Delray’s booming dining scene got an exciting new addition last summer with the debut of Akira Back’s namesake restaurant in The Ray Hotel. The Michelin Star-winning chef’s latest outpost, featuring modern Japanese dishes blended with Korean-inspired flavors, has generated quite the buzz among South Florida foodies. While Back’s concepts are now popping up around the world, his initial foray into the restaurant business was more unorthodox than the average restaurateur.
When Akira Back and his family moved to Aspen, Colorado from Seoul, South Korea, Back was 13 years old. As a teenager in a new country where he didn’t speak the language, the transition was difficult. But he soon took notice of what other kids his age were doing and found where he fit into this strange new environment. “In Aspen, all the cool kids were snowboarders,” says Back, “so I learned snowboarding to make friends and learn English, and I eventually became a professional sponsored snowboarder.”
Back spent seven years on the professional snowboarding circuit, all while working at local Aspen restaurants to supplement his income. During this time, he discovered an exhilaration for cooking that rivaled the thrill of speeding down wintery slopes. After suffering injuries from snowboarding, Back realized that a long-term career in extreme sports might not be viable. He decided he needed a new plan.
“There was a local restaurant where all the cool people hung out to drink and have fun,” says Back. “I knew the owner and asked him for a job, and he started me at the lowest position.” From mopping floors and cutting vegetables, Back worked his way up to an executive chef position, and in 2008 opened his very own concept, the Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Since opening his first restaurant, Back has gone on to win several culinary awards and has made appearances on high-profile cooking shows including “Iron Chef America” and Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate.” He’s cooked for dignitaries and diplomats, celebrities and presidents, ranging from the Dalai Lama to Bill Clinton. But Back says that for him, his favorite customers are the ones right in front of him.
“I’ve enjoyed cooking for these notable names and getting the opportunity to meet some people that inspire me throughout my career, but my favorite stories come from the new guests that taste my food for the first time when we open in a new city.”
Back’s culinary journey has taken him all over the world, but no matter the location of a new and exciting debut, he still brings the influence of his family and Korean heritage to the table. “My mother always cooked, and family dinners were very big in my home,” he says. “A lot of the recipes you see on my menu are directly from her or a twist on inspiration from her.”
Back says that this inspiration can be found in his Delray concept, specifically in the Jeju Domi dish, a delectable pairing of snapper sashimi with marinated masago, red sorrel and sweet and spicy chojang sauce. “Like any good Korean, my father used to eat sashimi with chojang sauce,” says Back. “One time he offered me snapper with this sauce, and this is when I finally started to enjoy raw fish.”
With several new restaurant openings in the pipeline, Akira Back doesn’t get to make it out to the slopes of Aspen as much as he’d like to. But he’s still managed to find in Delray the things that he loved most about the small Colorado ski town. “I was drawn to Delray Beach because it reminds me a lot of Aspen in the sense that the people are laid-back and down to earth,” says Back. “I’m an avid tennis fan, and I love the active lifestyle of the community.”
Despite being a Michelin Star chef and developing a global culinary brand, Back says he feels his life hasn’t changed all that much. If anything, he says, the accolades just motivate him even further to create and share his culinary concoctions. As the Akira Back name continues to expand throughout the U.S. and as far as London and the Middle East, the acclaimed chef hopes to instill in his customers the same joy he feels from his craft. “I want people to have fun and truly enjoy every experience they have with us, from the service to the food and the ambience and more.”
This article is from the January/February 2023 issue of Delray magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
