World Sushi Awards 2009

foodbloggerabouttown — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:52:26 +0000

[/caption]Last weekend saw the annual World Sushi Awards which was this year held at Olympia in conjunction with Masterchef Live (the new name for the BBC Good Food Show London). So, after a good few hours doing the rounds sampling an obscure range of chutneys, dips and pickles; a few too many wines, ports and toffee vodkas; and far too many underwhelming ready-made curry sauces, it was definitely time to up the ante Japanese style.
The really tricky part was getting there. Whilst I don’t doubt the effort the so-called Seven Sushi Samurai put into their show-piece sushi, I think the travel must be on a par. A 13 minute wait on the district line platform at Paddington would be enough to put off any but the hardcore, and it was the anticipation of sake alone which made an equally dire connection at High Street Kensington survivable. And a word to the wise – that helpfully large sign clearly stating that all trains to Olympia will leave from platform 3, not so useful. Reasonable eyesight alone was what made me finally see a sushi-bound train pulling up at platform 4. Oh well, I guess the sprint over the bridge was appetite building…
Once in Olympia, the sushi was still elusive. A stop-off at the hard to miss find Japanese Pavilion was promising but largely futile since it seems the exact location of the awards was a closely guarded state secret not to be passed to the likes of I. It did, however, present the opportunity to take part in an authentic Japanese Tea Ceremony. Interesting and terrifying in equal measures, this primarily involved being shouted at by two Japanese matriarchs for banging my matcha spoon a little too enthusiastically against the side of my tea bowl. Surviving their wrath and the enforced drinking of my large bowl of slightly pasty tea, by now I really needed some sake.
Thankfully the third of the security guards I asked was able to direct me to the ‘pillar halls’ where the awards were taking place. On arrival at the doors of the hall, I felt slightly as if I were asking to join the Masons. My name was checked first by a friendly PR, second by a less friendly bouncer and third by a down-right unfriendly doorman. Being certified good-to-go, the doors of the hall were opened only just briefly enough for me to slip through before being shut tight behind me. I had made it.
The room was something of a Japanophile’s fantasy. Piles of Asahi, rows of premium sake, circulating trays of green tea pancakes and (this is the best bit) more wasabi nuts than you could imagine. Time to concentrate, though, as the Sushi Samurai roll call is beginning…

Stefan Gates – Cooking In The Danger Zone presenter and sometime eccentric – was host as one by one the seven samurai, each representing a different country, were welcomed to the stage and their sushi explained. After saying their piece, the chefs would return to the floor and start to make their sushi. Guests could then try one of each chef’s sushi before using the voting card handed out on entry to choose a winner.
Ricardo Sanz represented Spain with his entry Nigiri Sardina made with sardine and topped with a beautifully fresh curd cheese and honey – all Spanish flavours but Japanese technique. Brendan Becht of Italy went a step further (and I would argue too far) by mixing his sushi rice with a rich pesto and then topping with black Taggiasche olives and pine nuts in order to create a taste of Liguria. The entry from Czech Marek Hora was almost as surprising as the Czech Republic being shortlisted for the awards at all. Strangest of all, though, is the chef’s explanation of his fishless recipe: it was designed to be safe for pregnant women. What?!? The sushi is effectively a remoulade, including red beet and apple, wrapped in nori. I assume for eligibility reasons there must have been some rice as well, but it wasn’t obvious.
Stranger than this was the Swedish entry by Michelin starred
Sayan Isaksson. The chef could best be described as a Nordic hybrid of Heston Blumenthal and Fergus Henderson with his showy show-piece sushi, so-called Wild Salmon in Tranquility, using emulsification, dehydration and even (shock horror) foam in his plight to use every part of the salmon – head to tail cooking, if you will. The sushi was a peculiar, fishy beast where crispy skin replaced nori as wrapping. The pinnacle, though, was a little wooden box of dust which came with it. Designed for dipping, this dust was (of course) dehydrated salmon, though in actual fact it could just have easily been dried parmesan left over from the 70s.

The fishy Swedish entry

The next sushi creation took us from dust to soil with a bit of gold to top. Who else but the Americans, eh? Mitsunori Kusakabe (you have to be a sushi chef if your name ends in “niori”) from California’s Sushi Ran restaurant won last year with a sushi consisting entirely of different styles of rice. This year he created ”an expression of the thanks that we should feel towards the earth and its rich resources”. OK, then. This thanksgiving sushi was created using the five elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water; which I think explains the gold… and the soil, not that either were discernable. I managed to blag a few flakes of gold from the table but even on their own the taste was no different from that niggling bit of tin foil invariably stuck to the bottom of your sandwich.
All that remain to try are the offerings from Japan and the UK respectively. Thinking that the UK entry from Nobu’s Taiji Maruyama contained the potentially poisonous blowfish, I chose to try the Japanese one first so that if the worst were to happen, at least I’d tried them all. Tomoyuki Abe’s creation was seemingly the simplest of the lot – salmon and avocado in a nori roll. Of course, there was more which belied it. The salmon was marinated in soy sauce and mirin in order to enhance the umami properties, and strips of crunchy tempura batter added texture.
And so to the British entry from the head sushi chef at London’s Berkeley Street Nobu restaurant, who incidentally doesn’t speak a word of English. His entry is also focused on umami, which is clearly the taste du jour. Kombu, bonito flakes, shiitake and soy sauce are the principle ingredients in yet another vegetarian sushi and though umamilicious (let’s try and get that one in the dictionary)is a little disappointing due to chewy mushrooms and particularly ‘al dente’ rice.
So to the vote. Mine was awarded to Sweden for inventiveness and creativity, with just a small nod to my Scandinavian ancestry. There was time for a few more sakes and beers whilst the votes were being counted, and a handful or two of wasabi nuts somehow managed to end up in my bag along the way. The winners were to be announced in Japanese game show style, Stefan informed us, but for better or worse we never quite made it to the level of Takeshi’s Castle. Instead the chefs were given bags containing coloured balls, one ball for each vote. They then had to throw these balls into the audience until they ran out at which point they must move to the corner of shame. In my, possibly harsh, view there wasn’t enough emphasis placed on those who got knocked out and so I couldn’t compile a league table, though I’m sure it will be announced.
The winner, though, by a fair few balls was Japan. A deserved victory? I’m not entirely sure. The sushi was delicious and a refreshing change to the night’s wackier offerings, but it wasn’t the most interesting by a long way. I guess the Japanese don’t really have a lot to prove when it comes to sushi. It did occur to me, though, that for whatever reason, about half of the guests in the room were Japanese and so surely slightly biased…

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foodbloggerabouttown — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:59:26 +0000

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World Sushi Awards 2009

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