GEN SAKAMOTO -- WORKING

Story by Jennifer Kho; photos by Greg Fry

HE IS

Reaching people’s hearts through their stomachs

FROM CARS TO COD

While he cuts vegetables into thin, delicate slices and prepares

sauces and fish, Gen Sakamoto is easily the center of attention at Ooiso

Restaurant.

Sakamoto, who followed his girlfriend -- now his wife -- from Tokyo to

California in 1994, has been a sushi chef at the 20-year-old restaurant

for four years.

He has learned most of what he knows about sushi through his

experience at Ooiso.

That’s not surprising, considering he was formerly a car salesman.

“I knew a little about sushi before, because I liked to eat it in

Japan,” Sakamoto said. “But there are many, many rolls here that we don’t

have in Japan. The guy whose job I replaced taught me the basics, but I

also watched how other sushi chefs worked and stole from them. Mostly, I

learned on my own.”

Making sushi is harder than selling cars but also more rewarding, he

said.

“Sushi is definitely a very hard job,” Sakamoto said. “There is

nothing easy about it, and there is so much to do. But there is nothing I

miss about being a car salesman. Preparing sushi is a lot of fun. You can

taste it any time. And when I make delicious food and see that it makes

someone happy, that makes me happy too.”

CREATIVE CUTTING

The most difficult part of the job is using a knife, Sakamoto said.

“It’s tough to cut things just right,” he said. “I used to cut myself

many times, but I haven’t cut myself since last summer. Another hard part

is when we get too busy and I have to make the sushi very fast. I don’t

like that.”

Another difficult part -- but a fun one -- was learning the different

parts of the fishes, he said.

“Each part of each fish has a different taste,” Sakamoto said, adding

that he had to figure out which spices and garnishes matched the

different tastes. “Like chicken, where the breast and the legs taste

different. I got to taste them all.”

But one thing he likes about the job is the chance to be creative. He

gets to decorate the sushi in his preferred style: “simple, but nice.”

In October, Sakamoto even invented his own specialty roll: spicy

sesame tuna, which he said is slowly gaining popularity.

THE POPULAR AND THE UNIQUE

The most popular roll at Ooiso is the California roll, which is also

one of the easiest, Sakamoto said.

“It’s just some avocado, crab meat, cucumbers and fish eggs on top,”

he said.

Sakamoto said the more unusual rolls include the spider roll, which

features soft-shell crab, and the caterpillar roll, which consists of eel

with cucumber and avocado wrapped on the outside.

The caterpillar roll is among the most difficult to make because of

the difficulty in slicing avocados to the necessary thinness, he said.

The rainbow roll, with the California roll inside and different kinds

of fish on the outside to create a rainbow effect, was another challenge

to master, Sakamoto said.

His goal is to eventually open his own business in the future.