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The Japanese government wants to set up a certifying board to regulate sushi served in restaurants abroad. Japan's Agriculture Ministry has convened a panel of food experts who will establish certification standards for Japanese restaurants outside the country. The standards should be decided upon sometime in the next month or so. They will focus on all foods that are part of the Japanese cuisine such as sushi preparation and styles, noodles, teriyaki, etc.The thought behind this is that by certifying restaurants as authentic it will raise the level of the quality of food prepared, and educate people as to what the food should be like when prepared properly. There are around 10,000+ "authentic" Japanese restaurants in the US, double what there were a little over a decade ago. This has led to a shortage of classically trained chefs, especially sushi chefs.
Becoming a sushi chef is a big deal in Japan. It takes many years of apprenticeship. First a few years learning how to make rice before you are even allowed to touch it, then learning about fish, types, slicing, arrangement, tastes, preparation, etc. Chefs of this quality are lacking in many Japanese and sushi restaurants abroad, leading to poor quality and "inauthentic" sushi.
In The US I have seen sushi chefs who have only a few weeks experience and don't know anything besides how to throw together a few messy maki rolls. They don't know the proper ways to slice fish to present it best and have it melt tenderly in your mouth. Instead you end up eating slabs of fish filled with tough connective tissue because it was cut the wrong way.
Personally I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to sushi. I don't like most fancy maki sushi (rolls), and prefer nigiri sushi, or better yet sashimi to sushi. I want to taste the fish, not the other ingredients. But I also feel there is a place for creativity in the kitchen and at the sushi bar. While I may not like cream cheese, bananas, or peanut butter in my sushi, some of these creations are interesting and tasty. Many, like the ubiquitous California roll, have taken the world by storm and are even eaten in Japan. Although I never saw or ate at a Sushi restaurant in Japan that served anything other than classic, traditional sushi and sashimi, whether it be maki, futomaki, temaki, nigiri, chirashi, inari, etc.
As for other aspects of Japanese cuisine. In this I actively look forward to more authenticity being brought to the average Japanese restaurant. I have been served more bowls of soup masquerading as sukiyaki than I care to think about. Improperly prepared teriyaki, tempura, and cheap hot sake served from a machine abound. Most are a far cry from what the dish should really taste like with many being overly sweet or prepared with poor quality ingredients.
While I don't know what the reaction will eventually be to this certifying board, I do hope that it will lead to better quality Japanese food becoming available. I also hope that it will mean that more modest Japanese restaurants will improve. Then maybe you won't have to go to high end restaurants so expensive that you have to sell your first born, or mortgage your house, to afford a meal that is authentic, traditional, and tasty.
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3-01-2007 @7:47PM blee27 said... I think this is the greatest idea i've heard in a very long time. I think this should be done with all foreign foods to ensure quality and authenticity so there is nothing, or very little "lost in translation". I hate nothing more than "authentic" food from a foreign land that you then find out is being made by some 22 year old college kid who's been trained in economics not gastronomy! Even the state of Chinese restaurants is something to gawk at these days; more people love the americanized versions of dishes to their culturally important counterparts. So long live the certification board and I may consider going out to these "authentic" restaurants every once in a while.
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3-01-2007 @8:52PM The Mad Chef said... The whole Asian "fusion" cuisine movement has spawned some grotesque -- to the Japanese, at least -- combinations (Japanese/Korean, anyone? Suffice to say, the two countries aren't the best of friends.)
http://themadchefblog.blogspot.com
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3-01-2007 @11:23PM bdw said... You get what you pay for. I have gone to authentic Japanese sushi restaurants in NYC and paid through the nose, and had a great time. There are also a few great Chinese/sushi restaurants here and they are great experiences. I have seen a number of other restaurants that serve sushi in my area, all but the best are now gone. Its easy to do sushi badly; it's east to do any food badly, but the customers won't come back.
The only Japanese certified sushi chef in my town runs a pretty rowdy bar, with karaoke on Fridays, and from the look of some of his Japanese clients, there's a real possibility of getting some gambling, or maybe a girl, or something else, not too far away. And while he brings in real perilla leaves from NYC and you can get genuine wasabi if you pay for it, his clientele is mostly American and is perfectly happy with powdered horseradish reconstituted and dyed green to look like guacamole.
Remember also that the apprentice system is a way for impoverished young people to pay for their training. It doesn't actually take two months to learn how to wash rice, or to learn to sharpen knives, but they need to be done, and the newbie apprentice has volunteered to be the one that does it. If you have money to pay you can skip the first year of drudgery and learn the important stuff more quickly. Neither path guarantees you to be a truly great sushi chef, but a certificate does show competencey and will get bearer their first job.
If the Japanese govt wants to turn out twice as many decent sushi chefs, thats great. Hopefully the chefs will turn out more decent customers.
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3-01-2007 @9:41PM Kat said... Although I never saw or ate at a Sushi restaurant in Japan that served anything other than classic, traditional sushi and sashimi, whether it be maki, futomaki, temaki, nigiri, chirashi, inari, etc.
You're kidding me... you never saw a sushi restaurant in Japan that served "salad" rolls?"?! (Crab salad, shrimp salad in gunkan form) Those are par for the course in kaiten sushi at least.
If mayo and corn are considered toppings for sushi (as well as pizza) here in Japan, I really think the people touting "authenticity" are one to talk. Sure, certification would make a nice compliment, but it strikes me as somewhat pompous and gimmicky.
