Nobu Matsuhisa

With an empire of 35 sites spanning the globe, Nobu-san is one of the most successful restaurateurs in the business. He tells Mark Sansom where his food comes from and where he sees it going

I’m proud to say that I brought ‘Nobu style’ cooking to the world.

It’s based on my upbringing in Japan, then Peru, mixing the traditional flavours of both cuisines. When I opened Nobu in Los Angeles in the Eighties, it really felt as if food was changing. I still remember the first dish I cooked: steamed mussels with South American salsa. No one had tried it before but the locals and critics loved it. It gave me the confidence to really start experimenting. I haven’t stopped since.

My favourite city in the world for food and travel is Tokyo.

It’s the sheer scale of the place and the variety of food on offer. I’ve always said that I eat anything, or will at least try it once. Tokyo is the one place that really tests me.

I admire the Greek style of cooking.

They know that food doesn’t need to be messed with. If you’ve got the best fish in the world, treat it simply. Pull it out of the water, put it on the grill, add salt and lemon juice and you’re done.

It inspired me to open my restaurant in Mykonos.

The team of chefs I have there complete the summer holiday season, then all up sticks together and move to Matsuhisa, the restaurant I’ve just opened at Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St Moritz. It allows me to keep the same standards and gives the chefs a great experience of seeing the world.

There are four key chefs I admire and speak to regularly to discuss ideas:

Daniel Boulud, José Andrés, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller. I’m 66 now, and everyone is younger than me, so they come to me for advice. I want to keep pushing boundaries until the day I die.

For a relaxed dinner in London,

I love going to The River Café, http://www.rivercafe.co.uk, and Barrafina, http://www.barrafina.co.uk. They both do simple but ridiculously tasty food. My favourite place though, has to be new sushi restaurant The Araki, http://www.the-araki.com, near Savile Row. It’s the first in the capital to do new-wave Tokyo food. It has only nine seats and serves just one menu, but it’s some of the very best sushi in the world. Chef Mitsuhiro Araki’s attention to detail is impeccable. He had three Michelin stars in Tokyo and it won’t be long before he gets them here too.

One ingredient I can’t live without is soy sauce.

It’s key in everything I cook and is in my own interpretation of ceviche. I add it to tiger’s milk, though never use too much acid. It’s simply soy, fresh ginger, coriander, chilli, garlic and salt.

Aged tequila is my favourite drink.

I much prefer it to whisky; the flavours are so much more complex. But that could just be because I was introduced to the really good stuff during my time in South America. If I grew up in Scotland my taste would probably be different.