Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Sushi Master: Day 1
Today, I started the first day of my Sushi Master course. Usually, to be a Sushi Master (Itamae), you have to follow an apprenticeship for 5 years or so. But the course which is provided by “Sushi Academy”(http://academy.sushi.ne.jp/) in Sugamo ward makes you a Sushi Master after a 90 hours course (9:30 to16:30 mon-fri for 3 weeks).
When I came back to Japan, I was seriously thinking of undertaking some kind of apprenticeship in a sushi shop, but I didn’t have the time. This time I searched on the Internet and DID find a school to learn all the techniques to become a real Sushi Master.
This was the first time to visit the Sugamo area, and FORTUNATELY I made a mistake and ended up visiting the Koganji Temple which is famous as "Togenuki Jizo" (Toge-nuki means "pick a thorn out". "Jizo" is in Sanskrit Ksitigarbha; guardian deity of children. "Togenuki Jizo" is believed to remove the cause of all kinds of illness.)
There were actually quite a few of people coming to pray, one after another. And so did I. I prayed to be able to become a Sushi Master. This was my first visit to Sugamo. The area has the atmosphere of Tokyo shitamachi, or old town Tokyo.
Here is our Sushi Academy, a 5 min. walk from the Sugamo station. It was an actual Sushi shop named “Jyanome” which was acquired and transformed. Its interior has been adapted to become our school.
Below is the owner “Mr. Fukue”. He used to be an accountant and became a consultant specializing in Sushi shop. He started the Sushi Academy three years ago because he was concerned about the serious manpower shortage of real Sushi Masters.
We are 7 participants altogether, all Japanese people, and all living abroad. Two are coming from Switzerland, one is from San Francisco, one from Norway, another one is from Sydney, and one is planning to go to Germany. And then me! All the people coming from abroad already have some experience working in Sushi shops, but all came back to Japan in order to become real Sushi Masters.
I am sure one can find good Sushi Masters in the States, but in other countries, there is a real shortage and shops are always looking for real Sushi Masters.
We started with a brief meeting. The first thing we learned was how to wear our uniform, the Sushi Chef costumer.
After putting the proper attire, we started our course. We basically use two types of knife, the Deba-bocho, a wide knife, used to cut the big fishes and the bones, and the Yanagi-bocho, a long knife, used for sashimi, very thin slices of fishes. We learned how to hold these knives and we cut some tuna and squid for lunch!
After cutting the fish in pieces, we went into the main point of this course — how to make Sushi. We set the table with the fish pieces, specially cut for Sushi, the water with vinegar for the hands, the wasabi, and the rice.
Et voilà !
