Wednesday, July.29.09

Sushi Nigiri


“However that you decide to learn,

whether mastering each technique at a time or gradually altogether,

you are judged by your overall performance from start to finish.”

How long does it take to become a master sushi chef? I don’t believe there is a strict time frame for someone to become anything in their life time.  Not all people are created equal.  By those means I mean every person has their own capabilities, drive, passion, etc., but every persons capabilities works at different intervals of speed, persistence, and precision.  If you looked up precision in the dictionary, it would tell you something like, “precision is repeated accuracy.”  You learn from your mistakes and move on.  99.9%, nobody is going to do something right the first time.  That 0.1% are for the people who do it by accident.  With mistakes you learn to  grow towards perfection.  However that you decide to learn, whether mastering each technique at a time or gradually altogether, you are judged by your overall performance from start to finish or should I say from  ingredients to a dish worthy presentation. As I reiterate, sushi is about persistence and precision.  Figure out the best way of how something work for you.  You cannot run before you walk and you definitely cannot start cutting fish properly until you have been taught.  I remember before I was given the authority to cut fish into nigiri slices, I was only allowed to watch.  Once in a while I was given the chance to cut a few pieces but after messing up my mentor told me what I did wrong and then took over to finish the job.  I was thinking to myself, “learning from doing or ‘hands on experience’ is the best way of learning.  Only if I was given a few fillets to practice on; I know I would become better at it.  What I didn’t know was that you have to be book smart before you can be qualified for hands on experience.  If you don’t know how to do it, how do you know you are doing it correct when you do it?  You don’t.  I stayed persistent, knowledge wise, watching ever movement, every angle, every stroke, how the knife was positioned, how thick, how long, every possible thing that I could become receptive to.  In the end, I realized the value of that lesson.  You are not fully ready until you are properly trained.  You may get lucky but you will not carry your sushi skills with persistence and precision without proper training.  If you plan to make sushi at home and you want to fillet a salmon into nigiri slices then do your homework.  Please, read up on it, watch videos, ask your local sushi chef if he is kind enough to share some knowledge.  Some will be bitter towards your question but if I were to be asked the same question I would be receptive and  share my abundance of knowledge with others as I do in this blog.  I do not want you to waste your time and money in exchange for an ungrateful experience.  If you think that lesson was outrageous, you do not want to know how long I had to watch my mentor cut a whole salmon into sushi grade fillets.  I was let off easy, I waited about 1 1/2 months closely watching every move before I was given the chance to cut a whole salmon.  BTW, my first attempt was disastrous but I give myself an A for effort.  You don’t know until you know right?  Eventually, you’ll figure it all out.  The best thing to do is study and keep learning before doing.  When you’re ready, you’ll know it.

I don’t have a video on cutting fish yet but I will be sure to work on that soon.

Stay persistent, Stay precise, and  Stay posted.

-The Sushi Chef