“Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character.”
—From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy-nominated producer and Billboard award-winning DJ
Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued. From world-class wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana, Rocky’s passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America.
Rocky’s rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is a wild American dream realized unlike any other. Running
