An accomplished chef specialising in Japanese cuisine, Kevin De Guzman, Chef De Cuisine at Sato, The Gulf Hotel Bahrain Convention & Spa, talks about mentoring young talent, challenging kitchen moments and a nostalgic dish he’d love to master.

You’ve been at The Gulf Hotel for over a decade and climbed the ranks. What has been your biggest inspiration and how has that shaped the way you mentor younger chefs today?
My greatest inspiration has been the pursuit of culinary mastery and the desire to push boundaries in flavour and presentation. Also, the resilience and dedication of the team members I’ve worked with over the years. I’ve been motivated by the evolution of our hotel’s reputation and the trust our guests place in us. Collaborating with talented mentors like the legendary two Michelin-starred Chef Takagi Kazuo and other chefs’ dedication has driven me to constantly improve and innovate. This inspiration shapes how I mentor young chefs today. I encourage them to be passionate, disciplined and to view setbacks as opportunities to grow. I stress the importance of humility, teamwork, strong work ethic and embracing creativity while respecting tradition. My goal is to nurture their confidence and inspire them to aim for excellence, just as I strived to do through my career.

Every chef has their fair share of challenges in the kitchen. What’s one moment that really tested you and what did you take away from it?
The one moment that really tested me was during a particularly busy Friday night service when one of our kitchen machines broke down right in the middle of dinner rush. We had over 100 covers booked and suddenly some of our menu and bestsellers became impossible to execute as planned. We had to think fast and work together like never before. We immediately pivoted our entire menu strategy. I had my sous chef and kitchen generals grilling proteins that were meant to be roasted – we turned our salamander grill to overdrive, and we even borrowed space in our prep kitchen’s smaller ovens. The whole team stepped up – servers were communicating constantly with guests about slight delays, and my line cooks were adapting recipes on the fly. What I took away from that night was: the importance of having a team you can truly rely on and that some of my best creative solutions come under pressure. Most importantly, it taught me that flexibility and communication are just as crucial as technical skills in the kitchen.

If you weren’t working with Japanese cuisine, what unexpected type of food would you secretly love to master or eat every day?
If I’m being completely honest, my granny had this way of making this dish that was just… perfect! The peanut sauce was silky and rich but never heavy, and she’d get this depth of flavour that, I swear, came from some secret technique she never fully shared. She’d use oxtail and tripe but also throw in these perfectly tender vegetables – string beans, pak choi, eggplant – and everything would just meld together in incredible harmony. I’ve tried recreating it so many times since she passed, and yes, I can get close, but it’s never quite right. There was something about how she toasted the rice flour, or maybe it was the way she’d slowly build that sauce, stirring it with this old wooden spoon while telling stories about her childhood in the village. If I could master that one dish – really master it the way she had – I think I could eat it every single day and never get tired of it.

What’s the one dish at Sato that best reflects your style and philosophy as a chef?
The dish that truly embodies my philosophy at Sato is our Sushi Omakase – particularly how we present our daily catch of seafood selections. What makes it special isn’t complexity but the pursuit of absolute perfection in simplicity. We source our fish directly from Tsukiji-trained suppliers, age it precisely to develop optimal texture and flavour and serve it at the best temperature with nothing more than fresh wasabi, aged shoyu and perfectly seasoned sushi rice. This reflects my core belief that a chef’s role is to be a translator between the ingredient and the guest. The fish tells its own story – where it came from, how it lived, the season it was caught. My job is simply to present that story in its most honest, beautiful form. This simple sushi represents hours of invisible work: the relationships with our suppliers, the knife skills honed over decades and the understanding of how temperature and timing affect every bite. ✤