5 Honolulu Chefs Answer One Essential Question: “What’s in Your Fridge?”

Find out what these chefs eat when they’re at home.

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Peering into someone else’s refrigerator feels like an invasion of privacy. Even with permission. Lucky for you, we handled all the awkwardness so you can go straight to the voyeurism: Find out what these chefs always have in their home refrigerator.

Roy Yamaguchi

Chef/owner, Roy’s Restaurants

“There’re a couple things I can’t stand in the house. One is an unorganized refrigerator. And dirty laundry. I don’t want any dirty laundry in the house, I don’t want anything out of place in the refrigerator.”

1. “We do a lot of takeout from Chinese restaurants, and we have leftover mustard and chili sauce. I put it in the natto. It’s free!”

2. “Whenever I eat at home, I usually always have natto and then tofu. Every meal I have tofu—soft tofu. Has to be soft.”

3. “There’s some tripe stew in there that my general manager made. It’s really good.”

4. “Denise (his wife) makes juice almost every day. Sometimes she drinks that in half a day, and then she’ll make more. She’s a maniac when it comes to stuff like that.”

5. “I rarely drink the juice. I’d rather drink Diet Coke. I like everything cold—if I don’t drink it fast enough, it gets warm, so I always keep it in the refrigerator. It takes me an hour to drink one can of Coke.”

6. “I always use this Bull Dog tonkatsu sauce. I put it on cabbage, steak, just about anything I eat.”

7. “Just about everybody gives me stuff. That’s sea cucumbers from Denise’s dad. I haven’t tried it yet. I think it was stewed. But I like it raw. Just sliced, raw. And then I just eat it with a little soy sauce, daikon.”

8. “The vegetables are mostly from Dean [Okimoto]. Some of this is from downstairs (their yard). Mint, tomato, okra, chili pepper and kale. Denise puts them in the juice.”