French chef Kiyomi Mikuni (71) appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) on April 2nd. Mikuni, known as "a master of French cuisine in Japan," revealed the moment he decided to become a chef.
In 2015, Mr. Mikuni was awarded the Legion of Honour by the French government. He was the first Japanese chef to receive the honor. Mr. Mikuni expressed his delight, saying, "Since I work in French cuisine, it's truly a great honor to receive the highest honor in that field."
Mikuni, who grew up in a fishing town in Hokkaido, was always told by his mother to "become a restaurant owner." He said, "I only had a junior high school education, so my mother would tell me to become a restaurant owner because I didn't have a good education. She would say that if I became a restaurant owner, I wouldn't starve."
At the age of 15, while working as an apprentice at a rice shop in Sapporo, he had the opportunity to eat a hamburger for the first time in his life. "The meat and the sweet and sour sauce were incredibly delicious. It was a taste I had never experienced before. That's when I thought, 'This is it!' I decided to become a chef who makes hamburgers," he revealed.
For Mr. Mikuni, hamburgers are a special dish. He has decided that the last dish he wants to make in his life will definitely be a hamburger. "I go around the country teaching cooking to elementary school students, and I always make hamburgers. When I tell them that I was poor and the first time I ate a hamburger was what inspired me to become a chef, they are all incredibly moved," he said, his eyes narrowing.
