Los Angeles Chef Akira Hirose, Who Opened Maison Akira and Azay, Has Died at 70

Akira Hirose, the acclaimed chef behind Pasadena’s influential French Japanese restaurant Maison Akira and Little Tokyo’s Azay, died at his house on September 26 at age 70, his son Philip confirmed to Eater.

Born in Kyoto in 1954, Hirose was drawn to cooking from an early age, typically shadowing his mom within the kitchen and dreaming of in the future turning into a chef. He started his culinary profession within the Nineteen Seventies within the French countryside, coaching on the French chateau Azay-le-Rideau, earlier than working at Maxim’s de Paris and Lodge Nikko when chef Joël Robuchon led the kitchen. In 1981, he moved to Los Angeles to work on the legendary French restaurant L’Orangerie. In the identical 12 months, Hirose visited Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo for the primary time and met his future spouse, Jo Ann Hirose (nee Maehara), whose household owned a ironmongery store within the neighborhood. On that journey, he was launched to Los Angeles’s Japanese diaspora and located a brand new household stateside. “I really feel like him assembly my mother and Japanese America was a turning level in a means,” Philip says.

In 1983, he opened a French restaurant in Kyoto known as Azay-le-Rideau earlier than transferring again to California to prepare dinner on the Tower on the Transamerica constructing in Downtown LA. Then in 1998, he opened Maison Akira in Pasadena; in December of the identical 12 months, Los Angeles Instances critic S. Irene Virbila wrote of Hirose’s unabashed “Franco-Japanese” fashion and menu gadgets like the “eccentric” ratatouille and a foie gras flan. Although Philip was too younger to work at Maison Akira, he fondly remembers stowing away within the restaurant’s workplace as his household entertained buddies who had come to eat there.

Reflecting on Hirose’s previous eating places, Philip sees the influences of two nice international cuisines as a portal into his father’s life and expertise. “When he was in France, within the city of Azay, he opened the world of Japan to them that they weren’t aware of, as a result of he was the one Asian particular person there,” he says. “Then, when [Maison Akira] was right here, he opened the door to France in Japan that lots of people didn’t know.”

For over 50 years Japanese cooks have helped form French wonderful eating, and vice-versa; the affect might be traced again to the Sixties when French cooks started to spend time in Japan, and Japanese cooks started to prepare dinner in France. That relationship continues to be seen right now at eating places like Camélia within the Arts District, which serves French-leaning dishes with Japanese substances.

After twenty years, Hirose closed Maison Akira in 2019. Philip jokes that his father wasn’t one of the best businessman as a result of he cared extra about hospitality than the underside line. “He cared about feeding individuals and his employees,” mentioned Philip.

On September 14, 2019, Hirose opened Azay together with his household within the house that was once Jo Ann’s household ironmongery store. The ironmongery store had moved down the road by then, however her household held onto the constructing. Azay was a fruits of the final 4 many years of Hirose’s cooking profession. Azay, which stays open, serves conventional Japanese breakfast bentos within the daytime alongside housemade rillette and pate. Within the evenings, the revolving menu contains dishes like uni milk toast and amberjack crudo. It was uncommon to see Hirose with out a mild smile as he cooked within the open kitchen with the simple confidence and pleasure of somebody doing what they liked.

Within the years since opening, Azay has change into a cultural hub for the Little Tokyo neighborhood, internet hosting chef pop-ups, political marketing campaign occasions, and native artist performances. As Little Tokyo has shortly gentrified across the restaurant, Azay has remained as bastion of the neighborhood, supporting its neighbors by way of its hospitality and neighborhood fund. Philip labored intently together with his father there, serving to with front-of-house work and accounting.

“After we first opened, there have been individuals questioning, Are we a French Japanese restaurant?” Philip says. “I’m leaning extra in the direction of like, we’re a diaspora restaurant that has these components.” In the back of the restaurant hangs a portray of Azay-le-Rideau that watches over the eating room and the kitchen as a tribute to Hirose’s love for the French countryside.

In August 2024, chef Chris Ono joined Azay to assist Hirose, who was working lunch and dinner shifts most days of the week. The pair met when Ono was cooking on the Japanese American Cultural and Group Middle (JACCC) and constructed a friendship through the years. Even earlier than assembly and ultimately working collectively, Ono all the time appeared as much as Hirose. “He’s a godfather of the eating scene in LA,” says Ono. Through the years, Hirose crossed paths with notable cooks and hospitality professionals like Roy Yamaguchi (Roy’s), Ray Hayashi (RYLA), Morihiro Onodera (Morihiro), and Francois Renaud, leaving his mark on every of them. After his loss of life, Renaud posted a tribute to Hirose on Instagram writing, “Akira was the chef’s chef, and in an period of outsized egos, exhibiting all of them what class meant.”

Ono solely received to prepare dinner on the road as soon as with Hirose at Azay, however will carry the reminiscence of making ready ratatouille collectively eternally. “This one was so actual, very homey” he says. “I simply felt like he had nothing to cover or show. He simply informed me, ‘You prepare dinner the ratatouille the way you need it, simply be sure that it has the Herbes de Provence.’”

Hirose Household

Within the wake of Hirose’s passing, Philip has been reflecting on Akira as a father and chef. “He was loads in regards to the French countryside,” he says. “He was loads about being anti-capitalist, caring about individuals, but additionally studying.” By the years of working in shut proximity to one another as companions on the restaurant, Philip had the chance to look at his father evolve and alter with the restaurant and the neighborhood surrounding it. Ono provides to the sentiment saying, “He knew who he was, he was real, he was 100% a person of his phrase.”

Although Hirose isn’t on the road at Azay anymore, Philip can nonetheless really feel him within the restaurant as regulars are available for his or her day by day bento and omurice, or sit on the sidewalk outdoors the restaurant chatting with passersby. “I do know that, like bodily, he’s not right here, however spiritually he’s,” he says.

Hirose is survived by his spouse Jo Ann and kids, Philip and Michelle.

The Hirose household will have a good time Akira’s life at funeral providers at Los Angeles Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo on October 13. Cooks are inspired to put on their chef’s whites to the service.