With a career in the hospitality industry for nearly 20 years, Joji Saito has been practising his craft in a variety of fine dining, bistros, cafes, and gastropubs, most recently as a head chef. Saito has ten years of experience from working as a chef in Japan before moving to New Zealand to further his career.
His inspiration is authentic Japanese cuisine. However, he enjoys being able to create dishes by applying his experience from various cultures, all whilst preserving the original flavours.
In New Zealand, sushi is commonly associated with Japanese food. Saito said that he has strived to create menus that can showcase the diversity and deliciousness of Japanese cuisine and has aimed to broaden people’s perception of it. At Saito’s Restaurant, Zero, his signature dish is Paitan Ramen, a chicken-based broth that uses a slow cooking process to create a rich and flavourful aroma, not commonly found in New Zealand.
Zero Japanese Ramen and Sake Bar is located in Brown’s Bay on Auckland’s North Shore. The restaurant offers authentic Japanese cuisine from specially crafted recipes by Saito and his team and a wide variety of sweet and dry sake for customers to quench their thirst.
Among the various difficulties of running a restaurant, Saito said that the shortage of skilled personnel is a serious issue that the industry faces. He said that the overall passion from others for the profession has dwindled in recent years.
“Moreover, with the widespread availability of recipes on the internet, the need for young chefs to experiment and learn while cooking has diminished. This could make it difficult to nurture inexperienced chefs into head chefs or sous chefs,” said Saito.
Saito has encouraged aspiring chefs to work not only with the type of cuisine they prefer but also to gain a wider breadth of experience from as many types of restaurants as possible. He added that this kind of experience will undoubtedly be highly valuable for chefs when it comes to designing their own menus as a chef.
Throughout his career, Saito has been proud to have been head chef at Zero, as well as his former restaurant, Kazuya Restaurant. In the future, he aspires to expand beyond Auckland and bring Japanese food culture to all of New Zealand.
