Morimoto was born May 26, 1955 in Hiroshima Japan. Although he is from Japan, he doesn’t visit much because he doesn’t have much family there. He has been married for over 30 years now to his wife, Keiko Morimoto. Before he even became a chef he wanted to be a professional baseball player. When he was in his 20s he was going to be drafted into Japan’s major league team as a catcher but a shoulder injury forced him to quit. …show more content…
He went going against 6 chefs that each had different cooking styles, including: Japanese, French, Chinese, and Italian cuisine. His record was 16 wins, 7 loses, and 1 tie. He competed for a year in Japan before he moved to America. The producers of Iron Chef America managed to qualify Morimoto to be part of the show in 2006. With 11 seasons running, his record for Iron Chef America is 26 wins, 17 loses, and 1 tie. Adding both records from the two shows, his total score is 42 wins, 24 loses, and 2 ties. Later on “The Next Iron Chef” aired in 2007, Morimoto made multiple appearances as the guest judge. During the show, and throughout Morimoto’s career his cuisine had been Japanese fusion. He believes in fusing food for unique tastes that were unfound. He has created unique dishes like, “Non Raw Fish Sushi,” and “Super Bowl Shrimp Nachos.” The ingredients for the non-raw fish sushi is smoked salmon, crab cake, grilled eel, and veggies. For non-vegetarians you can add a slice of seared beef, poached shrimp, or tuna. The super bowl nachos are a blend of baby shrimp with deep fried tortillas chips and a special Gochujang Aioli sauce and ranch dressing. With cherry tomatoes, guacamole, jalapeno slice thin, also 1/6 of a lime in micro cilantro. The dish are both unique in taste and are different from the normal dishes made in Japanese restaurants, which makes …show more content…
The following are his restaurants: Morimoto Philadelphia, Morimoto New York, Wasabi by Morimoto (Mumbai & New Delhi), Morimoto Sushi Bar (Boca Raton, FL), Morimoto Napa, Morimoto Waikiki (Honolulu), Morimoto Mexico City, Morimoto Maui, Japonais by Morimoto, Morimoto South Beach (Florida). All of his restaurants have been highly successful. Aside from his restaurants, he has gotten two very important awards. The first one is The Culinary Hall of Fame which he received in 2012. He was was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame on February 17, 2012. The second award was “The Minister’s Award for Overseas Promotion of Japanese Food,” which was given to him February 19, 2013. This award is a distinction from the ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Since then, Morimoto has done several other things. On June 4, 2015, he went to the Annual BottleRock Napa Valley Music Festival. Which is said to bring together music and culinary talents on one stage. He worked with rapper Snoop Dogg, who had never had sushi before, so Morimoto taught Snoop Dogg how to make a California Roll and gave him his first sushi. On May 7, 2015 he worked at the Japan State Dinner at The White House. He was asked to join White House executive chef, Chris Comeford, and executive pastry chef, Susan Morrison. Together they created a one of a kind menu for the Japan State Dinner at the White House. On March 20,