Kenny Kiichi Nakamura tells Phuket Post about his life on the island and about his two tastes: the taste of Italy and the Japanese taste for Italian food.

"Twelve years ago I came to Phuket, to the Blue Canyon Country Club, because my golf teacher was the South African golfer Gary Player and he suggested I come here. So for two years I was a golf instructor at the club?s Gary Player Golf Academy and after that I was associate manager and, after Martin Carpenter left, I was made General Manager. After the club changed management, I joined Tom McNamara at Baan Rim Pa group at the Otawa restaurant.

"Otawa was not successful as just a Japanese restaurant when I joined, so I brought over a Japanese French chef from Japan and we made it a Japanese French restaurant. The first year it was not so successful but the second year we had a lot of success. Unfortunately the tsunami came and Otawa was gone ? we lost everything.

"For two years after I left the Baan Rim Pa group, I searched for a good location for a restaurant. Many people said Bangtao was a god place but I couldn?t get a piece of land near the beach. Then Central approached me about starting an Italian restaurant. But I?m Japanese, so why would I want to start an Italian restaurant? Only one reason: I love Italian food.

"In Japan we have maybe 20,000 Italian restaurants and about 10% are run by Italian chefs and 90% have Japanese chefs who add Japanese flavour to Italian food. I know some people misunderstand my restaurant. 2Gusti means two tastes. We have two chefs. One is Mr Jacomo. He?s a very famous Italian chef from Rome. The other chef is Japanese, Mr Takashi.

"Fusion is quite difficult to explain to most people. Many say fusion is confusion. When we opened in April, many people said ?Kenny is Japanese, so he?s made a Japanese restaurant? and some said ?No, no. Kenny made an Italian restaurant.? Many people were confused and thought I had made a Japanese fusion restaurant. But 2Gusti is a 100% Italian restaurant. Our products are 100% Italian, like the table olive oil and the dishes created by Mr Jacomo. We have traditional Italian dishes like our Carpaccio and Japanese Italian dishes such as the Japanese Pizza speciality. But we are 100% Italian ? we just have two different tastes of Italian."

2Gusti also has live music at lunchtimes and cool jazz on Friday and Saturday nights. The restaurant also houses the island?s only dedicated cigar lounge.

Tel: 076-209124
Email: info@2Gusti.com
www.2Gusti.com