opening n/naka in 2011, a Japanese man once walked in, saw her behind the counter, did an about-face and left. "He thought, 'This can't be a real sushi restaurant—or a good sushi restaurant,' " says Nakayama, who is trim and compact at 5-foot-1.
The style of Japanese food she serves at her 26-seat restaurant—a spa-like space of wood panels and soft lighting—is even older and more traditional than sushi as we know it today. Called kaiseki, it is a formal procession of courses with roots in ancient Buddhist ritual. It is also prepared almost exclusively by men. In fact, Nakayama may be the only female kaiseki chef not just in America, where she was born, but in the world—which makes her pretty conspicuous, the last thing she wants to be.