Hideaki ‘Santa’ Miyoshi, one of Hawaii’s most creative master sushi chefs, dies at 61

One of Hawaii’s most creative master sushi chefs, recognized for innovative and artistic dishes at Tokkuri Tei restaurant for 33 years, has died at the age of 61.

Hideaki Miyoshi, known as “Santa,” died July 5 after falling and hitting his head at his St. Louis Heights home almost two weeks prior. He was born Nov. 9, 1960, in Kagawa, Japan.

Among his more prominent awards, he won first place in the professional category at the Sam Choy Poke Contest in 1999 and 2001, and at the Hawaii Rice Festival contest in 2010 and 2011. His 2009 cookbook, “Izakaya Hawaii: Tokkuri Tei Cooking,” is lavishly illustrated with exquisite food creations, which combined Japanese cooking with influences from French to Hawaiian to Italian. He was also a certified specialist of the Society of Wine Educators.

In 2021 his towering octopus sushi cake, topped with edible flowers, won a Best of Honolulu award from Honolulu Magazine. The review praised his flair for the offbeat and whimsical: “The small tako with ikura salmon roe eyes and a half-moon takuan smile, nestled amid sashimi rosettes and slices of fresh abalone, scallop and amaebi, jumps out on Tokkuri Tei’s Instagram page.”

The chef was a pioneer of casual izakaya (Japanese sushi bar) restaurants in the state, opening Tokkuri Tei in 1989 on Sheridan Street with partner Kazu Mitake. They moved to a larger location in Kapahulu 10 years later, blocks away from its present Kapahulu Avenue location, where it has operated since 2010. They later took on a third partner, Takashi Sato.

Mitake, who manages Tokkuri Tei with his wife, Akimi, said the restaurant survived several economic crises over the decades due to Miyoshi’s innovation and ability to devise a varied menu with little going to waste.

“He had an interest and intensity in wanting to learn,” Mitake said. “He was like a sponge.”

He said Miyoshi learned to cook local food inspired by Hawaii’s multiple cultures, and fused traditional and contemporary ethnic recipes. Their first venture was a lunch wagon (the Munch Wagon) in Campbell Industrial Park.

Mitake, an experienced chef, taught the left-handed Miyoshi his knife skills when he first moved to Hawaii in 1984 to manage the Honolulu branch of Shiru Hachi (which closed two years later). When its chef suddenly quit, Miyoshi couldn’t afford to hire anyone else and was forced to take his place, though his only experience had been heating up instant ramen.

Miyoshi cut his fingers every single day, and customers complained until Mitake taught him how to wield a knife. At the time, Mitake was a chef at the Yanagi Sushi restaurant across the street and had gotten to know Miyoshi as a regular pau hana customer at Shiru Hachi, he said.

“When somebody in need, you stay and help,” he said. Their friendship developed to the point where, Mitake said, “I felt like he was my brother.”

Around that time, they befriended Janice Vitarelli, who was an architecture student and a regular customer at Shiru Hachi. Miyoshi and she were married in 1987 and had two daughters.

Janice Miyoshi-Vitarelli, a high school culinary teacher, said before coming to Hawaii, her husband was a poor law student in Tokyo who supported himself by washing dishes at Shiru Hachi. He discovered the amazing taste of the food served there and began watching the chef and taking notes on recipes, she said.

Though he barely spoke English, he leaped at the offer of a job at the restaurant’s Honolulu branch because he’d always dreamed about going to America.

His wife shared a passage Miyoshi once wrote: “I guess I am an example of a self-taught chef. I do not have any credential for cooking, no formal training, no cooking school diploma. But through perseverance, passion to learn and experience, I was able to be a chef.”

Miyoshi-Vitarelli said she was always attracted to her husband’s artistic flair and originality.

“He loved the challenge of doing something new and making anything people like to eat,” she said. She would help him with food displays while competing in Sam Choy’s poke contests on the Big Island for several years.

In recent years her husband turned his skills toward vegan foods to rectify his health issues. They talked of retiring to Maui, where Miyoshi-Vitarelli’s family resides, and opening a vegan restaurant, she said. Her fondest memory is of their evenings off when he made dinner and they’d play music together — he on guitar, she on harmonica — she said, wiping away tears.

Miyoshi-Vitarelli said her husband’s nickname, “Santa,” was not a reference to Santa Claus, but a play on Japanese words alluding to his plumpness while in high school.

But their daughter Sophie Sayako Miyoshi said, “When we were kids, I had my own Santa Claus.”

Her father shared the same characteristics of the iconic Father Christmas in that “he was very giving, his jolliness.” He had a good sense of humor, and he always wanted people to have a good time, enjoying food, she added.

Yumiko Chico, a waitress at Tokkuri Tei for 25 years, remembered him fondly.

“He was my boss but also like my brother and my friend,” she said, choking back tears. “He’s such a humble, hardworking boss.”

Miyoshi would jump in to wash dishes, joke with the staff and cook meals for them after work. “It was so good,” she said. “We all sit down together.”

Besides his wife and daughter Sophie, Miyoshi is survived by daughter Mari Ayako Miyoshi of Honolulu and his mother, Hiroko Mi­yoshi; brother, Yasuko Mi­yoshi; and sister, Rie Okubo, all of Kagawa, Japan. He is predeceased by his father, Ayumi Miyoshi.

A celebration of life will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Tokkuri Tei, 449 Kapahulu Ave., with a slideshow presentation and no formal program.