“I love sushi” our conversation begins. US film director producer David Gelb has grown up with sushi, visiting Japan as a child on his father’s business trips. His mother is a chef and food writer, so perhaps its no wonder he’s so deeply interested in food. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is Gelb’s celebration of the mystique behind sushi, and the performance aspects of the sushi master. It’s also a story about how Sushi Master Jiro Ono, now 86 years old still strives daily for perfection, at his three star Michelin restaurant. At just 10 seats perhaps the smallest three star Michelin in the world. While talking to David Gelb this morning in New York, he evoked pictures, tastes, smells of a culinary ideal that had me wanting to immediately hop a plane to Japan. “Sushi is as complicated as any national cuisine” he shared and then revered how Master Jiro Ono perfectly matches the rice to the fish. “You’re really tasting the essence that he has worked so hard to perfect. The rice is unlike any I’ve had here in the states.

If a single piece of rice was to fall off the sushi you’d go after that one grain”. He describes how the harmony of rice, soy and wasabi elevates the pure soul of the fish. Just the selection of the fish is a story in itself, as Gelb follows the older Ono son to Tsukiji fish market where every day he selects the absolute best fish from specialist suppliers. And so Gelb says, he has tried in the more formal elements of the film, through the use of refined lenses for the cinematography, and the use of master composers, Bach Mozart and Tschaikovsky, in the music to reinforce this perception as food in its elevated form. In particular, the music of Phillip Glass was selected to express the repetitive nature of Jiro’s work, used as a metaphor for the building towards perfection through repetition. Each day Jiro looks to this same process to continual improve, and to move closer to an ethereal ideal of perfection. Jiro Dreams of Sushi screened with standing ovations in Sydney during the 2011 Sydney Film Festival.

As the surprise box office hit of the US spring, this glorious celebration of food and Japanese culture is back screening in Australia to a wider audience – from May 10 at the following cinemas: The Chauvel Cinema, Paddington (Sydney) Greater Union Manuka (Canberra) “BREATHTAKING, INSPIRATIONAL AND HUMBLING. Anyone passionate about craft, cooking and excellence should watch.” – ERIC RIPERT, the acclaimed 3-star Michelin chef at New York’s Le Bernardin – ANTHONY BOURDAIN, writer of Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. “★★★★★ A DOC SO DELICIOUS YOU COULD EAT IT.” – Keith Uhlich, TIME OUT NEW YORK “MOUTHWATERING An intrinsically compelling hymn to craftsmanship and taste in every sense.” – Leslie Felperein, VARIETY “CINEMATOGRAPHY AS LUSH AS THE TUNA BELLY” – Betty Hallock, LOS ANGELES TIMES “MAKE SURE YOU’VE ALREADY STAKED OUT THE NEAREST SUSHI PLACE. By the time the lights go up you’ll be ravenous.”

– Daniel Walber, INDIEWIREFor the last ten years of my life, I have worked as a barista. People rely on me almost like a dealer for their next hit. I always thought I knew quite a lot about coffee, but that was until I met Sasa Sestic. tupperware sushi maker prezzoI was sent to enjoy a special masterclass with the world’s number one barista and attend a preview screening of his documentary titled simply The Coffee Man. Excited is an understatement.jiro dreams of sushi nowness When the masterclass commenced, the amount of passion and knowledge that spilled out of the man’s brain was like an endless stream. jiro dreams of sushi pantip review

If only it could be bottled up and taken home. Here is a man that eats, sleeps and breaths coffee (sometimes literally). The documentary The Coffee Man plays out into two parts. yo sushi menu gunwharfOn one hand we get to follow one his expedition to far off lands in search of that perfect cup of coffee. jiro dreams of sushi assistirSestic’s daughter superbly narrates this section us she talks us through our own 101 to coffee making. feng sushi menu millbury maOn the flip side to this we follow Sestic’s grueling journey to compete against 52 other countries and take out the tittle of world's best barista. No matter which way you look at it, though, this film constantly toes the fine line between passion and obsession.

Starting from very humble beginnings, Sestic’s family immigrated to Australia in the Mid 90’s from war torn Bosnia. Driven by his love of sports Sestic represented Australia in the 2000 Olympic Games, but it was his family’s decision to buy and open up a bakery that would see him perusing a new career. Having no experience in the food industry, it was one trip to Sydney that sparked what would be his on going love affair with coffee. This is where the journey begins, from his chain of cafes in Canberra to the plantations in Colombia, to the overgrown forests of Ethopia - going to places that many people only ever dream about seeing. There is no stone unturned, no bean not picked or bumpy trail not traveled (even if it means scaling a mountain in a tractor pulled cart). Juxtaposed with this story is that of Sestic’s journey to Seattle to compete among the worlds best. The ultimate outcome was obviously unknown to the film crew when filming began - the film sets out merely to document the lengths one man would go to in order to produce the perfect cup of coffee.

With interviews from his family (father, wife, kids) we learn that Sestic is a man with “better coffee vocabulary than normal vocabulary." He also has the dedication of his ever-supportive work family - the boys even go to extreme lengths to ensure Sestic wins by smuggling Australian milk through their baggage while entering the states, or declaring the secret ingredient for the “specialty coffee” round of the competition as a berry facial scrub. There’s even a Karate Kid element as we are introduce to Sestic’s friend and Mentor Hidenori Izaki, who took at the title himself in 2004. Taking him under his wing, Izaki trains Sestic to be the best he can be and teaches him step by step, what one must do to be the best of the best . Sasa has yet to watch the film for himself, even stepping out from the screening that I attended. He wants to savour that moment and share it with the people he loves most - his family and the people of Canberra. I guarantee he will be pleasantly surprised with the humble little documentary he started with two budding filmmakers (Jeff Hann and Roland Fraval) in search of that Coffee utopia and ended up with a intimate portrait of man in search of perfection, has he found it?