Thoughts on food, health, and our journey in Sydney.
Mitsuhiro Yashio's journey, told in order — start from the beginning.
The complete journey of Otogo founder Mitsuhiro Yashio: from a small island in southern Japan to building a next-generation Japanese QSR in Sydney. A 10-chapter series.
Born on the island of Tanegashima, raised in his family's restaurant kitchen, Mitsuhiro Yashio learned the meaning of hospitality before he learned the word for it. The story begins here.
A 17-year-old from Tanegashima arrives in California speaking almost no English. Two encounters — one at McDonald's, one at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco — plant a question that becomes an obsession.
Mitsuhiro Yashio apprentices under Michelin-starred chef Hiroki Abe in Kyoto. 6am to 2am. One day off per month. ¥80,000 a month. And a lesson about brands that no business school teaches.
After Kyoto, Mitsuhiro Yashio passes a trial at Masa — New York's most acclaimed Japanese restaurant. Then 9/11 happens, immigration rules change, and the door closes. The lesson: skill alone is not enough.
Sydney, 2007. No contacts, minimal savings, unknown in this city. Mitsuhiro Yashio opens Yachiyo with one table of customers on opening day. Within years: five venues, the Good Food Guide, a rent-to-revenue ratio that most restaurateurs never achieve.
Mitsuhiro Yashio gives a franchisee everything — the system, the fit-out, the knowledge. Then the franchisee opens their own restaurant four doors down. His father's response. And the design principle that came from it.
COVID. A sushi counter covered in takeaway containers. A catering operation that accidentally reveals the McDonald's model. And a daughter who comes home at 9pm from a dance competition, hungry, with nowhere to go. Otogo is born.
How the words 'Make the world better' arrived after two months of silence — and why we chose the slower onigiri machine, the smaller market, and the harder grain. The chapter where Otogo's vision and craft choices were both decided.
We say we eat to live. So why are there so many foods that just get us through the day, and so few that genuinely keep us well? The question at the centre of Otogo — and the case for becoming a daily, reliable infrastructure rather than a special-occasion treat.
Day one. 1,000 onigiri sold. Queues from 8am. And inside, on the floor, no joy — only a pile of problems and the weight of knowing this was the real start. The Kaizen story behind today's 4.8 Google rating.
The CBD flagship that almost did not happen. A Council lease that would not sign. A banker on Christmas holiday. 12 staff, 6 weeks of cash, and one decision that defined what kind of brand Otogo would become.
The month between the Town Hall decision and the opening day. A second delay nobody warned us about. Lunch cut into one-third of a croissant. A sealed envelope from a friend. Seven leaks on opening day. A bank account turned red on Sunday morning — and how Otogo Town Hall survived to become a Good Food-featured CBD flagship.
A Kyoto kaiseki kitchen at 7 a.m. A modern global QSR at 7 a.m. Otogo founder Mitsuhiro Yashio on what to inherit from 1,000 years of Japanese apprentice training, and what to deliberately leave behind. The three principles that now sit above every Otogo store and every Otogo OS module.
A proverb from Kyoto kitchens, the largest fast-food company on earth, and a small drawing on the back of a fries box. Otogo founder Mitsuhiro Yashio on studying the pattern of a giant, and the one detail that revealed what he was really looking for.
Essays on food, health, and the ideas behind the brand.
Otogo is named after Otogosahime — a small, wise goddess from Japanese mythology who rode a red goose across the sea, carrying seeds of the five grains to unknown lands. This is her story, and ours.
Discover the reason why Otogo prioritizes 100% additive-free, organic ingredients for our Japanese fast food in Sydney.