The chef is a Japanese guy, the waitress is American, but the way how I'm cooking is just
about passion.
Passion inside.
And hate for the people.
But passion in the food.
I like to, you know, all the protocol, clean the table, clean the toilet, I clean everything,
I'm obsessive for keeping everything in its position.
I hate humans.
Humans are the problem.
On Rapa Nui there was once a famous Japanese restaurant.
It was built by hand and staffed entirely by a single man yet it drew famous customers
from around the globe.
Every decision, from food to ambiance was strict and authentic.
Nothing was left to chance.
A perfect five stars from every review it ever received eight years running.
But that restaurant no longer exists.
It was torn down to make way for a parking lot.
Because the personality it took to create something that unique does not play well with
others.
I'm certain this won't be our most popular story.
There's no true narrative, just snippets from an interview with a man who doesn't care what
you think.
A man who'd rather have his entire life's work torn to the ground than be told what
to do by anyone else.
He's an individual in every sense of the term.
But he's a hard man to like.
Because he hates you.
He hates society.
He hates conversing.
All he wants to do is work.
This is a man who rejected Matt Damon four times because he wouldn't make reservations
his way.
His work is world famous and yet he went bankrupt seven times to avoid the expectations of others.
He's the independent being many of us imagine we want to be.
And yet he is the ego we can't stomach when we meet it.
He's the reason I made this series.
A year ago, sitting in the restaurant he spends every waking hour rebuilding, I told him I'd
return to tell his story.
Because I've never felt more connected to a person.
To an internal struggle.
And a year later, to the day, here we are, sitting down with the artist I wish I could
be.
This is the story of trying to remain independent in a social world.
This is Rare Earth.
When I was living in Chile, I was working in a fish market, cleaning fish.
In a supermarket.
When I moved to Japan, the only thing I knew how to do was clean fish.
So I started to work in a fish market.
After six months, I have two options: go back to Chile or stay.
You know, for the visa, for the Chilean is six months.
But you restart again with the visa if you go outside and come back.
But I don't have money.
I only have the ticket for coming back to Chile.
So I moved to a boat, a Japanese boat.
You know, because they go from Japanese sea until Russia for six months.
So I moved to the boat.
And I worked in the kitchen of the boat.
And then after the kitchen of the boat, go back to the restaurant, and learn Japanese
taste.
And some day they need someone in Hyatt so I start to work for Hyatt.
You see, in the Japanese area because all the Japanese chefs they need to speak with
someone.
I was the sous chef.
After three years, they need someone in San Francisco in the same, uh, you know, kind
of work.
In the hotel, in the Japanese area, I moved.
And then, I moved to Milano.
For the same reason.
Worked for Hyatt in the Japanese area.
So one day they open a new Japanese restaurant in the Hyatt in Chile, they need someone and
I go back.
It was just like that.
One thing to the other.
You know, it's so funny because I still feel like I'm an individual guy.
Nobody knows me.
And I live alone in an island.
I never go outside.
Outside is so funny but it's really close, I never, I've been living on this island for
the last, I don't know, twelve years.
Twelve years.
And uh, only three times I go to Anakena beach.
Three times.
Yeah, no more than five.
I'm a workaholic.
Even in a small city like Santiago, every restaurant start to run at 5 o'clock, they
finish 3 in the morning.
You must finish in some bar.
It's not like a wife life.
And then a wife and kid.
That reality is impossible.
I live in the restaurant.
I sleep in the restaurant.
I dream with restaurant.
We've been married with my wife for 8 years, and its supposed to be no kid.
Doctor says no and everything says no, but here it started.
And they change everything.
It's really simple.
I'm obsessive and compulsive disorder.
So I feel so happy working, and make what I like to do.
So I'm working every day.
I was really obsessive with my profession, like a chef, I was obsessive with the taste.
But after twelve years, you know, just working in the kitchen, I tried to escape from the
kitchen and start to work in the construction.
But one day after you know, almost five years, just in construction, I tried to escape, and
I moved to the garden and now I have one thousand seven hundred and fifty of the same red tree
and a huge construction and the best taste, you know?
I'm so famous on the island because every single person of the island knows it is impossible
to take a reservation for Kotaro.
And for me, in my telephone, I have so many names like 'no reserva, no reserva, no reserva'.
Every singl - I believe after twenty years I understand if the people is complicated
or not after one second talking in the phone.
You hear it, and you believe it.
No, this no.
No.
If you want to eat in my restaurant you need to try seven times.
No, no, I was a horrible person twenty years ago, yes.
I was so arrogant.
I was speaking English, Italian and Japanese and I was so young, and working in a big company.
I was fired more than two times just about my ego.
I learned to use my ego right now because I sell a little bit for the people who want
to buy it.
But I don't like to be an ego any more.
But it's the only way to keep this personality, is in an ego net.
Yeah, for that reason, if one day you need to decide what audience you want.
At some point of my business, after twenty years, like a chef, you need to take a decision.
You need to be popular, or exclusive.
I prefer to be exclusive.
And exclusivity is not about money, it's not how expensive it is.
It's how many ridiculous rules you put in.
Because the people want to go.
You create some idea.
My publicity is the anti-publicity.
It's not the real publicity.
I don't want people.
That is my publicity.
I don't think too much.
I enjoy to be me in this moment.
In this moment, yes.
I don't have friends because I hate people.
I don't drink.
If you don't drink you don't have friends.
You know, because people need to be happy.
I feel uncomfortable.
I feel uncomfortable right now, I'm shaking.
It's really difficult for me to be with people.
I'm fighting every day and I'm winning every day.
I'm fighting with myself, and I'm winning every day.
But I'm fighting because I'm a fighter.
My restaurant is like a museum.
It's nice and dangerous, the chopsticks, the miso soup, there's so many things out of control.
I like the control.
I take forty five minutes for dishes, even two guests or even seven.
For me it's the same thing.
People who want to take something from me, like my kitchen helper or people who want
to help me, they quit in two months, and quit crying.
And then they reevaluate his life.
It's not a normal situation.
I'm the owner of the restaurant I don't want to talk with your kid!
And the kid is trained like a dog and he say 'oh I'd like salmon with I don't know, caparas
or something'.
It's like a robot!
They feel proud about your son, I don't care your son.
I like my son, that's it.
How to be happy?
Be wherever you feel happy.
In my case it is music, construction, food, language, architecture.
And I want more and I want to be learning.
I learn.
[Evan:] So you don't recommend to become you, but you have done very well as you.
[Francisco:] Yes, yes.
Because I know how to keep the beast.
[Evan:] So be yourself?
[Francisco:] Yes, be yourself.
[Evan:] Don't be you.
[Francisco:] Yes.
I make this because I'm the result of many many years and many things.
And many experiences.
It's just about that and it's working, in me.
[Evan:] So do you feel now part of the culture?
[Francisco:] No, never.
No, I'm Kotaro from Kotaroland, you know?