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3-01-2007 @9:58PM brian said... I think this is a terrible idea. I can't imagine that the certification will be free. It seems like its another way to make money. The fact of the matter is that restaurants (authentic or not) survive if their food is good or not. If the food they produce is unauthentic and bad, then the restaurant will fail. Bad food doesn't reflect on the culture behind the food, it reflects on the restaurant that prepares the food. I just don't understand the motivation behind having a certification from the Japanese government. Almost everyone nowadays knows that people in China don't sit around eating Moo Goo Gai Pan all the time. In a few years, people will understand that California Rolls are not traditional (if they didn't already get it from the name...)
There was a Washington Post article about this as well. I believe that women, traditionally, cannot be sushi chefs. So, unless the certification removes this requirement I will be against it. Personally, I don't think the board will certify a place as authentic based on the quality of the food, but rather the whether or not the chefs are Japanese.
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3-01-2007 @11:11PM Sera said... This is a great idea. They're trying to prevent Japanese food going the way of Chinese food with it's "Chop Suey"...I'll fully support the prevention of that.
Also, think of what new Japanese foods will hopefully become more mainstrams because of this. Yum!
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3-01-2007 @11:25PM Tom said... Blee27, it's sad when you are so quick to decide something as "authentic" as being greater than the average. Authentic is just a catch phrase, especially in Asian foods. That's all it is. It's a figment that people try to behold and admire. Perhaps for sushi and japanese style food where there is an apprentice system, this would be more appropriate. But when you say all "foreign" food, all I can think of is that you've been raised in the most white, ignorant town I can think of.
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3-02-2007 @6:44AM jOHN! said... I'm all for this. I've had bad Japanese food before, and it was a waste of good money. If I paid less because it was crappy, then I wouldn't be as angry about it.
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3-02-2007 @9:22AM Carolyn said... Yes, please bring more government regulation into my life, especially from a forgeign government not soverign over me! There's not nearly enough government regulation in the world.
(That's a joke.)
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3-02-2007 @8:38AM Wenhaston Blackheath said... I'm with Tom on this one- I don't believe there is such a thing as 'authenticity', in food or anywhere else- it's an arbitrary boundary based on subjective judgement.
The minutes of the meeting of the Council of Advisors regarding restaurant certification can be found here:
http://www.maff.go.jp/gaisyoku/kaigai/conference_e/01/index.html
They state that the intent is 'increasing customer confidence in Japanese restaurants and promoting the export of Japanese agricultural and marine products.'
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3-02-2007 @10:00AM WG said... Well, if you want to be certified as selling authentic neapolitan pizza, you need to be certified.
http://www.verapizzanapoletana.org/vpn/vpn_frames-index.htm
Doesn't mean you can't sell pizza, just you can't call it authentic neapolitan. I think it's a great idea.
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3-02-2007 @11:26AM blee27 said... Tom, you couldn't be further from wrong. I grew up in a Chinese-Vietnamese household where my grandmother cooked "authentic" food daily till the day she died. I know what authentic means because i've seen the preparation involved in making a dish that not only tastes good but has meaning to it. Its one thing to go out with friends and want something quick and easy like chop suey or ginger beef but those are exactly what they were made for quick and easy meals. I'm talking about the restaurants that you go to and you understand from what your eating that the person who made it spent the time and effort to understand what they were cooking and what it means. The mindset of the cook is reflected in the quality and presentation of the food. If they are just out to make a couple quick bucks then thats the food your gonna get. They can coin it with "authentic" if they want but I like this idea of certification so that the term "authentic" will regain some meaning in the long run. Next your gonna say McDonald's is "authentic" american food.
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3-03-2007 @3:17AM Christi said... I think this is a bad idea in that a naturally free market, once consumers are educated about what to look for, they’ll demand it and in return, vendors (restaurants) will find ways to provide it even if in varying levels of sophistication and authenticity. I’m all for chefs showing off which schools they went to and which restaurants they worked at and other parts of their résumé but, I don’t think a government should be deciding what “authentic” japanese food is since cultures change with the times. Instead a few private culinary schools or committees/boards would be better as it would allow for more schools of thought to allow for diversity and flexibility to change on the preparation of sushi.
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3-02-2007 @8:18PM Junipersavin said... Perhaps Tom is merely lacking an authentic definition. ;)
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3-27-2007 @10:33AM Peeking duck said... I have great respect for the Japanes culture and I love the people.
But this seems a bit naive to me.
It's is about as thought through as if India demanded the right to certify Japanese Curry places and change their methods of working in their kitchens.
Owners of curry places in Japan would get upset and people would have a BIG problem with havng to go back to the original indian style Curry.
And rightly so!
With this idea given equal opportunity world-wide what would we have ?
Will the Japanese hand over gyoza-control to the Chinese fodies?
What do we do with Italian food and places like Saizeria ? ? ?
Do they produce authentic Italian food ?
Is Italian food less worthy of monitoring ?
Is French food ?
Do we give wine-control to the French ?
What would happen to places like Kappa-sushi where the menu is VERY different from the high-speed places ?
"Kappa" important to many young people and families with many children.
Sushi is great! But c'mon, just pick your place and go where YOU like the food.
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3-29-2007 @2:52AM Petter said... Paris is full of fake sushi restaurants run by chinese people. The sushi in these places tastes awful. 9 out of 10 restaurants are fake, and designed to trap tourists and unknowing French people. Most chinese people also don't even like japanese people because of what happened during WWII. So I think it's very opportunistic and nasty of the chinese profitmakers to do this. They only think about money, very cynically.
If you are in paris, look for the purple round sticker.
Here's a link to the authenticity certification board in France:
http://www.cecj.fr/
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