"Rice is Like Pasta to Italians, It's in Our Soul": Honouring Hakumai with Chef Hajime Horiguchi
Chef Hajime Horiguchi has been in kitchens for most of his life — quite literally. “I was always in the kitchen from a young age and started working on the floor around age three,” he tells Concrete Playground, as part of a series of conversations exploring the art of hakumai with House of Suntory’s Haku Vodka.
Horiguchi grew up in Kyoto inside his father’s French restaurant, where there was no set menu, only what was freshest and best on the day. “His philosophy was simple: respect the ingredients and let their natural flavour shine.”
It’s an approach the chef has carried with him through more than 20 years in kitchens across Japan, Thailand and now Australia — all the way to the present day at his intimate 32-seat omakase restaurant, Warabi, inside W Melbourne. “I like to keep things simple. I use traditional Japanese techniques, my team and I have worked across multiple different cuisines too, so we bring in that experience without making it fusion. It’s still Japanese, just with a modern touch,” he says.
Despite initial hesitation for moving south (“Honestly, I wasn’t sure at first, mainly because of the cold!”) Horiguchi quickly warmed to Melbourne’s food scene. “People here really care about good food,” he says. “I talk to the fishmongers every morning at 5am to find the best catch. And Warabi felt like a great fit for me. There’s freedom to be creative, which I really like.”
The Beauty of Rice
The balance of tradition and creativity is most clearly seen in the way Horiguchi approaches rice — or more specifically, hakumai, Japanese polished white rice. “Hakumai just means white rice,” he explains. “We use short-grain Japanese rice — my favourite is Haenuki from Yamagata. It has a clean taste and slight sweetness, which works really well with dishes that have strong umami.”
His favourite way of enjoying hakumai is a grilled fish and rice dish he had as a kid. “I ate that a lot growing up. It’s super simple, but it always makes me happy.”
At Warabi, rice isn’t just something you order on the side, it’s the foundation. “For us, rice is like pasta to Italians — it’s in our soul,” Horiguchi says. “Moisture and temperature in the air change each day, so we adjust the water and cooking time every day depending on the weather. We really respect the rice and treat it with care.”
From sushi to donabe and even his signature unagi dish — which is grilled Nagoya-style over binchotan for two hours — the rice is never one-size-fits-all. “For sushi, it needs to be fluffy and hold together. For hitsumabushi, we add more water so it’s softer — it balances the richness of the eel. It’s all about matching the rice to the dish.”
It’s a practice rooted in both precision and feeling. “Passion,” he points out as a key ingredient when cooking Japanese-style rice. “Ensuring you’re being gentle, don’t break the grains when you wash it. Soaking, cooking, resting — all of it matters. Rice looks simple, but there’s so much to it.”
Something Worth Savouring
This winter, Horiguchi is celebrating hakumai in a new form. Haku Vodka, a Japanese rice-based spirit from House of Suntory, is being poured in a bespoke Haku Martini at venues across Sydney and Melbourne as part of a limited-time offering pairing the vodka with dishes that pair best with white rice.
“Rice is such a big part of who we are,” Horiguchi says. “So using it to make vodka — that feels really special. I think it’s a beautiful way to bring tradition into something new.”
Crafted from white rice in Kyushu and distilled in Osaka, Haku Vodka retains the grain’s gentle sweetness, making it an ideal match for the umami-rich flavours of Japanese food.
In addition to the Haku Martini, Warabi is also hosting Hanabie, an exclusive omakase experience that heroes hakumai on the plate alongside Haku Martini’s in the glass. The limited-edition menu includes seven courses with a Haku Vodka cocktail on arrival and live music every Thursday night. It’s an opportunity to reimagine and enjoy rice as something to savour from start to finish. “Rice is the base for everything,” Horiguchi says. Now, it gets its moment in the spotlight.
You can try a Haku Vodka martini and dishes that honour hakumai at venues across Sydney this July and August, including Prefecture 48, Icebergs Bondi, Bar Sumi and The Roosevelt. And across Melbourne at spots like Curious, Holy Grail, Rossi and Yugen. Visit here to learn more.
Images: Arianna Leggiero