jiro dreams of sushi santa monica
"I'm not an expert at making sushi," says David Gelb, with a pair of chopsticks poised above a plate of tuna sashimi at Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa downtown, "but I'm an expert at eating sushi." After filming 150 hours of footage at Sukiyabashi Jiro, the famed Michelin three-star sushi bar in Tokyo's Ginza district, the 28-year-old director of the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" knows a thing or two about nigiri and maki. "I like that the seaweed here is crispy," he says of a toro hand roll, into which he deftly pours a drop or two of soy sauce. Gelb's film is set to premiere in Los Angeles on Friday, and he has just returned from its debut in New York. The movie, which showed at last year's Tribeca Film Festival and was bought by Magnolia Pictures, has captured the attention of more than just food lovers, as Gelb has been talking up sushi-porn scenes and the importance of rice preparation on the media circuit. Naturally, the fooderati are drooling. "I think I was lucky," says Gelb, dressed in a black T-shirt and bright blue Adidas sneakers.
"Part of it is that there hasn't been a film about this level of sushi." Although reviews have been mixed, he says the goal was to film something "restrained and elegant" instead of relying on the "reality show kind of camera" usually aimed at food and cooking subjects. "I wanted to show sushi as an art form." The artist behind the sushi is Jiro Ono, the much-revered octogenarian proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a tiny restaurant that seats 10 next to a subway exit in the basement of a Tokyo office building. "He's a perfectionist in everything that he does, even the way he walks," says Gelb. "Look at his posture." An example of Ono's quest for perfection is detailed in the movie through an apprentice's attempts to prepare Ono's tamago, which Gelb says includes a mix of shrimp puree, grated mountain yam, sake and egg, turned into a custard-like cake. The apprentice had to make it more than 200 times -- yes, 200 -- before it met Ono's approval. Tamago "is so misunderstood," Gelb says.
"With that shallow, delicate focus the margin of error is greater than if I'd used the 'reality show camera.'
sushi delivery london w4I knew it was going to be a cornerstone of the film." Meanwhile, the film's tension centers around the somewhat discomfiting relationship between Ono and his oldest son and heir apparent, Yoshikazu Ono, who's in the position of waiting for Jiro to retire, only to try to fill some very big geta. And the Onos' reaction to the film? "Yoshikazu came to the Berlinale" last year for a screening, and "said it was OK. That's the highest approval I would expect." "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" opens Friday at the Nuart Theatre, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. In Japanese, with English subtitles. Check out UCLA's "Science and Food" public lecture series It's Taco Tuesday, at My Taco this week Dario Cecchini plans visit to Valentino "Jiro Dreams of Sushi"/Magnolia Pictures
Has there ever been a more idiosyncratic type of food as sushi? Every itamae, or sushi chef, starts with the same basic tools (fish, rice, vinegar, wasabi), but the test of a real sushi star is how they transform those elements into something greater than their parts suggest. It’s a process similar to winemaking in that the best of the best know how to choose the highest quality ingredients and then use their skills to present those ingredients as works of art. When people from anywhere outside of LA tell me how good their city’s sushi is, I smile and politely nod my head. The truth is, you can get sushi pretty much anywhere these days (grocery store, gas station, Nebraska) but that doesn’t make it good. You know what makes sushi good? In Los Angeles, we’re lucky enough to have a full stable of world-class itamae working all over the city. They may not seem like superheroes, but after one omakase, you’re sure to believe in their magical powers. In no particular order, these are the 8 Los Angeles sushi masters:
Name: Hiroyuki UrasawaRestaurant: UrasawaClaim to Fame: Luxury Urasawa is one of the most expensive restaurants in the United States, with checks reaching well over $1,000 for a party of two. That may seem extravagant to some, but to those seeking the ultimate sushi experience, it would be hard to do better. This the type of place that Jiro dreams of and with the best fish flown in daily from around the world, the price is almost justified. Toro, uni, wagyu beef, gold leaf — it’s all here. Perhaps Urasawa means “baller” in Japanese? 218 N Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, 310-247-8939 Name: Keizo SekiRestaurant: Sushi ZoClaim to Fame: Speed Got 45 minutes and $150? Zo will hook you up. Another player in LA’s formidable collection of high-priced omakase-only spots, Keizo-san is known for serving tiny portions of fish on top of rice that mimics the body’s internal temperature. With a new location downtown, you now have twice the opportunity to wonder if you’re really getting your money’s worth before ultimately deciding that you want to come back tomorrow.
9824 National Boulevard, Los Angeles, 310-842-3977 and 334 South Main Street, Los Angeles, 213-935-8409 Name: Hiroyuki NarukeRestaurant: QClaim to Fame: Edomae sushi (AKA Tokyo-style) Omakase-only Q is the latest entrant in LA’s high-end sushi game and Naruke was imported directly from Japan by an LA law firm with an office in Tokyo. As the story goes, the partners liked Naruke’s food so much, they convinced him to relocate to LA (with the help of piles of cash, I assume). Name: Ken NambaRestaurant: KirikoClaim to Fame: House-made smoked salmon wrapped around mango The Little Osaka neighborhood on Sawtelle in West LA is known for being a Japanese wonderland (although it’s become more pan-Asian recently). Kiriko is one of Sawtelle’s OGs, a small spot serving up one of the best lunch specials in town. For $40, you get an incredible omakase from Namba, including that luscious smoked salmon. It’s no surprise that Kiriko is one of über-critc Jonathan Gold’s favorite sushi bars.
Name: Niki NakayamaRestaurant: n/nakaClaim to Fame: Lady power It’s not really fair to say that Niki’s inclusion here is because she’s a female itamae working in a field dominated by men. Her sashimi is on par with the very finest in LA county. Her restaurant, n/naka, serves traditional multi-course kaiseki meals, so don’t go expecting to find a big glass case full of fish. Instead, save a few weeks’ salary and head in for a revelatory dinner. When you get to the shokuji one course, you’ll know exactly why Nakayama made the list. Name: Yoya TakahashiRestaurant: HamasakuClaim to Fame: Personality Yoya is awesome. If you’ve ever sat at his bar, you know that. He shops for the best fish from all over the world every day and, in his spare time, gets down to The Grateful Dead. Allow him to do his thing and you’ll be sure to wind up with tiny firefly squid with a creamy miso or a king crab leg cracked open in front of you, covered in butter, and seared with a blowtorch.
Hamasaku gets more credit as an entertainment industry power-lunch spot, but Yoya’s incredible knowledge and personality combine to form a rockstar itamae who holds his own with LA’s best. Name: Osamu FujitaRestaurant: Nozawa BarClaim to Fame: Back-room secrets Chef Nozawa has been revered in Los Angeles for years, but when his eponymous restaurant in the Valley closed down a few years back, he partnered in a chain concept called Sugarfish that has since taken over LA. There’s seemingly a Sugarfish for every neighborhood these days, but in the back of Sugarfish Beverly Hills, you’ll find Nozawa Bar, a tribute to the original with Chef Fujita at the helm. It’s yet another omakase-only spot with only ten seats and one seating per night (two on Saturday). A recent meal there started with jellyfish and continued to impress all the way through the umeboshi palate cleanser. Name: Shigeru KudoRestaurant: ShibuchoClaim to Fame: Stealth There’s a good chance that you would never find yourself near Shibucho’s Rampart Village location if you weren’t there specifically for sushi.