Jiro Ono Explains Perfect Sushi and How You Should Eat It

In the video below, produced by WocomoCOOK, Jiro and his son, Yoshikazu, talk about their approach to sushi and what they think are the most important factors in creating perfect sushi.

Jiro, whose restaurant has three Michelin stars, goes to extreme lengths when composing his sushi menus and hearing from a pro about what he believes to be the best possible way to craft sushi is great to watch.

Jiro and his son mention five particular points they focus on when trying to achieve perfect sushi. Interestingly they don’t talk about cutting technique, rice plays a much bigger role it seems.

Perfect Sushi Points

1 - Rice must be cooked with vinegar for perfect sushi.

2 - The proportion of fish and rice must be just right.

3 - Only some fish works right with rice, other fish should be used for sashimi and chefs must go to great lengths to make sure they choose the right fish.

4 - The temperature the rice is cooked at and the temperature of the sushi chef’s hands are both very important for making perfect sushi.

5 - The size must be just right - eaten with the fingers - to be consumed with just one bite.

JIRO ONO'S GUIDE ON HOW TO EAT SUSHI.

Here it is - you’ll always know how to eat sushi from now on.

1 - Pick it up with your fingers - it’s fine!

Jiro says that because his sushi is made with an extremely light touch and contains a lot of air - it’s not easy to hold and should be gently lifted to help maintain the shape.

2 - Using chopsticks - also fine!

Jiro says that if you wish to pick up the sushi placed on your tray with a pair of chopsticks you can - but fingers are suggested first. If you are using sticks he says you should think of the sushi as a “portable shrine” - the sticks are the shrine’s “carrying poles”.

3 - Avoid spilling the topping

Gentle, gentle, gentle and always from the right angle - you don’t want to drop the goodness on top of your sushi.

4 - Flavor it with soy sauce

If the sushi chef has not brushed nikiri shoyu on your sushi, pick up a small amount of shoga (pickled ginger) and use it as a brush to apply soy sauce. Jiro says you should “brush it across the top of the sushi topping.”

5 - Eat some shoga

Jiro says you should eat just a pinch of the accompanying pickled ginger - it will cleanse the palate - but never take too much.

6 - Drink tea

Jiro says he believes that tea is the best drink for further palate cleansing.

7 - Don't dip sushi rice into soy sauce

He says this will spoil the flavour of the rice and the fish.

8 - Sweet tsume sauce

Jiro says that if a piece of sushi has already been coated in tsume sauce, you really don’t need to also add soy.

9 - Don't turn nigiri sushi upside down

It might sound a little picky but there’s actually a great reason for this rule. As Jiro says, “If you turn sushi upside down when eating it, your mouth will feel a strange sensation since the rice has a temperature different from your tongue.”

10 - Don't separate the sushi topping

As Jiro says, “pulling off the topping is the greatest insult to the sushi chef”, and we wouldn’t want to do that, would we?

11 - Don't break sushi into two

A piece of well made sushi should fit into the mouth in one bite, as Jiro says, “it should be roughly 6 centimetres long.”

12 - Don't let sushi sit

Sushi should be eaten as soon as it hits your plate or the counter in front of you. “There’s nothing more delicious than sushi that has just been placed on your plate,” says the master.

By AFP