Julie Child gave Americans the Art of French Cooking. The Tokyo Sushi Academy gave this American the opportunity to be a culinary artist for a morning and to make what the world has embraced as the ultimate finger food...sushi.
Encapsulated into a 3-hour course is an hands-on experience learning to make this popular finger food which everyone can master. Best of all, you get to eat what you create !
Within a 2-minute walk of the Nishi-Shinjuku exit of the Marunouchi Metro line is the hidden world of the Tokyo Sushi Academy. Serious culinary students from around the world come here for 8-weeks of intensive instruction in the art of creating sushi. I on the otherhand was tiptoeing in for a sticky morning of what can best be described as "a two fingured symphony."
If I didn't find the real students separated by only a glass partition intimidating enough, I thought I had bought the farm when a three color schematic with the steps to manipulating rice, fish and wasabi was presented. I find my best learning is by doing and not thinking. Following charts has never been my forte. Oh well., here we go.
I was immediately put at ease by an apron, my very own work station, a tub of prepared sushi rice and three French vsitors who saved my ego from total destruction by being more perplexed than I or Julie Child.
The process was light hearted and organized in immaculate Japanese fashion to be inclusive vs. exclusive. Our instructor spoke better English than I and made the morning entertaining without being Benihana'esque.
My sushi creations were relished with cold mugi-cha, one mouthful at a time until they were completely gone. And now, me thinks I need to catch the Metro to Tsukiji and sit at a counter and see where a few more years of practice can take me.
For further information about this experience visit:
Tokyo Sushi Academy
8-2-5 Nishi Shinjuku
Shinjuku, Tokyo 160-0023 Japan
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