On Stage

Chef Jon Matsubara is shaking up the Honolulu food scene with ‘couture cuisine’

Friday - May 18, 2007
By Alice Keesing
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Matsubara with wife J’mi and daughter Brooke

ning his ambitious center melding furniture design and entertainment in the heart of Honolulu, he knew he wanted Hawaii’s next culinary star to head up the food side of the venture.

Sorensen signed on the 33-year-old Matsubara before he’d even tried his cooking.

“I knew I trusted him,“he says simply.

Later, when Sorensen did get to sample, he says he was blown away.

“Jonnie put together things that I never thought would work together,“Sorensen says.“It was foaming and purple - it was unbelievable.”

At Stage, Matsubara has carte blanche to create his own menu. He has coined the term “couture cuisine” to embody his trend-setting style and to tie in with the décor side of the design center.

Couture cuisine,he promises,is different from anything else you’ll taste or see in Honolulu.It’s all about eclectic flavor profiles and fashionable presentation - the food tastes as good as it looks.

On the menu you’ll find an organic egg with sake-marinated salmon caviar, scallions and yuzu cream (the chef is displaying it in our cover photo). There’s a black cardamom-spiced lamb chop, lobster with pickled beet, and hapuupuu in a gewürztraminer cloud ... (We’ll stop now in case we’re making you drool.)

Meanwhile, Sorensen set the stage for the restaurant with a design that is both sleek and quirky at the same time,from the large lamp-hatted horse at the entrance to the VIP table where diners repose on creamy leather Fendi chairs.

The Stage restaurant is just part of Matsubara’s new domain. The food and beverage side of the design center employs about 100 people.It starts with the crema coffee bar downstairs and also includes the Amuse wine bar, the Cupola special events theatre and the Ice Bar.

The center is open seven days a week, and Matsubara is there every day from around 9 in the morning and often until 1 the next morning. The hours might sound exhausting, but Matsubara waves it all off.

“I’m back home with my family and I get to live my dream every day,” he says.

He gets to start his days with his family. He and J’mi have a 2-year-old daughter, Brooke, and another child on the way in September. Brooke wakes him up in the morning and helps him grind the beans for his coffee.

Then it’s off to the design center where he starts the day planning the specials and drilling the front of the house on the menu. There are always meetings for upcoming banquets and other special events.There is the planning and ordering. And during the lunch and dinner services,Matsubara’s commanding presence can always be seen in the open plan kitchen.No plate leaves without going by him first.

It’s a long way from those early days washing dishes.But there are still times when Executive Chef Matsubara rolls up his sleeves to rinse off a few plates.

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