Miyabi Uni

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.