Roy Yamaguchi
Roy Yamaguchi is an American celebrity chef/founder of a collection of restaurants that includes: Eating House 1849, Humble Market Kitchin, GOEN Dining + Bar, and Roy’s Worldwide. He is known as the innovator of Internationally Influenced, Hawaii Inspired cuisine – an eclectic blend of California-French-Japanese cooking traditions created with fresh ingredients from the Islands. He is the first from Hawaii to have been honored with the prestigious James Beard “Best Pacific Northwest Chef” Award in 1993 and has earned numerous honors including California Chef of the Year (California Restaurant Writers Association) Gault-Millau Top 40 (Forbes FYI), Top 50 Cuisines in America (Conde Nast Traveler), and the Fine Dining Hall of Fame (Nation’s Restaurant News).
Yamaguchi received his formal culinary training at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA). In 1988, he moved to Honolulu to open the first Roy’s Restaurant. Yamaguchi hosted six seasons of the PBS series, Hawaii Cooks with Roy Yamaguchi. He has published four cookbooks: Pacific Bounty, Roy’s Feasts from Hawaii, Hawaii Cooks: Flavors from Roy’s Pacific Rim Kitchen and Roy’s Fish and Seafood. Yamaguchi, co-founded the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, Hawaii’s premier epicurean destination. He established the Tom and Warren Matsuda Scholarship Fund, providing scholarships to students to attend the Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Founding the Roy Yamaguchi Annual Golf Classic in 1998, more than $850,000 has been raised for Imua Family Services. Yamaguchi also serves on numerous nonprofit boards including: U.S.- Japan Council, Go For Broke National Education Center, Culinary Institute of America and the Culinary Institute of the Pacific.
As of January 2024, Yamaguchi is the executive director of the Culinary Institute of the Pacific (CIP) at Kapiʻolani Community College. As executive director, he will also develop and oversee the operation of the new CIP restaurant at Diamond Head—the crown jewel of the program.
Related Event
In late 2013, Chef Lee Anne Wong uprooted from her hometown of NYC to move to sunny Oahu, Hawaii. There she partnered with Chef Kevin Hanney and opened up Koko Head Cafe in March of 2014. Specializing in locally sourced, creative brunch fare, Koko Head Cafe quickly became a community favorite and has received both local and national acclaim in print, online and on television. This special 90/90 event features a collaboration with Roy Yamaguchi of Roy’s Hawaii, Robynne Maii of Fete Restaurant and Michelle Karr Ueoka of MW Restaurant.