefs to Houston semi-permanently, and Phil and i will be whisking back and forth quite a bit to oversee operations. (Maybe we should film the whole thing and add it to our social media footprint too?!)

Felix: i can almost see the Uchi wallpaper soon.....

Spring in ATX, the best time of year…minus the cedar and oak pollen onslaught. Lots of fun& new sensational dishes at both restaurants with springtime focus and Uchi brightness. Looking forward to our yearly staff retreat and taking the entire staffs at both places out to Lost Pines resort over Memorial day; might be 200 ppl+!  In the meantime, finishing up Austin resto week here soon, getting through the Easter weekend/week and then on a plane to NYC to cook at the Beards and Conde Naste in early May. What an honor it would be if somehow this is my year and finally won the JBeard award. Nervous as hell. Just found out i’ve got to dress up and sit in an assigned seat at the awards! I want to wear my chef whites and white steve maddens and make food instead! We’ll be making our sweet/savory take on sea urchin and corn: Uni/corn. Sweet corn sorbet with dried sea urchin bottagra and fried kelp. Hope it knocks it out of the park. We’ll be prepping at the Union Square hospitality group prep/catering kitchen; so very thankful for their kind offer. Still have to finalize vessel,portion,shipping,and execution details. Best part: the long list of restaurants we plan on trying over the days we’re there for R&D. Cannot wait to eat Uni at Soto again. His food is flawless Japanese. My obvious fav. Also looking forward to 11 Madison park, ABC kitchen,Lincoln, Fatty crab,

Uchi goodness: pickled ramps,lemon,pistachio,scallop.

brunch at Balthazar and a long list of other recommends. Buns in Chinatown and slices in Lil Italy. Hoping not to make the 90 block walk we made the last time in the city the preceded my Iron Chef America appearance. Good times, but my feet were fucked after! Think we ate at over 30 places in 4 days that trip; see what we do this time around…..eat,focus,talk,walk,blackberry,google maps,….eat,etc,etc……

Such a crazy month last month, still trying to mentally catch up and get ready for the rest of the spring. The Uchi cookbook released with lots of signings and press. So very proud of my team for all the work we did in putting it together. Sucker for punishment, i’m already imagining one dedicated to Uchiko too! Fun events over this spring: a great time at the Hill Country event at the Long center this past weekend, SFC dinner this weekend at La Condesa, quite a few tastings and signings for the book throughout, and culminating in May with our trip to NYC to cook at the James Beard awards where i finally made it to finalist. Stiff competition in my SW group with my friend Bryan Caswell from Houston, Bruce Auden from SA, and the usual Las Vegas chef extraordinaire. Spent the day in Houston in meetings with my partner at the site for our new Uchi to open there by fall. Met some incredible people,ate some good food, and went to the college championship too! Really confident the location we picked out is close to perfect, with lots other great new places opening up soon as well just nearby; the new epicenter for Houston dining soon enough. Nice drive back to ATX yesterday early..walked into 2 hours of Uchi/KO mgmt team meetings and last night cooked at Uchi for tons of happy peeps and my great friend Lance. Good times. Bring on the spring!

Paul's garden of edible delights at the Long Center