'He had a vision': 25 former Uchi staff members run their own restaurants, kitchens

“Without them, I’d be nothing.”

Chef Tyson Cole, whose famed sushi restaurant Uchi was inducted into this year’s Austin360 Restaurant Hall of Fame, uttered those words about his past and present staff recently when explaining his and Uchi’s enduring success.

In discussing his restaurant’s 20-year history, he returned repeatedly to his gratitude for his staff’s work ethic, imagination and collaborative spirit.

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“That’s your legacy. I wasn’t as good as them in a lot of ways,” Cole said. “The best part is vicariously watching the talent grow their careers. It makes you feel so proud.”

Cole’s humility in an industry where so often the spotlight falls on a singular talent is refreshing, but also warranted. It is undeniable that Uchi and its restaurant group, Hai Hospitality, which will soon have more than 20 locations of four concepts across the country, would not have achieved its level of success without attracting and cultivating top-level talent.

But former Uchi director of culinary operations Philip Speer, who is chef-owner of the modern Mexican restaurant Comedor, makes clear that Uchi’s foundation was created by one man’s imagination.

“Tyson deserves almost all the credit for that. He had a vision that people in Austin didn’t quite understand,” Speer said. “He really wanted to bring this amazing combination of food to this land-locked market that had been dining on barbecue and tacos. It was not only something he loved and wanted to create, but he wanted everyone else to, as well. He’s done so much for the Austin and Texas restaurant worlds. And he should be celebrated for that.”

Cole’s vision was rooted in the desire to blend flavors and textures to create unique food and heighten the service experience to the degree that every diner in the building felt as if they were getting the same level of attention as those seated at the sushi bar. That attention to detail demanded an incredibly well-trained, passionate staff that shared Cole’s buy-in.

“I couldn’t do what I wanted without a staff like that. And that pretty quickly became Uchi,” Cole said. “The staff here is so passionate every day; the culture is so consistent.”

Uchi arguably has spawned more talent than any other restaurant in Austin’s history. Dozens of alumni, after sharpening their skills there, have gone on to own their own restaurants or work in management positions.

Uchi’s consistency and commitment to excellence has cultivated leaders such as its director of culinary operations, Kaz Edwards, who has been with the restaurant since starting as a line cook in 2004. It has also left an impression on dozens of front and back-of-house employees who honed their trade at one of the Uchi restaurants before striking out on their own.

If Uchi’s talent really is Cole’s greatest legacy, it’s one about which the Florida native, who had never harbored thoughts of being a chef until he wandered up an unmarked flight of stairs to the restaurant Kyoto in downtown Austin in 1993, can be very proud.

What follows is a list of notable alumni with notes on some of their careers and comments about how their time at Uchi prepared them for their futures in the hospitality world.

Takehiro (Také) Asazu (chef-owner, Uroko, Kome and Sa-Ten)

Like Cole, chef Také pursued the visual arts before turning his creativity to sushi. Asazu, a native of Osaka, Japan, initially opened the trailer Sushi-a-Go-Go in 2009 with his wife, Kayo Asazu. They parlayed that success into the very popular Komé and partnered with Uchi alumni Moto Utsunomiya on Japanese cafe Sa-Ten and Masa Saio on the Springdale General sushi restaurant Uroko. Coming full circle, the couple opened Sushi-a-Go-Go at the Austin airport in 2022.

Damien Brockway (chef-owner, Distant Relatives)

The Connecticut native left a career in San Francisco to take a job at Uchiko in 2013. When he left Uchiko, he initially stayed in fine dining with stints at the since-shuttered Qui (owned by Uchi alumnus Paul Qui) and Counter 357. But a desire to explore his personal roots and the foodways of the African diaspora led Brockway to open the barbecue trailer Distant Relatives in 2021. The modern African American smokehouse has earned praise from The New York Times and multiple James Beard Foundation semifinalist nominations.

"Uchiko was the first place I worked in Austin. I met some amazingly talented people that are still in my life today all these years later," Brockway told the American-Statesman. "It was definitely a place that had gravity for drawing in talent."

Thai Changthong (chef-partner, Thai Kun and chef-owner P Thai’s Kaho Man Gai)

The Bangkok native opened up the game-changing street food trailer East Side King with fellow Uchi alumni and then spun that off for his ESK-branded Thai Kun trailer. The popularity of that pulls-no-punches truck led to the opening of Thai Kun at the Domain Northside, the city’s best Thai restaurant. His latest venture, the Hong Kong Supermarket food stand P Thai’s Khao Man Gai, finds the chef making the Hainanese chicken and rice dish of his youth in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

Justin Huffman (executive chef, Justine's)

After several years working in California, including as co-founder of boutique seafood delivery company Mayday LA, this Uchi veteran returned to Austin in 2021 to helm the kitchen at the French restaurant where he previously had worked his way from sous chef to chef de cuisine. In addition to guiding a kitchen cooking French classics and seasonal seafood specials, Huffman runs burger pop-up Le Beef.

