Atsushi Kono
Atsushi Kono | |
|---|---|
 Kono in 2025 | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | Yakitori chef |
| Known for | Kono |
Atsushi Kono (河野睦, Kōno Atsushi) is a New York City-based yakitori chef and breakdancer. He was the executive chef at Yakitori Torishin for ten years before starting his own yakitori restaurant, Kono, in 2022.
Kono has been twice-nominated for the James Beard Award in the Best Chef: New York State category. Pete Wells, writing for The New York Times, gave Kono three out of four stars, named it an NYT Critic's Pick, and called Kono a "Yakitori Master" as well as "the city’s most accomplished yakitori chef and, by extension, one of its greatest chicken cooks."[1]
Early life
[edit]Kono grew up in Saitama Prefecture in Japan.[2]
Career
[edit]Breakdancing
[edit]Prior to his career as a yakitori chef, Kono was a breakdancer in Japan. He first came into the art at the age of twelve and then joined a professional dance crew, Rock Steady Crew, at the age of eighteen—at the time, he was also working at his family's fish market and restaurant.[3]
When Kono moved to the United States in 2006, he worked in restaurants while maintaining his hobby of breakdancing and also deejaying. After over a decade of working in the restaurant business, Kono still breakdances "for fun and for training and fitness."[2]
Restaurants
[edit]Kono was the executive chef at Yakitori Torishin in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan for over a decade starting in 2006.[4][5] There, he "discovered that dance and rhythm were inseparable from his cooking" and saw yakitori as a practice involving tempo. In addition to yakitori, Kono also cooked kaiseki cuisine, learned modern culinary techniques, and promoted zero waste in his practice.[3] In an interview with Bon Appétit, Kono stated that it took him an entire decade to master yakitori and all of its processes.[6]
In April 2022, Kono opened his own yakitori restaurant, Kono, with fourteen seats in the Canal Arcade of Chinatown, Manhattan.[7][3] He told Represent that he had always wanted to open a restaurant in a hideaway—like under an overpass or in a tunnel, much like the yakitori restaurants he had seen in Japan—where he could cook and play hip-hop music for his patrons. In 2023, Kono was the venue for Nas' 50th birthday party.[8]
At his yakitori restaurant, Kono serves a sixteen-course omakase tasting menu which utilizes up to thirteen different parts of a chicken.[9][10] E. Alex Jung, writing for Grub Street, called Kono's yakitori "chicken in its most elevated form."[11] The restaurant was a finalist for a James Beard Award, in the Best Chef: New York State category, in 2024 and 2025.[12][13]
References
[edit]- ↑ Wells, Pete (2022-07-25). "Restaurant Review: At Kono, the Chef Knows Chicken Inside and Out". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- 1 2 "This Chef-Approved Meatball Stew Is Your Answer to Boring Post-Workout Meals". Men's Health. 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- 1 2 3 Hatchett, Caroline (2022-08-01). "The Secret to NYC's Most Exciting New Restaurant? Break Dancing". Robb Report. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ Baskette, Izzy (2022-04-26). "Yakitori Fare Shines at a New 14-Seat Tasting Menu in Chinatown". Thrillist. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ Fabricant, Florence (2022-04-26). "Kono, Yakitori From an Expert, Opens in Manhattan's Chinatown". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ "14 Seats, 16 Courses, 1 Chef: A Day With The Yakitori Master at Kono". Bon Appétit. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ EDT, 2022 6:00 am. "Learn How a Yakitori Master Makes the Tokyo-Style Chicken That Just Hit NYC". InsideHook. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ↑ "Nasも通うB-Boy料理人・河野睦の焼き鳥店「KONO」とは？ | Represent". heads-rep.com (in Japanese). 2024-07-30. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ Dalal, Avery (2023-01-11). "How Chef Atsushi Kono Makes Chicken Skewers Out of Wings and Testicles". Eater. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ Video, Eater (2019-05-02). "Watch: How Yakitori Master Atsushi Kono Makes 13 Skewers Out of One Chicken". Eater. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ Jung, E. Alex (2023-02-09). "The Best Way to Stop Taking Chicken for Granted". Grub Street. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ "The 2024 Restaurant and Chef Award Nominees". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
- ↑ "The 2025 James Beard Restaurant and Chef Award Nominees". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved 2025-04-21.