In the fall of 1987, Toshio Takaya had a steady job and no reason to think it was about to get a lot more interesting.
He was the executive chef at a hotel in Karuizawa, in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. Then he was suddenly asked to step in somewhere very different. Michael Jackson was in Japan on tour, and his regular cook had quit partway through.
Here’s the funny part. Takaya has admitted he knew very little about Michael back then. He got hired on the spot anyway.
It was a big moment to walk into. That fall was the start of the Bad World Tour, Michael’s first solo world tour. It opened on Sept. 12, 1987, in Tokyo, and the Japan leg ran 14 shows into October. Every one of those nights, the most famous entertainer on the planet needed to eat, and now a hotel chef who barely knew his songs was the man in charge of it.
To get a sense of what Takaya had walked into, here’s the opening night of the tour in Tokyo.
Michael opens the Bad World Tour in Tokyo
Takaya didn’t need to know the music to win Michael over. He just needed the right dish.
That turned out to be a tofu hamburger, which quickly became one of Michael’s favorites. Takaya ended up cooking for him for nearly a month. For a man who’d been hired in a hurry, that’s a pretty good review.
But the best story from that month has nothing to do with the kitchen.
One day, according to a profile of the chef, Michael came to him with a request. He wanted Takaya to put on one of his stage costumes and stand at a hotel window.
And wave.
Takaya did it. The fans outside screamed up at the building, sure they were looking at Michael. They were looking at his cook.
It’s a sweet little prank when you think about it. The fans got their thrill. And a chef who’d known very little about Michael when he took the job got to find out what it felt like to stand on the other side of all that love.
This clip gives you an idea of how excited Japanese fans were to have Michael in their country that fall.
Fans greet Michael in Japan in 1987
Michael clearly liked having him around. He wanted Takaya back for the next tour, and Takaya did return to cook on the 1988 Japan tour, when Michael played nine shows at the Tokyo Dome in December, including one on Christmas Day. He turned down invitations to travel overseas with Michael, though. That life was too demanding for him.
Today Takaya is in his 70s, and he’s still cooking for people who need it. He makes free monthly meals, things like curry and yakisoba, for children and seniors in Ibaraki. The fees from his TV appearances and talks go to a children’s home in Tokyo that Michael also visited.
And his business card still says it plainly: “Former Personal Chef to Michael Jackson.”