Tetsuya Wakuda

Wakuda left Kinsela’s in 1983, and together with one of the managers from Kinsela’s set up Rose’s nightclub, where Wakuda worked as a chef for a year. After leaving Rose’s, he was introduced to chef Hans Mohr through the late restaurateur Anders Ousback. He worked as second chef with Mohr for only six months.

After a short stint as head chef at Hunters Hill’s The Post and Whistle, Wakuda started Ultimo’s with a Kinsela’s head waiter Sean Dwyer in 1986. It was here that he began learning the responsibilities of operating a business. Two years later however his partner was forced to leave the business, and Wakuda decided to sell rather than take over due to the high rent and unsatisfactory location.

The eponymous Tetsuya’s opened in 1989, in an unassuming space with an upstairs room located on Darling St in Sydney’s Inner-West suburb of Rozelle.

Tetsuya’s occupies a large, heritage-listed property on Kent St in Sydney’s CBD that once housed the former Suntory Restaurant. The restaurant seats up to 140 people, including private dining rooms and two larger main dining rooms overlooking a Japanese garden.

Tetsuya’s has received a number of awards. The restaurant was named "Restaurant of the Year" in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, 2008 edition. Tetsuya’s has also ranked within the top five of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In the 2010 list, Tetsuya's was ranked 38th. Tetsuya has won an award every year from 1992 to 2017..

In 2010, Tetsuya's second restaurant, Waku Ghin, opened in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands with an offering of a 10-course tasting menu. In 2015, it was listed as #70 on The World's 50 Best Restaurants. It was subsequently awarded one Michelin star in the 2016 Singapore edition of the Michelin Guide and then two Michelin stars in 2017. It has maintained its two-star rating since 2017.

Tetsuya was given an Order of Australia medal in The Queen's Birthday 2005 Honours List, "For service to the community and the development of Australian cuisine as a chef, restaurateur and author, to vocational training, and to support for charitable groups."

The restaurant was remodelled in 1993, increasing seats to 65, with an expanded and re-fitted kitchen. In November 2000 Tetsuya’s moved to a larger location in Sydney’s CBD where it remains today.

Over the years, the restaurant attracted favourable reviews. In 1992 the influential The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide awarded the restaurant Three Hats - the highest possible rank. Wrote one 1990’s GFG reviewer:

In 1983, Wakuda met Sydney Chef Tony Bilson (later head chef of the acclaimed Bilson's restaurant), who offered him a job preparing sushi at Kinsela’s in Taylor Square. Under Bilson, Wakuda learnt many of the classical French techniques that underpins much of Wakuda’s Japanese-French fusion cooking today. Bilson was also the first to begin fostering Wakuda’s drive to discover new flavours that has become part of Wakuda’s culinary philosophy, by encouraging him to experiment during his time at Kinsela’s. Wakuda says of his time at Kinsela's "At Kinsela's was where I realised I wanted to, and discovered that I could, cook. It was where I started learning classical French technique. I made up a lot of things along the way, and luckily for me, people liked the way it tasted."

Tetsuya Wakuda OAM (和久田 哲也 , Wakuda Tetsuya) (born June 18, 1959) is a Japanese-born Australian chef based in Sydney, Australia. He also appeared as the leading judge in the final episode of the second season of Junior MasterChef Australia.

Tetsuya Wakuda was born on 18 June 1959, in the city of Hamamatsu, in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Wakuda made his first visit to Australia at the age of 22.