Toshiro Konishi belongs to a family that owned a ryokan (traditional Japanese Inn) in the Miyazaki Perfecture of Japan, where as a young child, he used to play in the kitchen. In his late teens, he was headed to Tokyo to study culinary under a chef in a well respected restaurant. The other chef at this restaurant was Nobu Matsuhisa, the now world renown chef. They were both asked by a Japanese client to join him in Peru to open the the best Japanese restaurant in Latin America. Toshiro has a traditional Japanese culinary background, but a master in Japanese Peruvian fusion style. In the early 1970s, he moved to Peru to become one of the chefs at the first Japanese restaurant, called "Matsuei". He was on a contract to be in Peru for only three years, but it did not take too long for him to fall in love with the culture, the people, and the ingredients that Peru offered. For two and a half months, he sailed the Peruvian national coast with an expert fisherman. He also traveled thru the mountains, visiting villages, to learn more about what this country had to offer for ingredients. He left Matsuei to be a restaurant owner chef called "Wako" and then "Toshiro's Sushi Bar" in Lima. In 2009 he opened a restaurant called "Toshi" on a beach called Asia, a prestigious boulevard south of Lima. Besides from running restaurants, he took part of culinary festivals around the world, introduced Japanese Peruvian Fusion, and received a number of prestigious awards. Toshiro also became a culinary visiting professor at San Ignacio de Loyola University in Lima. In 2008, he became the first Japanese chef based in Latin America to received the government's Minister's Prize from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. When not in the kitchens of his restaurants, Toshiro spent much of his time traveling around the world, giving lectures, demonstrations, competitions, and attending charity events. Toshiro passed away on April 17, 2016 from cancer.
