Compass I T I N E R A R Y
GLOBAL CITIZEN EXPLORE JAPAN WITH ACCLAIMED CHEF JOHN SUGIMURA. B Y K AT E N E L S O N
102
Artful Living
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Magazine of the North
PHOTOGRAPHY BY 2ND TRUTH
Harmony, respect, purity and tranquility: These are the principles that guide Executive Chef and Partner John Sugimura in his craft at PinKU Japanese Street Food in Northeast Minneapolis. Half German and half Japanese, he grew up in the Twin Cities experiencing very little of his Japanese heritage. In part, no doubt, because of the pain surrounding it: His father and grandmother, a skilled cook and restaurateur herself, were incarcerated at Tule Lake internment camp for four and a half years. Every Christmas, three generations of relatives would gather, giving Sugimura a taste (really, an overdose, he says) of Japanese culture — just enough to whet his appetite. And so Sugimura took it upon himself to learn the ways of his people, deciding for his most recent chapter in life to pursue professional culinary training under master sushi chef Katsuya Uechi. What brought him there was his fascination with how food can bring people together. He experienced that firsthand when he started making sushi for private gigs, afterward bringing