Chinese chef + sushi < Japanese chef + sushi? Not necessarily
March 23rd, 2009 by Jess | Featured Blogger
Photo by Jess
Having a growing inkling of a sushi craving, I decided to go on my oh-so-handy laptop and Google for sushi places near my house. However, upon my adventures, I stumbled upon a comment that irked me, but at the same time, made me think. The comment came from a negative review for a sushi restaurant, and the posting in question ended with, “Typical Chinese sushi place.”
Needless to say, I bristled at that comment. First of all, I completely understand how one would discriminate against the lack of authencity of a particular food that represents a certain place. As consumers, we definitely have a fetish for the “authentic”, especially in terms of food. There is a definite thrill of tasting food from different cultures. It gives us a feeling of experiencing that culture without leaving our own country.
At the same time, we would also concede that the person making the food does not always have to belong to the culture of the food they’re making. Taking the example of pizza: all of us would know that most of the pizzas made in the city of Toronto are not made by Italians. Yet, I’m sure that that doesn’t stop the majority of people from eating or enjoying it. What this means is that the ethnicity of the chefs do not necessarily have any effect on how we enjoy the food, let alone sushi. In fact, it really shouldn’t, for all you know, that sushi chef behind the counter may look Japanese but really be a Korean who had some sort of training by a chef in New York who studied in Japan. Not to mention that if you truly want authentic sushi, you would probably have to go to a high-end restaurant run by chefs who were rigorously trained in Japan (who, I will point out, do not necessarily have to be Japanese). Lower end or regular sushi restaurants probably don’t serve “authentic” sushi at times in order to cater to foreign tastes (the presence of the California roll is a telltale sign), regardless of the ethnicity or nationality of their chefs or management.
That, however, doesn’t make it any less delicious or even less Japanese. Food, like society is constantly evolving. The sushi that was first served in the Edo period probably differs from the rice and raw fish yumminess we eat now due to the imports of various kinds of fish from all over the world. This is extremely important, since the Edo, or Tokugawa, period imposed an isolationist policy. Trade networks were also not as extensive as they are now. The contemporary sushi menu probably contains fish that were not used when sushi was first created - salmon being one of them. Therefore, sushi, as well as Japanese food in general, has evolved within its own country. It has also now evolved outside of its borders, both in the high-end restaurants of Japan-trained chefs, and in restaurants for the masses run by people who may not be formally trained.
I find it rather offensive that someone on the internet has written off “Chinese sushi places” as restaurants that aren’t good or as good on the basis of the nationality of the management. What this statement implies is that every single sushi chef must be Japanese in nationality and anyone else’s sushi just isn’t good enough. If we apply the same idea to other cuisines, we might as well discredit all those students studying the culinary arts at George Brown. I mean, they’re Canadian, or some other nationality, and learning how to cook the food of another culture! Personally, I find that reasoning slightly racist, close-minded and rather ignorant of the movement of food, objects, knowledge (and basically everything) out of the borders of their nation of origin and the subsequent reintegration of all of this in another locale. In other words, this is an age of globalization buddy, deal with it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to help my mum make miso soup and spaghetti for dinner tomorrow.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Interesting tidbit there on Japanese cuisine history. I totally agree, food is food. Discrimination against the person who cooks that food based on whether the food they’re cooking matches the origin of the food…..man that just sounds ridiculous.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:21 am
To be fair, I think when people say “Typical Chinese sushi place,” they don’t mean “the sushi is mediocre because the sushi chef is Chinese” but actually “the sushi is medicore because the sushi chef is not Japanese and thus not as likely to be trained for years like a traditional Japanese sushi chef.” At least, that’s the impression I get.
To clarify, I’m not saying that a chef that is Japanese inherently makes better sushi, but that most Japanese sushi chefs are more likely to have had the traditional many years of training. A Japanese sushi chef who is only trained in the rudimentary basics with only a few years of experience will also probably produce mediocre sushi. I’m sure that sushi, like many other foods, takes time to perfect.
March 27th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I think the problem lies mostly in the marketing. Sushi places these days are a dime a dozen and the lower end places/what we consider typical sushi restaurants are generally owned by Koreans or Chinese. However, that is not to say that Japanese people don’t own these “regular sushi joints”.
There is also the fact that even with non-Japanese chefs, the food can be absolutely amazing. You can consider Sushi on Bloor near campus as “typical Chinese sushi place” since I’ve heard the chefs behind the counter speak Cantonese, but that doesn’t mean that the food there is mediocre. In fact, it’s won several awards for best sushi in Toronto Life, which is a great honour for Toronto restaurants. Not to mention that there’s always a line during lunch.
What was wrong about the comment was that it was a gross and unfounded generalization with an undertone of denial on the state of sushi today: it’s become a kind of food very much like pizza, shwarma, fried rice, hot dogs etc; Its mass popularity in North America, and possibly around the world, has blurred the many lines of nationality that once bound it to a certain country. Going into the realm of subjectivity, I don’t feel that sushi can now solely be considered as a “Japanese thing” when you have sushi made of fish coming from Boston, Jakarta, St. John’s etc; and when you have sushi chefs going out into the world changing their recipes to suit foreign tastes.
As for the training, well, I’m sorry but trained sushi chefs aren’t going to waste their training on a little dinky restaurant selling cheap stuff in Greek town. Chefs like those open huge classy restaurants in glitzy cities like New York and Los Angeles to charge exorbitant prices for their food. Going to a “regular sushi joint” and expecting mind blowing sushi of that quality is frankly, unreasonable.
February 28th, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Making sushi at home is so easy and actually very cheap. If you can get good seafood, it is actually a lot of fun and you can make all your favorite sushi easily.