25 years of rice grain by rice grain: the story of Spago Budapest’s sushi masters

For a long time, Japanese cuisine was a mysterious and distant world in Hungary. However, two dedicated professionals, chef Gábor Vellai and his wife, Harumi Nomura, who is of Japanese origin, have been working for a quarter of a century to bring authentic Japanese flavours closer to the Hungarian public. Their journey together began by chance, and today they are responsible for the sushi menu at Spago Budapest by Wolfgang Puck.

Harumi Nomura was originally a fashion designer in Tokyo before coming to Budapest to teach, while Gábor Vellai joined the kitchen of a Japanese restaurant in the mid-1990s. What started out as a coincidence has since become a consciously built career and even a special “love” for Japanese cuisine and for each other. The restaurant is preparing special dishes for the Hungarian Formula 1 race, which gave them the opportunity to talk about their beginnings, compromises on quality, and the true nature of Japanese cuisine.

A chance encounter and the birth of a passion

When asked whether their commitment to Japanese cuisine was clear from the beginning of their careers, they both emphasised the role of chance.

“A very good friend of mine invited me to work at the first ‘Japanese restaurant’ in the 8th district in the mid-1990s,” recalls Gábor Vellai. “At that time, we knew much less about these cultures. The restaurant was opened by a lady living in Japan who wanted authentic, high-quality Japanese cuisine. We sourced the ingredients from abroad, often having to bring them from Vienna or Germany because they simply weren’t available in Hungary. Of course, the situation is much better now.”

Harumi Nomura’s journey was similar. “At that time, you couldn’t even get Japanese rice or soy sauce in Budapest. I hadn’t even thought about cooking Japanese food back then. When I came to Hungary, I was teaching at a Japanese school. A lady who worked there told me that there was an opportunity to help out at a restaurant. The Japanese owner was looking for someone to supervise the chefs in the kitchen to ensure that Japanese standards were maintained. I didn’t cook at the time, I was just a taster. But I got bored and said I’d like to work in the kitchen. I feel very lucky to have gotten into this—I had wanted to cook for a long time.”

Gábor emphasised the importance of Harumi’s role in the beginning: “Harumi was really needed. Hungarians tend to cut corners and want to do things the easy way. Harumi’s job was to supervise us chefs and tell us how things should be done in a Japanese kitchen. Because the more corners you cut, the more the end product changes and is no longer the same.”

Harumi has been living in Europe for more than 25 years, in Hungary since 1999, and she has worked with her husband almost the entire time, with a brief stint in Norway.

The price of quality and the true face of sushi

Japanese cuisine has come a long way in Budapest in recent decades, but with the proliferation of cheaper sushi bars, the question arises: where is the line between “real” sushi and average sushi?

“Even today, [good quality sushi] is considered a luxury,” says Gábor Vellai.

“Good quality sushi simply cannot be produced cheaply.” Harumi Nomura added: “All the ingredients are expensive, especially if they are of high quality.”

Gábor spoke candidly about the cheaper sushi that arrives on a conveyor belt: “All sushi is real, there’s nothing wrong with it. There are many price categories in Japan too. I’m happy to eat a simple salmon and avocado or tempura shrimp maki at a random place. I know what I’m getting—the rice is different, the fish is different—but it can still be delicious. However, we try to offer the best of everything: rice, nori, wasabi, ginger – we look for quality in everything. Once you encounter sushi made from high-quality ingredients and prepared well, because it’s also important that it’s prepared well, you immediately taste the difference and realise this.”

Innovation and tradition: the flexibility of Japanese cuisine

Is it possible to innovate in a cuisine as steeped in tradition as Japanese cuisine? “It is possible, and indeed it is necessary,” says Gábor Vellai. “Even the choice of rice and nori is a matter of style. It’s the preparation that really counts. The freshness, cutting and storage of the fish are very important.”

Gábor also said that incorporating international ingredients creates new opportunities: “You can combine really good ingredients in ways that would never occur to you in Japan. For example, we use a lot of South American flavours, jalapeño peppers and coriander.”