If you had tuned into a recent “Iron Chef” episode on the Food Channel, you would have watched Katsuya Fukushima working feverishly with chef José Andrés, caramelizing onions, pressure-cooking goat ribs and seasoning a goat tenderloin with a blast of applewood smoke. Keeping his wits in the midst of such chaos, Fukushima was a marvel to watch, graceful, poised and cool under cooking fire. That about sums up the man, who works as the head chef of Andrés’ hip, upscale Penn Quarter Nuevo Latino restaurant, Café Atlántico, where life is lived in D.C.’s fast lane.
No stranger to celebrity and hard work, Fukushima — more often called Katsuya or Kats — is a rising culinary star who fell in love with the food world when, after graduating from the University of Maryland, he took a part-time job with D.C.’s Ridgewells Catering company.
