At These Globally Inspired Restaurants, Japanese Cuisine is More of a Mindset

There’s a specific moment when some chefs remember falling under the spell of Japanese cuisine. For Tracy Chang of Pagu, it happened early. She was only three when she started asking for sashimi (influenced, in part, by her immigrant grandmother’s Cambridge, Mass., sushi bar). For Adam Tortosa of Robin, it was while being sentenced to three years of vegetable...