Worked at fine dining sushi spot. Best and easiest serving job ever. Probably $700 a night. Worked for 4 hours. The sushi chefs and all of the servers partied every night. Most polite people at work and we partied hard.
Part of the job was teaching people how to actually eat sushi. Speaking Japanese. Studying sake. And the home prep was more work than the job itself.
In most cases yes. However if you go to a fancy sushi place it's expected that you eat sushi in the 'correct' way. It's kind of like how 90% of the population of the US gets confused when you put more than one fork in front of them but if you go to an upscale restaurant the server is going to sneer at you if you use them wrong.
I just sneer at them back and we end up getting into a sneer-off, which I promptly end by swapping all the knives over to the fork side and vice versa while maintaining eye contact
I still recall my brother, who was a chef at a very fancy, expensive golf club, eating with me at a fancy restaurant. I picked up a fork to eat my salad and the waiter politely said, “Sir, that is the dinner fork, you may want to use the salad fork.” I accepted it as a mistake and switched, but my brother suddenly looked and sounded confused as he shoveled salad into his mouth with his dinner fork, “What? Are you sure? I think mine might be broken then because it seems to be working. Should I get another fork to try if this one is busted?”
For anyone who might think my bro was being an asshole, he did tell the waiter he was joking and then proceeded to explain to me the different utensils, but did say, “Use whatever you want, though. As long as you enjoy the food.” Still makes me laugh thinking of that moment.
I was watching this Japanese streamer and he was asked about slurping ramen and that if it meant respect to the chef. He was like, huh. We slurp because it helps with the heat. He apparently don't know any Japanese who does it as respect to the one who cooked it.
My understanding is that it’s the Chinese that slurp and burp. I lived in Singapore and at a Chinese family’s home slurping and burping was to show enjoyment of the food. However never saw that in public, or with Japanese. None of the other Asian countries I went to have I heard that was how they ate their food.
I would be interested to hear others opinion on this especially Japanese or Chinese.
I mean, every culture has pretentious cooks that dictate the way to eat food. There can be merits to certain things and I just think about them as subtle ways to make what youre eating "different" but when theyre presented as right/wrong I just groan.
It's pretty easy just to lift the fish, and add the wasabi properly. It really is a lot better to have the two flavors interact separately in your mouth than to just create a slurry.
Of course, most sushi places in the US just give non-Japanese green dyed horseradish anyways, because a lot of Americans don't know the difference (which really is considerable.) And with that stuff, it doesn't matter too much, because it has none of the nuance and flavor profile of wasabi. So I guess just slurry away.
I think most places that use real wasabi would know to add it to the rolls and pieces appropriately, so I’m either eating it the right way when it’s prepared the right way, or I’m eating crazy specialty rolls with wasabi slurry like a real American.
Tbf Ginger is the palate cleanser, not a side dish, it understandable that the chef may feel insulted if you eat their food with the cleanser cuz it indeed destroy all of the dish flavour and also signaling "your food is so bad i cant stand it taste".
I mean it's like with any food I guess. A good greasy, NY-style pizza is wonderful. I LOVE pineapple on pizza for example.
But if I want to have the real experience I will surely visit such a restaurant and ask for nothing else then what the chef offers.
Sometimes I want a burger, sometimes I want a perfectly cooked steak.
This way to eat Sushi is a special kind of serving that basically means "Chef's choice".
Omakase - "I'll leave it up to you"
In this case it is very disrespectful to eat it how you like it, this sort of experience is about trusting the knowledge of the chef and every thing is thought out to get a balanced taste experience.
That is also why those seemingly silly restaurants that looks like stupidity on a screen but probably is life changing to experience exist.
Human taste buds are incredible and with the right knowledge amazing things are possible.
It was stupid to leave, fine dining, BIG checks, very famous rich people (mostly assholes) and easy gig. I worked in film and couldn’t turn down an opportunity.
And the home prep was more work than the job itself.
I mean...that's the job, no?
Some cuisines spend a lot of time prepping garnish and sauces. Some takes a lot of time with marinades and aging. In your case, you spend a lot of time preparing yourself to be presentable to your customers, don't sell yourself short, this is all real effort and work.
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u/RememberAlfRIP Aug 22 '26
Worked at fine dining sushi spot. Best and easiest serving job ever. Probably $700 a night. Worked for 4 hours. The sushi chefs and all of the servers partied every night. Most polite people at work and we partied hard.
Part of the job was teaching people how to actually eat sushi. Speaking Japanese. Studying sake. And the home prep was more work than the job itself.