Japanese-born chef Tetsuya Wakuda is one of Australia’s – and Asia’s – culinary giants. His unique fusion of Franco-Japanese cooking, with its pure, decisive, refined flavours, has influenced many of his peers, and can be experienced most famously at his eponymous Sydney restaurant (a high temple of gastronomy in the city for more than 25 years) and also, since 2010, at his new restaurant – Waku Ghin – in Singapore.

Born in Hamamatsu, Japan, Wakuda emigrated to Australia aged 22 with a suitcase, a passion for food and his mother’s chicken karaage recipe, still a favourite of his more than 40 years later (see Chicken Karaage). His first job as a kitchen hand at Fishwives Seafare Restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills came to an end when he was snapped up to be a sushi chef at one of Sydney’s most iconic restaurants, Kinsela’s. And it was here that Wakuda learned classical French cooking techniques, while experimenting with the flavours of fresh seasonal produce.

It didn’t take him long to work out that he’d like to open his own successful restaurant in Sydney, an ambition he realised in 1989 when Tetsuya’s first opened its doors at its original site in the city’s Rozelle suburb (it relocated to central Sydney in 2000). It instantly earned him the highest recognition and legendary status for his signature dish: a confit of petuna ocean trout with konbu, celery and apple.

Despite the renown and elegance of his professional cuisine, Tetsuya isn’t above chomping on a bit of fast food, Aussie hamburger style with all the trimmings – ‘the lot, including beetroot!’ He’s also partial to Japanese mayonnaise, specifically the brand Kewpie.

A long-held dream is to open a restaurant in Kyoto, back in his native Japan, but Wakuda is nevertheless content living in his adopted home of Sydney, where he likes nothing better than to see what’s been landed at the city’s fish market. Leatherjacket, bonito or ribbonfish are favourite catches: often underrated, he believes, ‘but they taste so good – deep-fried or stir-fried, or sashimi.’

Secret Food Haunt

Sydney fish market, located in the city’s Blackwattle Bay two kilometres west of the Sydney CBD (central business district). The market incorporates a working fishing port, wholesale and retail fish markets, and several seafood eating outlets.