Moco Kubota

Ever since I was just a child, I never liked milk, was allergic to eggs, couldn’t eat chicken at all, and almost never ate pork. I was raised by a father who loved eating meat and by a mother who was primarily vegetarian.

From my father’s influence, I learned to enjoy beef, but from my mother’s side I came to appreciate vegetarian delights such as umeboshi, a type of salty plum known for its health benefits, sesame and spinach. In fact, even if I was late for school, my mother would put an umeboshi in my mouth before sending me off. In fact, she always created very tasty dishes whether simple or elegant. One of my earliest duties in our family was to be the official taste-tester and another was to decorate the plates beautifully with garnish. In cooking, my mother is definitely my master, and as I reflect back upon the years I find my lifestyle has always naturally been close to following the principles of Macrobiotic.

I have created new dishes since 1988, when we opened our very first restaurant. There has been an unintentional preference for vegetarian dishes over meat dishes, but it was only later that I realized this from customer compliments. Now that I have gained a Macrobiotic Certificate of Concierge, I find that my life’s flow has always been towards this natural, healthy way of living and eating. In fact, I closed Kai Restaurant in order to study more about the Macrobiotic way and to create my dream restaurant of safe and natural, healthy food based on my own original idea. We decided to open HALE where Kai used to be for a new start, with a policy and concept to provide healthy and tasty food to customers in the same fashion as our first restaurant, Kaiseitei, in Tokyo. To be able to express this knowledge and beauty in tasty dishes at HALE is a dream come true.

HALE in Hawaiian means “home” or “castle”, in Japanese means “sunny”, and in Old English means “health”. It is my wish for people to have a happy place to eat beautiful food, in a comfortable, homey environment. I want everyone to enjoy a sunny experience in mind, body and spirit, and it is with this intention that we opened HALE. I hope to see you here soon eating a tasty, perfectly healthy and balanced meal at HALE!