The whole experience
History & Culture
Ingridients
Becoming a Sushi Chef
The master of Sushi
Sushi is the combination of the words “su” and “meshi”. In English this means vinegar and rice. Sushi refers to the slightly sweet, vinegared rice, sometimes called shari, paired with a garnish (or neta) of seafood, egg or vegetables either raw or cooked.
History & Culture A Brief History of Sushi and Why It‘s So Popular Today
Sushi traces its origins back for millennia, to the rice fields of Asia - China, to be specific. While Japan is certainly the sushi capital of the world - and responsible for introducing the dish to travelers - sushi traces its origins back to a Chinese dish called narezushi. This dish consisted of fermented rice and salted fish. And, despite what you may think, it wasn❜t fermented and salted for flavor. The dish‘s earliest known origin was in the 2nd century BC - so it predates refrigerators by nearly 2.000 years. Because of this, narezushi was actually a very practical dish. The rice was fermented to preserve it, and the fish was also salted heavily to prevent the growth of bacteria and microorganisms - keeping it fresh longer, even when stored without any kind of refrigeration. And, interestingly, the rice was typically thrown out when eating the fish. It was used only to wrap and preserve the fish.The dish spread from China to Japan in the 8th century.
歴 史 文 化
Over the following centuries, the dish slowly began to change. The Japanese began boiling their rice, and using rice vinegar to help ferment the rice more quickly. By the middle of the 18th century, sushi spread to Edo, where three famous sushi restaurants Matsunozushi, Kenukizushi, and Yoheizushi were opened. However, this sushi was not quite the same as the sushi we know today. It was often cooked - due to a lack of refrigeration - and served in larger pieces. If you want to trace the history of sushi as we know it today, you❜ll have to look at a chef by the name of Hanaya Yohei changed the world of sushi forever. He found that, instead of just throwing out the rice, it could be tossed with a bit of vinegar, and a small sliver of fish could be placed on top, making a flavorful, bite-sized treat that was delicious, portable, and affordable for the masses. Thus, nigiri was born - and the history of sushi as we know it in the West began in Japan.
Shortly thereafter, this dish would start to spread throughout the world.
TO FIND THE BEST SUSHI, LOOK TO THE RICE
Rice
Sushi meshi
Nori
Fish
Sushi rice (Kome) is a special roundgrained rice from Japan. The essential quality is its stickiness or glutinousness. The preparation of the rice is an art for itself, which is why a large part of the time is spent on it during training as a sushi chef. Traditionally, it is mixed with a hangiri (a round, flat-bottom wooden tub or barrel) and a shamoji (a wooden paddle).
Sushi meshi is a preparation of white, short-grained, Japanese rice mixed with a dressing consisting of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and occasionally kombu and sake.
Nori is a type of algae, traditionally cultivated in the harbors of Japan. Originally, algae was scraped from dock pilings, rolled out into thin, edible sheets, and dried in the sun, in a process similar to making rice paper. Today, the commercial product is farmed, processed, toasted, packaged, and sold in sheets
Only the best quality sea fish is suitable for sushi. The fish must be fresh and almost odourless. Salmon, tuna, shrimp, squid, eel, mackerel, crab are very popular.
Vegetables
Wasabi
Gari
Soy Sauce
Maki in particular are often filled with vegetables. Suitable vegetables include cucumber (kappa), carrot (ninjin), pickled burdock root (gobo), pickled radish (daikon), avocado and pickled or dried pumpkin (kampyo).
Spicy paste made from green Japanese horseradish. Wasabi is already added by the chef during the preparation of the sushi, but often the diner can „add seasoning“ by applying wasabi to the sushi or dissolving it in the soy sauce. In high-priced restaurants, however, wasabi is not usually served separately.
Sweet and sour ginger pickled in the fine slices, eaten between rolls to neutralise the mouth.
