Japanese Restaurant

In the summer of 1990, Yasuo and Kathy Saso met while working together at a Japanese restaurant. Their mutual love of the restaurant business and each other led them to marriage and the dream of someday opening their own small restaurant. On May 30, 1996, that dream came true with the opening of Saso's Japanese Noodle House!

Chef Saso brings extensive cooking experience and knowledge of Japanese cuisine, and his wife, Kathy, adds her customer relation skills and her attention to detail to bring to you a taste of Japan in Albany, New York.

Chef Saso started as a young apprentice in a sushi restaurant in Chiba, Japan. He became a skilled sushi chef while working at Tomehachi Sushi in Chiba City, earning his Chef's license in 1975. Following his sushi apprenticeship, Chef Saso

decided to take on the challenge of Japanese cuisine at Shichiyote in Tokyo. At that restaurant, he learned to prepare traditional Japanese foods and sauces, including noodle dishes. During that time, Saso-san became an active member of a Chef's Association called Hon-ke Jomata-kai, under President Taiske Miyazawa. As a member of the association, he was able to learn and hone several skills, including ice sculpture, bamboo leaf cutting, vegetable carving, and various other specialty techniques. After a couple of years, he decided to take on a new challenge and accepted a position at Kappo Horitan, Tokyo, to learn the exquisite cooking and art form called "Kaiseki Ryori."

"Kaiseki Ryori" is a type of multiple course meal, including exclusive seasonal foods presented in a highly artistic fashion on exquisite plates. Kaiseki food is very expensive and often enjoyed by wealthy businessmen while Geisha entertain them! It was at this time that Chef Saso perfected his skills in the artistic presentation of food.

Mr. Saso's next venture was to learn how to properly prepare blowfish; a highly poisonous fish considered a delicacy in Japan. (If it is not prepared correctly, the poison in blowfish can kill its consumer!) It was a restaurant called Kappo Yohachi in Tokyo that offered Saso-san this new challenge.

It was during his time at Kappo Yohachi, that his Association offered Saso-san the opportunity to take a position at a Japanese restaurant in the United States. Always interested in a challenge and an adventure, Chef Saso accepted the job in upstate New York. At the time the United States dollar was very strong, and Saso-san thought he would save his money to go back to Japan and open his own restaurant. While working as a hibachi chef, Saso-san developed his verbal English skills, and delighted customers with his sharp sense of humor. (One of his favorite stories is about a customer who ordered sushi for an appetizer and asked Chef Saso to cook it on the hibachi table!) He paid close attention to what his customers liked, in order to learn about the "American palate."

Chef Saso met his bride at that hibachi restaurant. Kathy had spent time in Japan while in college, and she speaks Japanese, understands the culture, and is familiar with the cuisine. The two were married in 1993, and the rest, shall we say, is history.