Portrait of Tomoki Sugaya
i. Biography
Tomoki Sugaya’s work sits inside yakitori’s core requirements: restraint, timing, and exacting attention to detail. A native of Inashiki, Ibaraki, he has brought that discipline to Los Angeles, California, where he has been chef at Torigoya since 2018. In this form of cooking, simplicity only reads as simple when each step has been controlled with care.
Coming Up
Tomoki Sugaya is chef of Torigoya, a post he has held since 2018. That kind of continuity matters in a grill-led kitchen. Holding the same role across years means living with the restaurant’s cadence, keeping standards aligned service after service. At Torigoya, Sugaya’s position places him inside the daily practice of yakitori, where fire, ingredient, and technique have to stay in balance. The form rewards clean execution and disciplined timing; there is little room for excess. For a chef from Inashiki, Ibaraki working in Los Angeles, the craft is defined less by display than by translation: carrying a focused Japanese grilling tradition into a different city without diluting its logic. At Torigoya, that translation happens in real time, one service at a time.
Where They Are Now
He has been chef at Torigoya in Los Angeles, California, since 2018. He works in yakitori. Since 2018, Los Angeles has been the site of Sugaya’s practice, and yakitori the discipline that frames it. The role asks for composure, repetition, and a steady hand; the grill does not reward shortcuts. What comes through is a professional identity built on continuity and exactness, with Torigoya as the setting for that ongoing practice.
Career - chef — Torigoya, Los Angeles (2018–present)
FAQ What is Tomoki Sugaya's current role? Tomoki Sugaya is chef. What is Tomoki Sugaya known for? Yakitori.
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