Learning Experience
EHRD
Wayne Wauters
How to Make Sushi

I started cooking when I was eleven years old. My parents had split up and my mother went back to work. So during the summer if we wanted anything other than cereal or sandwiches we had to learn to make it on our own. I remember my older brother, who at the time was a cook in a restaurant, sat me down and taught me how to make an omelet and so began my culinary journey. Since that time I have practiced many different cuisines and I am a fairly accomplished self trained gourmet cook. When I was a teenager I used to throw big Italian dinner parties for my friends. Most of this cuisine I learned from my mother and then improved upon the recipes. As I grew up I turned to a more gourmet pallet. I have catered parties for up to eighty guests and planed meal aboard yachts when I was racing in regattas to Port Aransas, TX and Vera Cruz Mexico. These meals were usually focused on French Cuisine and the parties might be themed but were usually including at least eight hors d’ oeuvres and a midnight breakfast of typically American faire. It wasn’t until I was thirty two that I actually tasted my first sushi. I remember the experience vividly. A very attractive woman named Kelly wanted to go to dinner as her boy friend was working late so she asked me “Would you like to go and eat some sushi with me Wayne?” Now her boyfriend and I were friends so the request innocent but the male side of me said “you can’t say no” or she might think you’re not with it, “the in crowd”. At the same time my head was saying “Raw fish what are you nuts?” Well, I decided to go. I must thank Kelly because she helped me to experience a new cuisine. One I would never have tried on my own. I remember the first night we started with a salad with Miso dressing, which has now become one of my favorites, then it was time for some sushi. She helped by telling me that not all sushi was raw. We started with a California Roll followed by pieces Ebi (shrimp) Sushi, and then it was time to try some raw fish. We each had a spicy Maguro Temaki (tuna hand roll) followed by pieces of Sake (Fresh salmon) sushi. The last thing we had was a Tekka Maki or tuna roll. Eating raw fish had been as foreign to me as the language of the names of the sushi but the exquisite flavors of the fresh fish and the heat of a little Wasabi (like horseradish) mixed with the saltiness of the soy sauce kept me coming back. Since that night I have regularly eaten sushi. I prefer to sit at the bar where I can watch as the sushi chefs prepare plates that would challenge the beauty of the plates of any French chef. When I met my wife she was only a cooked sushi eater but now has tried almost as many different types of sushi as I have. There is a true art form to preparing sushi and because I consider myself an artist in the other cuisines I prepare, I was drawn to the challenge of learning to prepare sushi. There is a methodology that if one prepares sushi enough times could become a second nature. The better the methodology the better the art form. My journey began with researching on the internet were one might be able to find classes, books, and tools of the trade. There were two books that were highly regarded by readers since they were both complete books of sushi I chose the one with a little less background and a bit more on technique called The Complete Book of Sushi (Dekura Treloar, & Yoshii 2004). This book had many pictures so I would be able to measure my progress toward my goal. I also signed up for a class a Central Market although, at the time I did not know what my learning curve would be. I started to read the book and came to the understanding that I would need some basic equipment if I wanted to be successful. Since I had done some preliminary research I knew that there was a Japanese market named Nippon Daido not far from my house. So, I went on a shopping trip. I purchased a very sharp sushi knife (a very sharp knife is needed) a bamboo rolling mat (makisu), A rice cooling tub (hangiri), some high quality rice, and some seaweed paper (nori). I also purchase some fresh sushi ingredients like flying fish eggs (tobiko) seaweed salad and a few other items. Nippon Daido carried great sashimi quality fish but I had already bought some frozen sashimi grade tuna and salmon. After reading a little further and trying to cook the rice stove top, it became painfully apparent that I would need a rice cooker if I was going to even get close to my goal. I went out the next day and purchased a rice cooker. The book was correct my rice came out perfect I added the rice vinegar mixture I had from some other Asian cuisine I had made and dove right in. I started trying to make topped rice sushi or nigiri sushi. The instruction for this type of sushi was in the middle of the book. I flipped to the page and looked at the picture and then tried to recreate the look again I was faced with a product that looked horrible in comparison to the pictures in the book but it did taste good. I then tried my hand at a sushi roll or Futomaki. I was able to roll the sushi but the roll was not as tight as I would have liked. Again the roll tasted great but looked sloppy. I mixed up some wasabi (a green horseradish like paste) and added some to my next roll. I must have missed something in my reading because the rice was really sticking to my hands. I remembered from times in sushi restaurants that the chefs were constantly dipping their hands in water. I tried this and it solved the problem somewhat. After several attempts at making sushi I did get better. I decided to go back to the book and work through it like it was a training manual meant to be followed in order. I noticed that my end product was better although sometimes my rolls were not as tight as I would have liked they were certainly better than my first attempt. A few things we noticed about my sushi were that the rolls were not as tight as the ones at the restaurant and that there seemed to be too much seaweed paper. I felt pretty comfortable with my progress and was wondered if the Sushi 101 class I had signed up for would actually teach me anything new.
Sushi 101 opened up with introductions to the chef and staff followed by a brief overview of what we were there to learn. The chef then told a short story about how sushi came into being. Apparently it began in China where they pickled a great deal of fish. This process took a very long time so it was suggested to use rice as an accelerator. After some time china had an economic downturn and the people started eating the rice. Many years later raw fish was added to the top of the rice and this evolved into what we now know as sushi. I researched this story and found that yes sushi did transform from fermented fish but that the story the chef instructor told may be somewhat inaccurate. There are for example, records of sushi being used to pay taxes. The earliest recording is from the year 718 zakonosushi according to Wikiped.org. Of course, they could not know the meaning of this word. In this class we were given instruction and shown how to make a variety of different sushi rolls then given an opportunity to make the rolls. This training was god as a learned some things about technique my earlier attempts did not cover. I was however a little distracted in the class room as there were a total of twenty four students. I was the only student who was using the class a part of a project. I started this journey by trying to dive right in and start making the sushi I wanted to make. I favor learning by doing. In this situation, the results that I accomplished were dismal. I had to go back to the books to learn more about the basics. When I did go back and applied what I learned, my results continued to get better. I practiced many times over several weeks and learned that making sushi is not unlike training on an assembly line. The biggest difference was that with sushi making a person must complete the task from start to finish instead of doing one part of a finished product. I learned that learning by doing works in certain applications but not in all applications. Further, I learned that while classic instruction or Pedagogy can be helpful with a task that is very manual practice is the best teacher. Since practice is the best teacher it could take years to really become proficient at sushi making as is evidenced by the length of time most sushi chefs spend practicing under an expert before they get to cut fish for the public. According to the instructor the average chef spend three years learning before cutting fish for consumption. One of the other things I learned about my learning style is that I enjoy immediate gratification. I had always thought that I was a patient learner but with this project I wanted to see results as soon as I started. This may have been due to my experience watching sushi chefs so many time in restaurants. Sushi chefs make it look easy but it is definitely more involved. As indicated above this project also required that I learn some new vocabulary in Japanese and a bit about Japanese culture. There is a chapter in the book about sushi etiquette. Learning some of the words and etiquette helped me when I would go to the Japanese market. The Japanese culture seems to be very respectful of tradition. Going to the Japanese market was an outcome from experience. I tried to use Sashimi grade fish from American markets but this fish is almost always frozen. This fish is cut into steaks or filets and it can be very difficult to cut the shapes needed to make sushi. The Japanese market cuts the fish so that sushi pieces can be cut very easily.