The School of Travel Industry Management (TIM School) in University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Shidler College of Business welcomes world-renowned restaurateur and entrepreneur Roy Yamaguchi as a lecturer this fall. Yamaguchi is an award-winning Japanese-American chef, author, entrepreneur and television personality who boasts more than 45 years in the industry.
“We are thrilled to have Roy join our TIM School faculty,” Shidler College Dean Vance Roley said. “Given his wealth of knowledge, myriad of entrepreneurial ventures and strong ties to Hawaiʻi, our students have the opportunity to learn from one of the best innovators in the industry. With many of our TIM School graduates working in the food and beverage industry, this opportunity allows students to hear from someone who has experienced it all.”
“I am honored to be asked by the TIM School to teach the TIM 369I Restaurant Entrepreneurship class to students interested in the hospitality industry,” Yamaguchi said. “With my family history being so rooted to Hawaiʻi, I am delighted and excited to work with the future leaders in our food-service industry. I am very much looking forward to teaching at UH Mānoa this fall.”
Yamaguchi’s TIM 369I Restaurant Entrepreneurship course is designed to give students an insider’s look at the food service industry prior to and after the COVID-19 pandemic, creating menu and restaurant concepts, financial and business tactics, marketing, as well as how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
More on Yamaguchi
Yamaguchi began his formal training at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and opened his first restaurant in 1984. In 1988, he moved to Honolulu to open the first Roy’s Restaurant and is also the proud chef/founder of Eating House 1849, Humble Market Kitchin, GOEN Dining + Bar and Roy’s Worldwide. He is the first from Hawaiʻi to have been honored with the prestigious James Beard “Best Pacific Northwest Chef” award in 1993 and has earned numerous top-honors. Yamaguchi has hosted and appeared on a variety of national and local television shows including Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef USA. In 2004, he launched a cookware brand and has also published four cookbooks. He is a co-founder and chair of the popular Hawaii Food & Wine Festival and serves on numerous non-profit and philanthropic boards.
Aside from his many entrepreneurial endeavors, he was nominated by the late U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye to earn a political appointment under the Obama Administration.
This work is an example of UH Mānoa’s goals of Enhancing Student Success (PDF) and Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
