Highlights from Night with Nobuo Roka Scottsdale

The one-night-only event featured dishes cooked, at the chef’s discretion, on the restaurant’s giant charcoal grill. The robata serves as the restaurant’s centerpiece and inspired the eatery’s name. “Roka” is a combination of two Japanese words: “ro,” which means a gathering place for eating and drinking and “ka,” which means heat or fire. The restaurant’s full name “Roka Akor” is a palindrome meant to capture that the literal heat of the grill is reflected back by the warmth of restaurant’s diners.
The event wasn’t the first time these two chefs had shared a culinary stage. After Sega left one of his first food and beverage jobs, at Cowboy Ciao in Old Town, he headed to the now-defunct Sea Saw, where he worked under Fukuda and perfected the art of the ambitious, 10-course omakase-style dinners for which the chef and restaurant were known.
When Fukuda closed Sea Saw and opened his currrent spot in downtown’s Heritage Square, Nobuo at Teeter House, he eventually stopped the omakase dinners. But Monday night, diners got a glimpse of what these two chefs can really do.