Judy Sakuma

Judy Sakuma has built a long practice around poke at Ono Seafood in Honolulu, the restaurant she co-founded in 1995. As chef, Sakuma has kept the work centered on repetition, consistency, and the kind of service that brings people back for the same reasons they came the first time. A native of Vietnam who fled during the Vietnam War, she has carried a life of displacement into a career marked by plain speech and steady output. “I’m happy with what I’m doing,” she says, with the same directness that defines the room. At Ono Seafood, that directness shows up in the daily discipline of the counter. The restaurant’s draw depends on food made the same way, day after day, and Sakuma has met that expectation with a practice built on familiarity rather than display. Her sense of the work is practical: keep the line moving, keep the flavors clear, keep customers returning. “I love having customers who love me, and at my age I don’t want to stop working,” she says.