Interviews

1. What Makes Japanese Cooking In Peru Interesting (Japanese)

2. Integrating As First-Generation Japanese-Peruvian (Japanese)

3. Peru Representative vs. Japan Representative (Japanese)

4. What’s Next as a Chef (Japanese)

5. Japanese-Peruvian Cuisine (Japanese)

6. World-Renowned Peruvian Cuisine (Japanese)

7. Fusion Cuisine (Japanese)

8. Thoughts on Japan (Japanese)

9. Bento menu for hostage incident (Japanese)

10. Delivering Dinner for Former President Fujimori (Japanese)

11. Inspirations for Living Abroad (Japanese)

12. Memories of the Late Yoshitaro Amano (Japanese)

13. Difference Between Past Immigrants and Today’s Immigrants (Japanese)

(b. 1962) Japanese restaurant owner and chef in Peru

Peru Representative vs. Japan Representative (Japanese)

(Japanese) In Italy, Spain, and elsewhere, I’ve been announcing many things. When that’s going on, Peruvians look at me simply as a Peruvian. And when they pick it up in the newspapers for a while, they’ll really get into it. They’ll say Toshiro Konishi is introducing many Peruvian things. In that way, it’s not so different from Mexico or Argentina.

Therefore, from the Peruvians’ perspective, I’m a representative of Peru. For example, at Italy’s Sardinia tuna festival, I attend as a Peruvian. But the local people wonder why my Spanish is terrible, and I always end up speaking Japanese. That’s, of course, because I’m Japanese. So the local folks ask me, “Are you really from Peru?” You know Peru already has 100 years of history with Japanese-Peruvians. So when asked, I talk about that as the reason why I’m representing Peru.

cooking cuisine food fusion cuisine generations identity immigrants immigration Issei Japan migration Peru

Date: April 18, 2007

Location: Lima, Peru

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Toshiro Konishi was born on July 11, 1953, the fourth son of a long-established Japanese restaurant owner in Saito City, Miyazaki Prefecture. Having played in the kitchen from around the age of six, at 11-years-old, Konishi began helping out in the kitchen with other chef candidates. Then in 1971, at age 16, he headed to Tokyo and became a chef at the restaurant “Fumi”.

In 1974, he moved to Peru with Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, known in America, Japan, and elsewhere for his Japanese fusion cuisine at his restaurant, “Nobu”. After working at the Japanese restaurant “Matsuei” for ten years, he opened “Toshiro’s” and “Wako” in a Sheraton hotel in Lima. In 2002, he also became manager of “Sushi Bar Toshiro’s” in the San Isidro region.

Aside from running the restaurants, he taught at San Ignacio de Loyola University, participated in culinary festivals around the world, introduced innovative cuisine known as “Peruvian Fusion” (a mix of Japanese and Peruvian cuisines), and received numerous awards. In 2008 he became the first Japanese chef based in Latin America to receive the Japanese government’s Minister's Prize from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. (October 2009)

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