Hiroki Arakawa was born on July 25, 1972, in the city of Kumamoto. At seven, he moved with his parents to Osaka, where he first showed an interest in cooking. In school, the future chef wasn't a model student, but he cooked at home with enthusiasm and helped out in the kitchen. By thirteen, he already understood that the kitchen would be his life's calling. At 15, Hiroki started working at a restaurant that made udon, and a year later took a job as a cook at a kappo restaurant. That's where his long professional journey began.
Kappo is traditional Japanese fine dining with no menu, where the cook prepares food live at the counter and decides the dishes for guests themselves, drawing on the season and what's fresh at the market. Training at such restaurants is built on strict discipline: the first year, the apprentice washes dishes; the second, they help with simple processes; only after three years do they get to plate dishes, and a knife is entrusted to them only in the fourth.
Hiroki Arakawa went through every stage of this school — from cleaning fish to making sushi — which took more than ten years. At 28, he earned his license to prepare fugu fish and became a head chef for the first time.
After several years working in Japan, Hiroki Arakawa went abroad. In Singapore, he headed restaurant "Kuriya Dining," and later became brand chef with branches in Malaysia. His skill was noticed, and he was invited to Moscow to launch restaurant "Sakura Blossom." The trip was originally planned for one year, but the project stretched to 12.5 years. Throughout that time, the chef ran the kitchen, trained staff, and simultaneously served as director.
By the time he turned fifty, Hiroki Arakawa decided to return to his roots and become a cook again rather than an administrator. In Moscow, he opened restaurant "Arakawa," named after himself. Here he develops the kappo format and omakase culture, which has no fixed menu: dishes are born from the morning's market purchases and the chef's inspiration.
Hiroki's philosophy is simple — no technical spec sheet can replace experience and a feel for the ingredient. For him, gastronomy is the art of dialogue with ingredients and guests. Rice needs a different approach at different times of year, and every piece of fish its own handling. That's exactly why, in his words, only someone who's gone through the many-year school of Japanese cuisine can cook kappo.
Today, chef Hiroki Arakawa works on several projects at once. Besides his own restaurant, he's brand chef of Denis Bobkov's izakaya "Tabi." His name is associated with Japanese gastronomy in Moscow and with the highest precision in dish preparation. More than thirty years in the kitchen have turned him into a master who continues to develop Japanese cuisine in Russia and shape a new level of restaurant culture.
26.08.2025
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