Isao Minami

EXECUTIVE/MASTER CHEF

Minami-san is a professionally trained French and Japanese chef whose skills have been honed and refined over the last 40 years.  Beginning his culinary career in Japan in 1973 at the Kuurakuen horse race stadium as a line chef, Minami-san’s journey in Japan has taken him through opportunities at the Tokyo Business Hotel to his own establishment, a successful high-end French/Japanese fusion restaurant in Aoyama, Tokyo.  In 2003, in support of his daughter’s dream to become an Olympic ice skater, Minami-san moved his family to the United States and continued working in the culinary field, as an executive chef for Benihana USA in Torrance, CA.  In 2013, he left Benihana to explore his skills surrounding the preparation of sea urchin and served on the founding culinary team as an executive chef for the Maruhide Uni Club in Torrance, CA.  Minami-san served in this role all the way up until opening Miyabi Uni with the general partners in 2017.

Hisao Kasama

EXECUTIVE/MASTER CHEF

Hisao-san is a professionally trained Japanese chef with 50 years of experience spanning from Japan to the United States.  As a young chef, Hisao-san worked in a variety of establishments in Japan/US before opening his own Japanese fine dining restaurant in Florida in 1983. The restaurant had a long successful run of almost 20 years before the lease ended in 2002 and the landlord decided to sell the property for redevelopment.  Seeking a new opportunity and adventure with his family, Hisao-san moved to California in 2003 and continued his culinary career by taking on the role of an executive chef at Benihana USA in Torrance, where he met chef Minami-san.  He joined Minami-san at the Maruhide Uni Club in 2013 and helped develop the concept as an executive chef there until working alongside Minami-san and the general partners to open Miyabi Uni in 2017.