Grand Masters

Australia’s love affair with Japanese cuisine had complicated beginnings. Max Veenhuyzen talks to veteran chefs about the early days of the relationship.

- Max Veenhuyzen

Australia, one can confidently say, is crushing hard on Japanese food. From exclusive, seemingly impossible-to-book omakase restaurants such as Minamishima in Melbourne or Sushi E in Sydney, to regional styles of ramen and Hokkaido baked cheese tarts, Australia’s Japanese dining options deliver across the board. While this diversity is impressive, even more remarkable is how quickly Japanese food has established a foothold in this country.

Food historians believe Australia’s first Japanese restaurant was not a restaurant, but rather the Sukiyaki Room pop-up operated by Chieko Yamasaki in 1957, inside Dungowan Restaurant in Sydney’s Martin Place. The following year, she moved the restaurant to Kings Cross and, in 1961, rebadged Sukiyaki Room as Sukiyaki House.

Other establishments began opening throughout Australia with operations such as Brisbane’s Little Tokyo (1966), Melbourne’s Sukiyaki Licensed Restaurant (1970), Perth’s Sukiyaki (1972), and Adelaide’s Samurai (1972), each being the first Japanese restaurant in their respective cities.

(The popularity of Sukiyaki as a Japanese restaurant name, suggests chef Kozo Shigeyoshi of Perth’s longest running Japanese restaurant Shige, can be attributed to the English name given to Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto’s chart-topping song, “Ue o Muite Aruko”).