"nobu" news and stories

Fashion Week has yielded many surprising moments over the past week, but the one we're most interested in is legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld's strange food issues. At a recent luncheon honoring his long and influential career in fashion, a source told the Telegraph he "politely refused to eat any of the food the hosts prepared."

The luncheon was then delayed, holding up esteemed guests like Vogue editor, Anna Wintour, so that Lagerfeld could get his lunch delivered from the only place he likes: Nobu. Later, Lagerfeld could be seen with a plate "full of tuna and salmon sashimi with a delicately gloved hand," while "the fashionistas around him were gamely eating the 'normal' food," the Telegraph reports.

Lagerfeld also will only drink Pepsi Black, a rare variety of Pepsi, despite his deal with Coca Cola -- he had designed limited edition bottles for them earlier this year.

While chef and restaurateur Nobu Matsuhisa continues to wrestle with boycotts by environmentalists and plenty of celebrity scorn for not removing endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna from his worldwide menu, savvy restaurateurs at sushi joints like Tataki in San Francisco, Bamboo in Portland, Ore., and Mashiko in Seattle have embraced 100-percent sustainable sushi menus, which means you can toss aside the handy seafood guide in your wallet and enjoy your meal guilt-free.

These thoughtful sushi chefs are substituting sustainable items like Arctic char for red-listed farm-raised salmon; and U.S. farm-raised kampachi in place of hamachi. At Tataki, they're even welding some clever culinary slight-of-hand by swapping silky sustainable sablefish for the red-listed farm-raised eel traditionally used for unagi. They've dubbed it "faux-nagi" instead, and customers are clamoring for more.

Restaurants part of the chain Nobu, partially owned by Robert De Niro, were caught last weekend selling endangered fish. It looks like De Niro should keep a closer eye on his investments. The people over at Greenpeace tested the DNA of fish served at a Nobu in London and discovered that it came from endangered bluefin tuna. Apparently, Nobu's principal manager carelessly labeled the endangered fish with an asterisk on the restaurants' menu, rather than stopping to serve it.

The eco-blog Planet Save posted an article harshly criticizing the fact that Nobu had not taken the fish off the menu and that De Niro hasn't taken a stronger stance against the decision of the chefs to serve the fish. Refering to an article from The Telegragh, Planet Save explains that although bluefin tuna is not illegal, a crisis meeting will take place in November to discuss a possible ban on fishing it.

Do you think restaurants have a moral obligation not to sell endangered species? To me, this seems like an obvious yes! However, the problem arises when the food being banned is part of a culinary tradition. In other words, if you outlaw an ingredient, you may neglect cultures that depend on it for sustaining its cuisine.

There is nothing quick about Nobu Now, despite the imperative in the title. The "now" refers to the fact that this recent cookbook from Chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa reflects the current menu of Nobu - and there is very little that is quick about it.

The book is a large volume filled with stunning color photography or equally stunning dishes. This is one of the factors that contributes to it being more of a coffee table book than a cookbook, despite the presence of over 100 recipes. The other factor is that the recipes are not necessarily all that easy to follow, with the layouts sometimes at odds with the photos and ingredient lists that include nearly impossible to find items. This isn't to say that the recipes won't turn out well if you do make them, just that you may be limited to a smaller portion of the total included in the book and that it might become something of an ordeal to make it exactly as written. But as I said, the book is just gorgeous to look at, so even with its faults, it will be a source of culinary inspiration even if it never makes it from the coffee table into the kitchen.

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You only turn 32 once and Victoria Beckham knows it. The wife of footballer David Beckham and former Spice Girl celebrated her birthday with a blowout dinner party at the couple's Madrid home. The highlight of the night was unquestionably the dinner. They flew in Mark Edwards, head chef at London's Nobu, and his team to serve a meal at a cost of £200 per person ($350). There was also a significant cost to Beckham just to pry the chef away for a night, reportedly in the neighborhood of £10,000. The meal consisted of 11 courses, including Posh's favorite edamame and scallops, seared salmon with tomato and miso, a variety of sashimi, grilled sea bass, low-fat seared steak, skewered beef, dumplings, exotic fruits and sorbet desserts. There was also a birthday cake, of course, served with green tea and chocolates.

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