Sushi Chef Answers Sushi Questions From Twitter | Tech Support | WIRED

You can tell he's serious about his craft, but not obnoxious about it. The best you can hope for

Hes really respectful of people enjoying sushi differently. Class act.

That fact about fugu really made me rethink life. I didn't know they could be farmed so they can never make poison..

Ever noticed how true experts can talk so openly, fluidly and (normally) without bias on their topic of expertise? It's probably one of the reasons it's so good to listen to people like Taka.

I love how positive this guy is. Never says a bad word about anyone. Made me feel like I'm not stupid even when he's dispelling my wildly inaccurate preconceptions.

A friend of mine chastised me for eating sushi with my hands, saying it's not finger food. It was nice to hear the chef say the literal opposite of that.

So glad he touched on the fact that cream cheese and mayo help sushi reach a wider audience. Yeah, it's not traditional, but it is tasty, and it does help warm up Westerners to Japanese cuisine. Not everything has to be traditional to be good anyway, and breaking old school boundaries of what sushi can and cannot be gives chefs so much more room to be creative at their jobs and is in fact the reason there are so many different varieties of sushi today.

I used to think nigiri-style sushi was sad: Just rice and fish? But then I tried one in an actually good traditional restaurant and oh my god. It's so full of flavor. You can eat the rice alone. And the fish was out of this world. What a difference good ingredients can make.

I like that he is respectful of the way people eat sushi, including those who don't eat it 'the proper way'.

I am so glad I got to see a sushi chef refer to sushi as finger food. I am tired of the snobs looking at me weird every time I decide to just pick up a piece and eat it.

Top points for him knowing about the non-toxicity of farm-raised fugu livers. Not many people in Japan even know about that.

I always love a chef/cook that is highly skilled but also finds beauty in the simple dishes, respect to this guy

Interesting, I didn't know farmed fugu is not poisonous and you can eat the whole fish. I was sort of freaked out when people say they are eating the whole fugu.

"Nothing should look sad. It should look bright." Good to know when the aliens come down looking for human sashimi they won't be coming after me.

Man, this guy is so nice, and he is proud of who he is as a sushi chef. Mad respect.

Loved his upbeat attitude and the amount of information given during this. Ive been eating sushi for 30yrs and even had a friend who was a sushi chef that between his ideas and mine, we created a few special sushi rolls that he liked so much they are still on the menu in town at the restaurant; if you ever get chance and you’re close with the chef, I recommend working with them to create unique rolls. Loved this video though, i learned a lot.

You can tell he smiles all the time. He just has a happy atmosphere.

I ate sushi for decades. Never knew there was a non poisonous fugu. That's blowing my mind right now.

For anyone curious about the Oba leaf that sometimes comes with sushi or other Japanese dishes, it's basically the Japanese equivalent of the parsley sprig that used to be really popular in western restaurants (but I see rarely today). It adds color to a plate (presentation is very important in both Japanese and French cuisine) and it also has the practical purpose of being a way to freshen your breath after eating your meal. Most people don't eat it, but it's there if you want to. In western cuisine, I think the minty toothpick killed the parsley sprig. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen one of those minty toothpicks in a while either...

What a decent guy. So positive and willing to answer a bunch of dumb questions