Tetsuya Wakuda

Tetsuya Wakuda grew up in the Japanese town of Hamamatsu in the Shizuoka Prefecture.  With a limited knowledge of English, and of the country which would become his home, Tetsuya arrived in Australia at the age of twenty-two, never imagining he would one day be embraced as one of the nation's favorite chefs.

Landing in Sydney in 1982 with nothing more than a small suitcase and a love of food, Tetsuya found his very first job as a kitchen hand at Fishwives in Surry Hills. A year later he was introduced to Sydney chef Tony Bilson, who was looking for a Japanese cook to make sushi at Kinsela's. It was at Kinsela's that Tetsuya learned classical French techniques, thus forming the beginnings of his own style of cooking, marrying the French technique with the Japanese philosophy of using natural, seasonal flavours.

In 1989, he went on to open his own restaurant, Tetsuya's, on a small site in the Sydney's suburb of Rozelle.  Relocating to the CBD in November 2000, Tetsuya refurbished the heritage-listed site to create his dream restaurant, complete with dining rooms overlooking an exquisite Japanese garden.

In addition to the restaurant, Tetsuya has introduced some of his most loved and admired recipes to kitchen and book shelves across the globe, with his cookbook Tetsuya, and expanding range of gourmet products.

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