The best soy sauce for sushi is Shoyu, which is a type of fermented soy sauce that contains water, salt, soybeans, and wheat. This is the traditional soy sauce in Japan
Ingridients
Recipe レシピ How to make Avocado maki and salmon nigiri
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Rinse sushi rice under running water until the water runs clear. Add rinsed rice and water to a pot and let sit for approx. 10 min., then bring to a simmer over low heat. Cover with a lid and let simmer for approx. 10 min. Remove pot from haeat and let the sushi rice sit, covered, for approx. 15 min. longer. Afterwards, let rice cool down completely.
Add confectioner‘s sugar, rice vinegar, and salt to a pot and heat the mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Add to cooled sushi rice and stir to combine.
For avocado maki, slice avocado. Wrap sushi mat in plastic wrap and place a nori sheet on top. With damp hands, spread sushi rice onto the lower half of nori sheet and spread some wasabi and place sliced avocado in the center of the rice. Roll together tightly using the sushi mat and cut off overhang. Slice into equal-sized avocado maki.
For salmon nigiri, slice salmon filet. Form cooked sushi rice into oval shapes and spread some wasabi on top. Place sliced salmon on top. Serve sushi with more wasabi, sushi ginger, and soy sauce for dipping. Enjoy!
生 の 魚
raw fish
Becoming a Sushi Chef Why It Takes A Decade of Training to be a Head Sushi Chef Sushi sounds simple, right? Sushi is a traditional Japanese food that has found its way into the hearts and stomachs of people all over the world. As a now famous and hugely popular food, whether it be a fine restaurant meal or a quick takeaway lunch, sushi is well and truly in the mainstream and now forms a regular part of many Westerners‘ diets. The components sound simple. Some seaweed, some rice, and some fish. It can‘t be that hard, right? Wrong. What many people don‘t realise is that it can take upwards of 10 years of training to be an expert sushi chef. Significance of the sushi chef In Japan, the title of head sushi chef is extremely prestigious, and as such, is not loosely awarded. Known as Itamae in Japanese, which translates to “in front of the board”, the head sushi chef is ultimately the one in front of the chopping board, responsible for the production of all the sushi. In Japan, the Itamae is even in charge of entertaining guests as well as calculating the final bill at traditional sushi restaurants. The skills required Making sushi demands expert knife skills to cut and clean each fish in the appropriate manner. It also involves creating perfectly formed rice cakes, with the right balance of rice and vinegar to complement the fish it is being served with. The rice recipe is in fact a closely guarded secret amongst sushi restaurants. This truly is a precision skill, as the consistency and form of the rice is crucial to the overall taste of the sushi. Finally, knowing which ingredients work well together is absolutely crucial to a successful sushi dish.
Itamae training So how does one become a sushi chef, ultimately striving for the white apron and chef‘s hat of the revered Itamae? The short answer is: years of training, starting at the absolute bottom. This is no exaggeration as in Japan, the expectation is that you will start as the cleaner, eventually graduating to the rice maker, before finally gaining your apprenticeship as a wakiita (which means 'near the cutting board‘). This is a significant event and after this, a student can spend years trying to reach a point where they are able to wield their own set of sushi knives (known as hocho in Japan). Years of investment in practicing and training will eventually see a student go on to become an Itamae, if they are deemed good enough. If this all sounds a little too serious, it‘s because it actually is. Being a sushi chef in Japan is highly revered and honourable. An Itamae must handle their ingredients, knives, and customers with precision, grace, and charm. It is the reflection of Japanese culture‘s deep appreciation of respect and honour. With the rising global popularity of this culinary art form, there are many sushi schools available both in Japan and overseas. Some are just quick certification courses while others are intensive programs. In the past, the minimum amount of time required to become an Itamae was a decade, however as the younger generations have grown increasingly impatient, newer courses have emerged to cater to this demand. For true legitimacy as an Itamae, you can‘t beat training in Japan where there is even a formal grading system. While formal training isn‘t necessarily required, it is definitely the fastest and most structured way to learn the trade.