"Uchi was home. It was the first time I felt excited to come to work, and I needed to learn everything that I could," Huffman told the American-Statesman. "I will always be forever grateful for the chef it shaped me into and the standards I still carry today about food, service and culture."

Fermín Núñez (executive chef, Suerte and Este)

Before he became one of Austin’s most recognizable chefs, a class of 2021 inductee as a Food & Wine Best New Chef and part of two kitchens (Suerte and Este) that have landed on national magazine lists of best restaurants in the country, Nuñez learned the ropes working as a line cook at Uchiko a decade ago.

“Apart from learning about flavors and techniques, two of the biggest things I learned from my time at Uchiko were the attention to detailed organization, not only in the kitchen itself but also on how you carry that onto yourself as a chef, by how you look, talk and hold your personal self to the same standard,” Nuñez told the American-Statesman. “The second one was to truly understand the power of great hospitality, and see the benefit it can do for a business and the effort it takes to train and have team members believe and follow your goals.”

Yoshi Okai (executive chef, Otoko)

Kyoto native Yoshi Okai was one of the first chefs at Uchi and worked there when Cole was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2005. The charismatic and creative Okai would go on to earn the same award 12 years later as the chef at Otoko, the modern kaiseki restaurant perched in the back of the South Congress Hotel.

June Rodil (partner, Goodnight Hospitality in Houston)

Few people have had as big a hand in the modern world of Austin hospitality as June Rodil. Though she lives in Houston now, where she is operating partner of one of the city’s toniest hospitality teams, she helped elevate Austin’s service standards with her work at the Driskill Grill, Congress, Jeffrey’s and, of course, Uchi. Rodil is one of fewer than 200 master sommeliers in the United States and one of only about two dozen female masters.

Masazumi “Masa” Saio (chef-owner, Uroko)

Cole said that when he opened Uchi, one of his main stressors was trying to find five Asian cooks who could work the sushi bar. He eventually found and trained his crew, and though they were from all over Asia, Saio was Japanese. Saio was working as a hairstylist in Japan, and Cole was introduced to him through mutual friends. Cole brought him to the States and trained him,and Saio ended up being one of the most recognizable faces at Uchi, working at the South Lamar Boulevard restaurant for 19 years before partnering with fellow Uchi alumnus Take Asazu to open the handroll-by-day, omakase-by-night Uroko in Springdale General.

Philip Speer (chef-owner, Comedor)

Tobacco cream, fried milk, candied quinoa. These are some of the indelible marks left on the Uchi menu during Speer's 11 years as executive pastry chef and director of culinary operations. Speer says that creativity as an act of learning and a collaborative process that included plenty of feedback and constructive criticism prepared him for his future as a chef-operator.

Speer’s French(ish) bistro Bonhomie in North Austin had a regrettably short life, but he returned as chef-owner of the inventive and gorgeous modern Mexican restaurant Comedor. Few chefs are as closely identified with the early success of Uchi and Uchiko as Speer.

“The experience I gained as a young chef at Uchi translated in a way that allowed me confidence to not only create but to receive and give that same collaborative feedback in my own kitchens,” Speer told the American-Statesman. “Tyson taught us it’s always an editing process and that is the most important part of a menu creation, the ability to have enough humility in your art to change course from the original concept.”

Amanda Turner (chef de cuisine, Olamaie)

Turner might be the chef de cuisine of upscale a Southern restaurant (Olamaie), but her career in cooking focused on global flavors early, starting with an internship at Uchi and a job on the opening team at Uchiko. She later worked as chef de cuisine at the Italian restaurant Juniper under fellow Uchi alumnus Nic Yanes and as chef de cuisine at Tiki Tatsu-Ya.

More notable Uchi alumni

• Blake Aguillard (chef-owner, Saint-Germain in New Orleans)

• Ben Cachila (partner, Old Thousand)

• Val Cantu (chef-owner, Californios in San Francisco)

• Willet Feng (owner, Burgerchan in Houston)

• John Gocong (chef-owner, Osome)

• Masatomo “Masa” Hamaya (executive chef, O-Ku in Atlanta)

• Zach Hunter (culinary director, Pedal Haus Brewery in Tempe)

• Jeffrey Miller (chef-partner, Rosella Sushi in New York City)

• Patrick Pham (chef-owner, Kokoro, Handies Douzo and Aiko in Houston)

• Susana Querejazu (chef-partner, Lutie’s)

• Paul Qui (chef-partner, FAM Hospitality Group, with restaurants in Austin, Houston, Denver and Miami)

• Brett Shaw (executive chef, Liholiho Yacht Club in San Francisco)

• Moto Utsunomiya (partner, East Side King and Sa-Ten)

• Niki Vongthong (executive chef of Hidden Omakase in Houston)

• Nic Yanes (partner, Juniper and Uncle Nicky’s)

More 2023 Austin360 Dining Guide

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More online

Read the 2023 Austin360 Dining Guide at austin360.com/diningguide.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: 25 Uchi alumni are running their own restaurants and kitchens