Celebrity photographer Michael Simon is posing Sean Kaufman — breakout star on the still-viral TV show The Summer I Turned Pretty — outside of a swim-up suite, at the Nobu Hotel Los Cabos on the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
“Dip your toe in the pool,” he directs the 25-year-old, as the camera fires off a series of shots.
Simon is the man behind some of Hollywood’s most famous bikini photos, having captured everyone from Kim Kardashian to Lindsay Lohan (ankle monitor and all) in this garb circa the late 2000s. Clearly, times are changing: Kaufman, for one, isn’t flashing his abs, and Simon’s female subjects this weekend aren’t too keen on parting with their cover-ups either.
Still, there’s one constant that has carried over from that era, and it is the enduring popularity of the Nobu brand, which first launched in 1994 as a restaurant in Tribeca with Robert De Niro as its co-owner. More than 30 years later, Nobu has expanded into a proper lifestyle empire, with books, hotels, and, yes, multiple restaurants across the world to its name. One of its most photographed — and celebrity-loved — properties is none other than the Nobu Hotel Los Cabos, which marked its sixth anniversary with a star-studded bash.
The talent roster Nobu Los Cabos hosted for the occasion featured Jesse Tyler Ferguson (accompanied by Justin Mikita and their kids), Kaufman, Robin Thicke, Carmen Electra, Chrishell Stause, Liza Koshy, and Amaya. All were eager to start the party as soon as they arrived, but whether they landed with their luggage intact was a different story. Let’s just say Kaufman was called what the A-list crowd considers to be slur-adjacent — an outfit repeater.
As part of the celebrations, the guests of honor got to enjoy a Taste of Nobu sunset dinner — a survey of the best Nobu dishes from locations worldwide, tiradito and spicy tuna rolls included — which ended on a high note with a beach fireworks display worthy of its setting. The crew also sailed to the famous Arco de Cabo San Lucas, but not before attending a sabrage soirée, where champagne was opened saber-style with no shortage of pomp. Stause, the actress, real estate agent and reality star known for her role in Selling Sunset, immediately started playing wife G Flip‘s singles while on aux duties. And Thicke kept his spirits up with literal American Spirits, sneaking off to use them as a social-battery recharge in between courses of chocolata clam aguachile, a hokkaido uni sushi cup, and Japanese A5 wagyu.
It’s unlikely that, at any other point, this lineup of stars would spend time with each other, better yet the multiple days and nights at a Michelin Key–winning resort during which they mingled, drank and enriched their already-present tans in the Cabo sun. We can credit only Nobu Matsuhisa — the famed chef and business owner behind 19 hotels, from Manila to Marbella, and more than 50 restaurants — with the kind of power to bring people together that was necessary to pull off a jubilee of this caliber.
If you were completely unfamiliar with the cult of Nobu, you wouldn’t have a clue that the 76-year-old Japanese native, who pairs glistening Nike Air Force 1s with his chef’s whites, is the fuel behind it all.
I meet him first on a yacht, where he’s drinking tea on the bottom deck with his team before stepping out onto the bow of the boat for photos. (Yes, everyone wants a photo of Chef, especially while he’s in his natural element, barefoot and wearing merch from Los Cabos Sushi Club, which offers apparel and pop-up activations for fans of Matsuhisa’s work.)
Only a day later do I finally sit down with the man face to face, fresh off his sushi-making course alongside Gregorio Stephenson, executive chef at Nobu Malibu, and Toshiyuki Shiramizu, the Nobu Restaurant Group’s corporate sushi chef. It looks like the busy weekend has gotten to Matsuhisa, but he still has those signature, impeccable manners on display, not to mention a willingness to get to know his clientele better — be they journalists or those on intimate terms with the Billboard Hot 100.
I’m curious about what makes Nobu Los Cabos special, not according to critics but in Matsuhisa’s own words. “ We have restaurants in big cities, but [they’re] not like this one,” the James Beard Award–winner tells The Hollywood Reporter. He goes on to mention that the place is ripe with possibilities for connection, remembering a man he met while strolling on the beach recently, who showed him a video of his 16-month-old eating the yellow jalapeños served at Nobu.
”It feels like home. [My] big-city restaurants have a lot of business people meeting. But when people come here, nobody has stress,” Matsuhisa, who hasn’t missed a single sunrise since arriving in Cabo for the anniversary fête, says. He makes it a point to savor a slowed-down pace here, in a place where the desert and ocean meet.
As for how he stays clear-headed and energized for all the projects and expansions that Nobu as a brand has up its metaphorical sleeve? (Upcoming hotels are landing everywhere from Baku and Cairo to Al Khobar and Kraków.) “If I have nothing to do but stay home, I don’t want to see anybody,” Matsuhisa shares, smiling. “I’m married to my wife for over 50 years, so when I stay home, we don’t have to say much. She supports me and my team supports me. I’m a very lucky person.”
Lucky — the exact word that will come up as you stroll Nobu Los Cabos’ acres, replete with luxuriously appointed infinity pools, cacti at every turn, wooden soaking tubs in each Japanese minimalism–inspired room, sculpture gardens featuring local flora, and terraces that lend themselves exceptionally well to a wedding or two (during my four-night stay, I was witness to three). You don’t have to drop anchor at the adjacent Nobu Residences to experience the true extent of the favorable hand life has dealt you, although their sweeping golf course views and fully equipped kitchens do give everything an extra sheen of opulence.
Just don’t leave Cabo without trying the restaurant’s famous lychee martini and dedicating time towards scanning the coastline for whales. Like Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, they’re sure to put on one hell of a show.
‘Nobu: A Memoir’ by Nobu Matsuhisa
Want more from Chef Nobu? Amazon has some of his bestselling books on sale right now.
‘Nobu’s Vegetarian Cookbook’ by Nobu Matsuhisa
The cookbook in question makes a great gift idea for the holidays, whether you decide to chef up the recipes yourself or use it as an objet d’art.
‘Nobu: The Cookbook’ by Nobu Matsuhisa
This title features a preface by Robert De Niro and a forward from Martha Stewart.
Read the full article here