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The master of Sushi
„I love the process of making sushi and when I see the smiling, happy faces of my customers I‘m revitalised.“
An interview with Rei Masuda There‘s so much more to sushi than raw fish. A true sushi master will have a discerning eye and a deft hand, doing everything from dry ageing to salt massaging (shiomomi), kelp-wicking (kobujime), vinegaring (sujime), scalding (yubiki) and searing (yakishimo). Rei spent nine years training with Jiro Ono (widely regarded as the greatest living sushi craftsman) before opening Sushi Masuda, in Tokyo. Jiro - whose restaurant career spans 86 years - doesn‘t give compliments lightly, but has said Rei‘s sushi is the closest to his own of any former apprentice at his three-Michelin-starred Tokyo restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro. Sushi Masuda received two Michelin stars of its own in 2015, within a year of opening, and has kept hold of them. Rei devises a new menu each week, featuring some of the most creative and delicious sushi you‘ll ever taste. He‘s proud to pass on his knowledge to a new generation, but rather than offering traditional, lengthy apprenticeships, Rei is spreading his expertise via sister restaurants, such as the recently opened Sushi Wakon in The Peninsula Tokyo hotel, overseen by him and manned by chefs he‘s trained. Q: Why did you choose to work with sushi, and why Sukiyabashi Jiro? I had decided to pursue a career in food, and was drawn to sushi as it‘s one of the top foods I enjoyed eating. I began visiting sushi shops to sample the different styles of sushi masters in Tokyo and, of the many I tried, Sukiyabashi Jiro clearly stood out as the best. I asked Jiro-san if he would accept me as an apprentice but at the time there was no open spot. A few months went by before I got the call that someone had quit, and that Jiro-san was willing to take a chance on me. This was almost 15 years ago.
Q: It takes years to master the art of sushimaking - how long did you spend with Jiro? I worked for Jiro-san for nine years. Sukiyabashi Jiro is a small shop, so everyone participates in prep work. And the apprentices clean, of course. In our spare time, we also practised on our own with cheap rice and scrap fish, so as not to waste precious resources. If an apprentice could finally master a certain fish preparation, then Jiro-san allowed us to do that job for the shop. Q: How do you see your role as mentor? Many of my new apprentices are serious in their approach to sushi, but some lack an essential element of concern for their work and their actions. They, perhaps, will not succeed. Also, when my workers visit other sushi shops they often pick them apart, pointing out discrepancies or failings. I tell them: “It‘s better to find the good points than focus on the bad.” The current climate of sushi has changed - rather than keeping my apprentices over long periods, I want to pass on my power and expertise to them so they can stand on their own. Q: Some traditional restaurants are reluctant to accept non-Japanese speakers due to potential linguistic and cultural misunderstandings. What are your thoughts? Foreign customers show positive reactions to the sushi I serve them and this, in turn, gives me positive energy. I love the process of making sushi and when I see the smiling, happy faces of my customers I‘m revitalised. Foreign customers are respectful and knowledgeable about sushi - often more so than the Japanese. And I appreciate that they‘ve taken the time to study or research the customs surrounding sushi.
The etiquette of sushi eating
Never stick your chopsticks standing out of your bowl. Lay them flat across the bowl or rest them on a chopstick rest.
Sushi eating is simple, but it is important to be aware of basic etiquette.
Sushi is not bitten off, but fed into the mouth in one piece.
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There is a correct form for dipping in soy sauce. Dip with the topping first. Don‘t dunk the rice into the soy sauce. It absorbs too much soy sauce and can overwhelm the sushi.
If ginger is provided, eat it between orders as a palate cleanser; it is not a topping.
Wasabi and soy sauce are not usually mixed together, but usedseparately to season each individual sushi.
Never pass food from chopstick to chopstick
Index
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