Shinbashi Chef Chie Shirahata

November 1, 2008 LuvKitty 1 Comment

Growing up in the Iwate prefecture on the northeast coast of Japan, Chef Chie Shirahata was, from a young age, very interested in the art of food. Making her foray into the restaurant world by rolling sushi in a restaurant near her home, she quickly showed an aptitude for the art of sushi and was taken under the wing of her chef to learn all she could.

From there she moved to Umenon, a very traditional Japanese restaurant in Tokyo and attended the Tsuji Cooking School where she honed her craft and began to develop a serious respect for the aesthetics of Japanese cuisine along with exacting technical skills that she would take with her throughout her career and went on to open her own restaurant, Usagiya. For over seven years, Shirahata operated this traditional Japanese style brasserie in the heart of Tokyo before leaving Japan for New York in 1990.

During her time in New York, Shirahata has worked in the kitchens of a number of popular Japanese restaurants, including working as a kitchen sous chef at Kikyo Cuisine and Kiroihana and as kitchen chef at West Village favorite Taka, before taking a position at Nobu Matsuhisa’s eponymous Nobu in 1995. An extremely rare position for a woman in this Japanese male dominated profession, she became a kitchen instructor, Shirahata was responsible for training the kitchen staff on all the Japanese techniques that she had learned throughout her career and later became the consulting chef during the restaurant’s expansion, first at Nobu London and later at Matsuhisa in Aspen, Colorado. Upon her return to New York, Shirahata further expanded her skills by stepping away from traditional Japanese cuisine to work in more French inspired establishments Voyage and Mi before returning to her roots to open Chelsea’s Momoya where she garnered raves for her creative, nouvelle Japanese menu.

Black Cod Recipe

Following a hiatus from the kitchen, Shirahata took the position as executive kitchen chef with the recently reopened Shinbashi restaurant, a New York institution of authentic Japanese cuisine. Shirahata’s experience with both Japanese and French cuisines has allowed her to develop a menu at this Midtown favorite that is at once traditional and modern and showcases Shirahata’s mastery of a meticulous Japanese aesthetic that takes into account not only the intricacies of flavor, but also attention to the visual element of each dish.

Shinbashi opened over 30 years ago and has withstood the traditional ebbs and flows of New York restaurants and has developed a loyal following amongst its customers. Since then, the founder’s son has taken over the reigns and transformed what was once a traditional Japanese sushi restaurant into a modern tri level space with updated versions of traditional dishes. Chef Shirahata has since left Shinbashi but she shares one of her signature recipes that is a hallmark dish at Shinbashi.

Shinbashi

7 East 48 St

NY, NY
212.813.1009