If all had gone to plan, Keisuke (Kay) Kobayashi would be an electrician today and his Seattle restaurant Yoroshiku, specializing in Hokkaido cuisine, would not exist. In our conversation Kay discussed what caused his radical career change, and how Seattle’s appetite for specific dishes prompted Yoroshiku’s own rebirth.
When and why did you decide to start a restaurant?
In 2006 I moved here from Japan, and I was trying to become an electrician. I was studying engineering at North Seattle College, and the electrical company I was working for in the summer offered me a job. But six months from my graduation, my mom found out that she had Stage 4 cancer. I quit everything and moved back to Japan as she started chemotherapy.
My older brother had just married and had a baby, and my other brother and dad were unable to take time off their jobs. I went to the hospital every day to encourage her. But after she passed away a year later, I realized I needed to go back to the US to fulfill my dream here.
When I got back, I went to an immigration lawyer with my boss. They said I couldn’t get a Visa as a residential and commercial electrician. So I asked how I could get a Visa, and they said starting a restaurant was the fastest way.
So I changed careers completely, and decided to start a food business so that I could get a Visa and live in America. It was 2008, and I moved back to Sapporo to learn cooking and management through an apprenticeship that would last four years.
I asked my friend Koichi, who was a chef and had spent his career in the restaurant industry, if he would move to Seattle to start a restaurant. Koichi agreed, and he, my wife and I moved in 2012 to start Yoroshiku in half of the space it’s in today.
Was the original vision of Yoroshiku a Hokkaido-style restaurant?
Actually I focused on Yakitori, as the beginning of Yorishiku in 2012. And that was hard. Yakitori was getting famous outside of Seattle, and we focused most of our menu around the grilled dishes. But our one ramen dish was getting popular, and the Seattle Times featured it in a review. We got busier and busier, and eventually we had to replace our yakitori grill with a noodle boiler. That transformed the restaurant into a ramen Izakaya.
Do you think you would want to return to yakitori?
I want to open another location. Yorishiku crossed with yakitori would be very hard. You have to prep 500-800 skewers a day, which we wouldn’t be able to do here anymore. I’ve also started a project to bring Hokkaido soft-serve to Yorishiku next year, with milk from Hokkaido dairies.
In Hokkaido cuisine, the local ingredients and freshness are so important. Does that make it difficult to replicate those dishes here?
Most of the ingredients we use are easy to source locally, but some Asian vegetables are challenging. Things like shiso, mizuna, and Japanese green onions aren’t usually available locally. Our produce company orders these from California, but the majority of the ingredients are local we can deliver the signature fresh flavor.
What’s been the most difficult challenge in educating customers about Hokkaido food?
When I started the restaurant in 2012, a lot of people asked what yakitori and ramen were, and where the sushi and teriyaki were. People would come in, look at the menu, and then leave. 90% of Japanese restaurants in Seattle are not Japanese-owned, so there is less diversity of dishes. Change is happening though, and it’s better today than it was in 2012.
If you could serve a meal to any person in the world, who would it be?
Anthony Bourdain (laughing). I would have loved for him to try our restaurant. Koichi (Yorishiku’s head chef) said he would serve my mom.
Enjoy Kay and Chef Koichi’s current take on the cuisine of Hokkaido at Yoroshiku in Wallingford, or Yoroshiku East in Bellevue. To learn more about what makes Hokkaido’s cuisine unique, check out A Taste of Hokkaido.
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