CHEF PROFILES | NEVADA

That Time a Sushi Master Took on the Las Vegas Strip

After earning Michelin attention in Asia, Jeff Okada Ramsey takes a much larger stage at Mizumi at the Wynn Las Vegas.

By Eric Barton | July 31, 2026

AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.

Jeff Okada Ramsey was a shy kid, the sort who could disappear into a room without anyone noticing. Then he stepped behind a sushi counter.

Back there behind the glass, behind the display of fresh catch, sharpened knife in hand, it gave him a reason to look people in the eye. It turned conversation into part of the job. And the work was a kind of theater. “Once I was behind the sushi counter, I became a performer,” Ramsey says. “This really helped me break out of my shell.”

That transformation has carried Ramsey through kitchens in Washington, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia, from a dishwasher job in Bethesda to Michelin-starred restaurants in Bangkok and Tokyo. Now, after 18 years in Asia, the American-Japanese chef is back in the United States as executive chef of Mizumi at Wynn Las Vegas, overseeing a Japanese restaurant that can serve nearly 400 guests a night. His challenge: maintain the kind of precision that earned him acclaim, this time on a much larger stage.

Jeff Okada Ramsey

Ramsey’s education began at home. His mother, Yoneko, grew up in a minshuku, a family-operated Japanese inn where meals were served alongside lodging. She packed onigiri in his school lunches, attracting confused looks from classmates who had no idea what they were seeing, and cooked Japanese food at home while experimenting with American recipes, including one of Ramsey’s favorites, Irish stuffed cabbage.

His friends eventually began showing up after school hoping to be fed. Ramsey wanted his mother’s recipes. She gave him something more useful. “My mother encouraged me to test them out myself and see what spices and ingredients blended well together,” he says. “Each day, I would experiment with different recipes, becoming deeply interested in the culinary craft.”

He studied international business in college, though it became increasingly clear that he didn’t want to spend his life in that field. Ramsey wanted to travel, and his mother suggested sushi as a portable profession, a specialized skill that was gaining demand around the world. He started washing dishes and doing kitchen prep at Matsuba, a Japanese restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland. He loved the industry immediately. He then sought out Masataka Kudo, repeatedly asking the sushi chef for a job until Kudo relented. Ramsey stayed for six years.

Cedar smoked nigiri

Chef Jeff Okada Ramsey Mizumi Restaurant Wynn Las Vegas Nigiri

His training later took him to Japan and master sushi chef Masayoshi Kazato, who exposed Ramsey to a deeper understanding of fish, sushi, and Japanese culture. Ramsey worked as an apprentice at Kazato’s restaurant and moved into his mentor’s home. Years later, Kazato entered him in major sushi competitions, where Ramsey earned several wins.

“He taught me how to handle pressure and perform at the highest level,” Ramsey says.

Sushi moriawase

Robata skewers

Ramsey’s career then widened beyond the sushi counter. He worked as sous chef at Minibar by José Andrés before becoming executive chef of Tapas Molecular Bar at the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, where he explored modernist cooking and earned the restaurant a Michelin star.

Afterward, he traveled through nearly 30 cities for pop-ups and restaurant consulting. In Southeast Asia, he helped launch Babe and Japas, then opened Kintsugi by Jeff Ramsey in Bangkok. The eight-seat restaurant earned Michelin recognition and was named the best Japanese restaurant in Thailand. A Kuala Lumpur location followed in 2022.

Wagyu steak

Ramsey had been considering his own 10-seat omakase restaurant in Tokyo when a friend told him about Mizumi. The timing felt right. His children could experience life in the United States, and Ramsey could test everything he had learned in small restaurants against the scale of a major Las Vegas dining room.

At Mizumi, he has introduced a dry-aged fish program while overseeing sushi, robatayaki, teppanyaki, and a seven-course tasting menu. Fish arrives daily from Japan. All of it equalled an experience worthy of landing on The Adventurist’s list of Las Vegas restaurants that deserve a Michelin star when the guide returns.

Yuzu truffle with passionfruit sauce

The restaurant’s waterfall, koi pond, and garden terrace may provide the spectacle, though Ramsey remains focused on what happens between the kitchen and the guest. He talks about diners leaving with smiles and a team that keeps learning from one another. He studies new ingredients and techniques emerging in Japan, looking for ideas that can travel back to Las Vegas.

Ramsey once found his voice by standing behind a sushi counter. After a career spent crossing borders, winning competitions, and earning stars, he still seems most at home there: hands moving, guests watching, and the shy kid nowhere to be found.