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.

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.