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Nationally acclaimed chef relishes second chance in Triangle

A year ago, chef Katsuji Tanabe was in the middle of a mental health crisis.

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Kathy Hanrahan, Out
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RALEIGH, N.C. — A year ago, chef Katsuji Tanabe was in the middle of a mental health crisis.

The BRAVO "Top Chef" alum had moved his family from Los Angeles to Raleigh to open High Horse in downtown's City Market. The restaurant was open only four months when COVID-19 had forced its dining room to close.

"Our restaurant, it's a social experience. People come to our restaurant not to be fed, food is something like 40 percent of the experience," Tanabe told WRAL in April 2020. "Our business was not designed for pick-up food."
With a reduced staff, High Horse was briefly open for take-out before closing its doors for good.

With his restaurant closed and the pandemic leaving him with an uncertain future, Tanabe said he was spiraling.

"It was definitely a heartbreaking moment," Tanabe said of closing High Horse. "You know who was there for me? Alcohol. Just like everybody else in the pandemic I started drinking."

One morning Tanabe said he made some coffee and started to add Kahlua to it. He stopped and had a moment of clarity about what he was doing. He knew there had to be something better for him.

"I hit the rock bottom," he said. "I think that's the moment when I realized I needed to like step away from it. It was definitely not easy. What I realized was that sometimes reaching out and asking for help, it's literally the best thing to do."

Cooking since a young age, Tanabe knew he needed to get back into the kitchen. That's when he reached out to LM Restaurants' President Amber Moshakos. The two had hit it off after being introduced by fellow restaurateur Gaurav “G” Patel a few months prior.

"One day over the summer Katsuji reached out and he's like, 'Hey, I want to help,'" Moshakos said. "He wanted to come and help us at Vidrio and cook in the kitchen here because his restaurant had shut down."

"I just need to get out of my house and do some dishes. Chop some onions, peel some garlic," Tanabe said.

Tanabe's relationship with the LM Restaurants grew from working in the kitchen to being named the Chef in Residence at Vidrio in July 2020.

"This natural thing happened where he came here, and he guest chefs here at Vidrio, and from there we realized we had a lot of things in common as far as love of like cuisine and hospitality. We had some of the similar values on how to take care of guests and hospitality and food quality," Moshakos said.

When Vidrio hired new executive and sous chefs, Tanabe said he expected his time with the restaurant to end. Instead, it grew even larger as he was named the Culinary Innovator for all of LM Restaurants' proprieties.

"He partners with our chefs at various locations, and he helps come up with new dishes, new ways of doing things," Moshakos said.

Tanabe said the goal is to also give the brand's chefs more power to express themselves.

Tanabe's partnership with LM Restaurants will grow further when the two open their first restaurant together, A’Verde Cocina and Tequila Library, in Cary this summer.

"It's not going to be, like, overly fried. It's not going to be overly cheesy," Tanabe said, noting his Mexican and Japanese heritage. "It's more about showcasing the local flavors, the vegetables, the pork, seafood and obviously putting those spices, herbs, seasonings flavors of the Mexican culture and a little of the Japanese influence here and there."

Tanabe's famous cornbread and Unicorn cake dessert will be on the menu.

Like High Horse, Tanabe wants A’Verde Cocina to be a destination restaurant, somewhere to have fun while you dine.

"I don't want you to go there and just feed yourself and go somewhere else," Tanabe said. "I want you to go there, stay, have fun. Maybe, if the music is loud, you dance a little bit."

A year ago, Tanabe said he expected to end up in rehab in 2021, not be opening a new restaurant. He is relishing his second chance.

"As a chef, you always want to showcase your food. You always want to have a place that you can say, 'Hey, come and try my food,'" Tanabe said. "LM Restaurants actually gave me the opportunity to do it all over again."

Tanabe urged others dealing with mental health or substance abuse issues to ask for help.

"I was definitely not in a good state of mind and I always say to people, you know, reach out, ask for help," Tanabe said.

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