Yama Seafood: 50 Years of World Class Seafood | Nobu Yamanashi
Episode Details

Kingo Yamanashi bought his first bluefin tuna for a dollar from a recreational fisherman. He did not have a refrigerated van. He did not speak English. He did not know how to break down a tuna or even have a scale to weigh it. He just put it in a van with some ice, drove it back to New York, and let the chefs cut whatever they wanted while he calculated the weight by feel.


That was 1977. Today, Yama Seafood is the purveyor behind the seafood programs at Le Bernardin, Masa, and more of the most celebrated restaurants in the world.


Nobu Yamanashi is the president of Yama Seafood, the New Jersey based Japanese seafood company his father built over nearly 50 years. In this episode, host Sarah Perkins sits down with Nobu for a conversation that covers the full arc of a remarkable family legacy: from a father who chased bluefin tuna migration patterns up and down the Northeast coast and taught fishermen how to bleed their catch properly so he could pay them more, to a son who started as a warehouse worker cleaning drains and re-icing salmon before he ever touched a spreadsheet. And then modernized the entire operation with an ERP system he implemented in February 2020, moments before the pandemic hit.


This is a conversation about legacy, reinvention, and what it means to carry a family business into its next generation without losing the soul of what made it extraordinary in the first place.


In this episode, we cover:

  • Growing up in New Jersey in a fully Japanese household where Nobu did not speak English until age four or five
  • Bento boxes in a 1980s lunchroom when bento boxes were decidedly not cool
  • A father who brought home kilos of gifted caviar and ate it on crackers with his kids without caring about the price
  • Working at Quiznos in high school for six dollars an hour and eating meatball sandwiches made from the end pieces
  • A financial media startup that did not work out, followed by corporate roles at Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce that accidentally taught him everything about the ultra-luxury market
  • What selling Rolls-Royces taught him about access, scarcity, and demand that he still applies every day at Yama Seafood
  • Joining the family business as a warehouse worker: cleaning drains, picking and packing, re-icing salmon, going on deliveries
  • The pen and paper fax machine order system that required seven or eight people an hour of administrative prep every single day
  • Implementing an ERP system in February 2020, one month before the pandemic, and why that decision may have saved the company
  • COVID: going from 1,000 plus orders a week to 50, turning a million dollars of fresh seafood into community fish boxes sold below cost just to generate cash
  • Building Yama Seafood's direct to consumer business from a Squarespace website he made himself during the pandemic
  • 55% repeat customers and a community of home sushi enthusiasts who have become genuine brand advocates
  • How his father pioneered bringing year-round bluefin tuna to New York by flying fish in from Hawaii to close the seasonal gap
  • Why Nobu made the decision to eat tariff costs rather than pass them to restaurant partners during the most recent economic pressure
  • The leadership turning point during COVID when he asked his team to take pay cuts to stay open and serve the restaurants that needed them
  • Being a trained tuna carver and producing private events for Rolls-Royce and Moët Hennessy
  • Plans for a new warehouse with a test kitchen, a speakeasy omakase counter, and a destination for chefs and guests
  • Learning to work on the business rather than in it: a seven year journey to trusting his team
  • Taking his daughters to Japan for the first time to connect them with the family and culture that built everything
  • Advice for founders: keep fighting, roll with the punches, and never stop improving


Find Nobu and Yama Seafood:


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Episode cover art for Yama Seafood: 50 Years of World Class Seafood | Nobu Yamanashi
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