By Ray Rogers
With some 56 Nobu locations—several receiving Michelin awards—spread across the globe and three Matsuhisa restaurants right in Colorado, it dawned on the partners of the latter: Why not bring some of the master chef’s global flavors together at one location? The palate-pleasing results are on display at Yuki Aspen, which opened this past summer and is now hitting its stride as the winter high season kicks off.
Yuki Aspen is a culmination of a culinary journey that’s been decades in the making. Like his merging of Peruvian and Japanese cuisines after living in Lima, Peru, at the outset of his career, the chef has taken inspiration from the many cultures where his namesake restaurants have found homes.
“It is chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s take on world cuisine,” says Michael Goldberg, a partner in Yuki Aspen, alongside his two sons David and Danny, brother Steve Goldberg, Nobuko Kang and Todd Clark. “It’s an interesting study of what he’s done around the world, and how he’s brought his Japanese influence to various places and put it all together.”
Matsuhisa always adds his own flair to regional or classical dishes from other locations, notes Goldberg. “A prime example is his paella. Years ago I tasted a paella that he had done at a Nobu in Melbourne, and that ended up with a little different twist.”
If it’s the chef’s famous sushi you’re after, head down the street to Matsuhisa. Yuki is an entirely different eatery, though with the same “special sauce” that’s the hallmark of the chef’s inventive cuisine, a merger of different cultures and influences.
Here, you’ll find dishes ranging from wagyu sliders to artfully assembled pizzas. “We have four different types of pizza—one has wagyu beef strips and an egg in the middle, another is a tuna and cheese pizza,” says Goldberg. Even a traditional Neapolitan-style pizza gets the Nobu touch with the inclusion of shiso garnishes, to give it a Japanese highlight.
The menu is one that was years in the making, recalls Goldberg. “Nobu would come to town and he’d say, ‘I want to do a Greek salad.’ We’d taste different iterations of a Greek salad, because he has restaurants in Greece. So, I think a lot of this has been through trial and error.”
The entire enterprise is not just a celebration of Matsuhisa’s cuisine; it’s also a place his partners in the venture wanted the great chef to feel at home in, as much as the guests savoring his creations. The design choices call to mind the look and feel of a traditional Japanese restaurant, in terms of the finishes, wood beams and trellises, all done with a simplicity to it, notes Goldberg.
Even the 75-year-old, 12-foot-tall Japanese black pine bonsai tree in front of the entrance to Yuki is a tribute to the restaurant’s namesake. “Nobu’s full name is Nobuyuki Matsuhisa,” explains Clark. “Matsu actually means pine tree in Japanese, and Yuki, the latter part of his first name, can mean either snow or happiness.” What could be more deliciously fitting for Aspen? yukiaspen.com