The Golden Globes will be brand new on Jan. 7.
Not only does the show have new owners, a new voting body, a new PR firm and a new broadcast partner in CBS, the Globes have also leveled up the menu thanks to a collaboration with Nobu Restaurants and chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Forget the rubber chicken dinner, the tables inside The Beverly Hilton’s international ballroom will be filled with plates featuring Nobu specialties for all 1,110 ticketed guests.
The Japanese celebrity chef joined Globes insiders and members of his Nobu team for an official unveiling of the menu inside the ballroom Wednesday morning. The plates will feature signature dishes including salmon tartar with caviar in wasabi soy, sashimi salad with matsuhisa dressing, yellowtail jalapeño, black cod miso, a trio of assorted traditional nigiri and more.
Aside from providing catering for the Grammy Awards, the showing will mark Nobu’s first outing at a major Hollywood awards show, and one of the first times sushi has been served at this scale during a high-profile awards season event. The menu is sure to be a welcome treat for stars and insiders, as Nobu has long been a hotspot for celebrities. Nobu, with locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has stateside restaurants in New York, Los Angeles and Malibu.
“This is the first time they’ve asked us,” Matsuhisa tells The Hollywood Reporter. “My team and I, we’ve lived in Los Angeles a long time, so this is very exciting for us because we love to do it. We know that when people see our menus and our food, it makes the customers and guests happy as well.”
To pull off the event, Matsuhisa says he’ll have a team of 25 inside the Beverly Hilton kitchen while a staff of servers will be rushing plates to VIPs like Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish. “We have great teams with a lot of experience, especially in our Malibu restaurant. I’m sending the best teams here. We can do it.”
Asked whether the overriding emotion heading in is pressure or excitement, the chef says it’s the former. “Pressure is good for me because it means we have to try our best. I always like the hard way rather than the easy way.”
That’s not to say that he’s not feeling any excitement, especially when it comes to running into old friends during the show. Matsuhisa, who counts Robert De Niro as a key business partner, knows that his good friend will be in the building that day thanks to his nomination for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. “I’d like to say hi when he comes [that day],” he says with a smile. “He’s a great actor and a great partner also. Many of my customers will also be here, too, so I’m very excited for the day. I’d like to say to everyone, ‘Good luck.’”
Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also owns The Hollywood Reporter.