Can't wait for the eagerly anticipated Nobu Waikiki restaurant to open May 28?

You don't need to. Chef-owner Nobu Matsuhisa has just released a new cookbook, "Nobu West" (Andrews McMeel, hardback, $39.95), which he co-authored with the chef of Nobu London, Mark Edwards.

Many of the recipes are surprisingly doable and perhaps the most valuable section of the book is the chapter at the rear that covers Nobu's dressings and sauces, key to re-creating the clean but complex flavors that characterize his "New Style Japanese" cuisine.

It's Japanese, yes, but with many multicultural twists — quail tempura in a batter that contains cayenne and oregano; duck breast tataki; and foie gras with mustard miso.

Just don't call it "fusion" in front of Chef Nobu — or, worse yet, his partner, Richard Notar. The two sat for an interview with The Advertiser last week, and when I asked if he considered his food Japanese or more of a fusion cuisine, both of them erupted.

"I am Japanese 100 percent, and my food is Japanese, too," said Nobu. "Just not traditional. We use truffle oil. We use olive oil. We use what we find (in the cities where his growing family of restaurants are located)."

He is looking forward to seeing what he'll find here in Hawai'i; he's already planning to use Big Island hearts of palm.

Notar (who is one of four partners in the Nobu empire, the others being Meir Teper and actor Robert De Niro) jumped in. "The word fusion I call confusion. I hate the word; I don't use it," he said.

In the end, both men agreed, the food speaks for itself; it doesn't need a label. "It's called Nobu Food," said the chef.

All the Nobu restaurants feature certain signature dishes that regulars demand stay on the menu; these are the ones that will be featured for the first few months at Nobu Waikiki, including sashimi tacos, black cod saikyo miso, tuna tataki sashimi salad, and fish and chips Nobu-style. After settling in, chefs here will create what he called "Hawai'i Nobu food."

All the restaurants feature a sushi bar and signature sakes and beers.

But all have slightly different menus and their own hot food chefs and head sushi chefs who create their own specialties in consultation with Nobu.

So what makes a restaurant a Nobu, I asked?

"Nobu!" the chef answered.

He wasn't being difficult or evasive — for one so busy and famous, he's a very patient and gracious interview — but he was expressing, in one word, that the essence of his restaurants is his aesthetic, both in decor and menu.

Just looking over the decor of the new 7,500-square-foot, 190-seat restaurant in the Waikiki Parc Hotel, and talking with the design project director from Rockwell Group, Julie Frank, tells a lot. Nobu knows what he wants, she said, and one thing he doesn't want is a typical Japanese restaurant with the noren curtain at the door, too-small seats at the sushi bar and chopsticks in paper envelopes. "He doesn't like it to be obviously Japanese. There's never going to be a koi fish or a painting of a geisha woman," said Frank.

However, there are references to Japanese culture throughout: the famous scorched-ash sushi counter that speaks of rustic Japanese inns; woven straw light fixtures that are modeled on fish baskets. "He alludes to Japan in a thoughtful way, a more modern way," she said.

And he combines Japanese elements with those that are distinctly not so: deep maroon leather banquets and roomy leather-covered chairs at the sushi bar; onyx, alabaster and Venetian glass accents that have a European feel, a walnut bar in the cocktail lounge.

All the Nobu restaurants share some commonalities, Frank said, but this is no standardized chain. "You can definitely tell you're in a Nobu, whether you're in the Bahamas or New York or London, but they're more like cousins than identical twins," she said. In Waikiki, for example, because the Islands are all about sunshine and the outdoors, they chose to use a very loosely woven window treatment to allow light in and glimpses of the greenery outside. And they were careful, when selecting the treatment for the customary floral panels in the entryway, to choose a flower that grows here, the orchid.

Important to understand about Nobu restaurants is that although they're high-end and elegantly furnished, they're not staid or fussy. They're see-and-be-seen places purposely designed to create a buzz and energy as diners brush by each other to reach their tables, or hover around the sushi bar hoping for one of the coveted seats. There are even some communal tables where strangers might be seated together. If you want to get away from the crowd, however, there are private dining areas that can be screened off. And there's the sake table, in a corner next to a shelved wall that will display various sakes.

AND THE FOOD?

An advance copy of the menu shows a wide variety of cold dishes, from toro tatar with caviar to oysters with three sauces; salads; washu beef done four ways; hot dishes from shrimp spicy garlic to black pepper cod with balsamic teriyaki; various dishes prepared in the kiawe-wood burning oven; kushiyaki, tobanyaki and tempura and, of course, a full range of sushi.

Paging through "Nobu West," what impresses is the purity and simplicity of the Nobu style. There's not a lot of fuss on the plate. Attention is focused on the primary ingredient, set off by tiny bursts of flavor and texture from accompaniments such as fresh herb salsas, well-spiced dressings and his signature sauces, which are often very spare combinations of flavoring agents.

Asked if there were any special challenges to creating Nobu food in Hawai'i, Notar said the one thing he was concerned about was portion size. In eating out here, he had noticed Islanders' penchant for Sam Choy-style portions. This is not Nobu style. "One of the things about Nobu is that you can have a two-hour omakase (multicourse dinner chosen for you by the chef) and get up from the table and not feel uncomfortable," he said. "Our customers like that."

Nobu nodded: "Too much food, people don't appreciate what they eat."

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.