Roy Yamaguchi

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Roy Yamaguchi is a Japanese-American chef.

Yamaguchi was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan but now lives in the U.S. State of Hawai`i.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, he spent time in Los Angeles in apprenticeships at L'Escoffier and L'Ermitage under the late master chef Jean Bertanou. He was soon elevated to executive chef status with stints at Le Serene and Le Gourmet. He then opened the Euro-Asian 385 North in West Hollywood, featuring Asian presentations of French classical themes. He then moved to Hawai`i, where he opened Roy's in 1988 and, with other local chefs, helped to pioneer the trademark of Hawai'i Regional Cuisine. He is Hawai`i's first-ever James Beard Award winner. After opening three other Roy's locations throughout the Hawaiian Islands, Roy branched out to the continental U.S. and opened restaurants in Pebble Beach, California, Seattle, Washington, Scottsdale, Arizona, New York City, and more recently, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Atlanta, Georgia, Tampa, Florida, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. Besides his 12 U.S. locations, Roy's eclectic blend of East, West, and Polynesia can be found in Japan, Guam, and Hong Kong, and his cuisine is also available to Continental Airlines Business First travelers traveling between Asia, Hawai`i, the West Coast, and the Southwest.

He is also notable for being the host of the cooking show Hawai`i Cooks and appearing as Iron Chef Asian in the first American incarnation of the Japanese television show Iron Chef, Iron Chef USA, although he did not compete in either of the show's two episodes.