Culinary Communion: Class Photos

	The kitchen is the room that nurtures our souls and our bodies. It's the hearth of the 21st-century house, and everybody naturally congregates there.
—Regina Leeds, author of The Zen of Organizing

Series Classes Individual Classes Wine Education Class Photos

Individual Class: Sushi, February 2002

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Sushi is an increasingly popular food and is often considered an "activity"—"let's do sushi" instead of "let's go out to a sushi restaurant." But sushi is most often enjoyed in restaurants, where, although fun and delicious, it can cost a pretty penny to get full.

Perhaps this is because sushi is so complex, and it's a bit intimidating to tackle at home. After all, you need special equipment, right? And don't those master sushi chefs in Japan spend years just learning how to wash the rice, before they're even allowed to begin learning how to prepare sushi? It must be terribly complicated.

Well, yes and no. It's true, there is a great deal to learn to be come a master sushi chef. But at the same time, with just a little information and practice, you can learn to make really delicious and beautiful sushi at home. Making sushi is fun, especially as something to do with a group or for a party, and what's more, it's so much cheaper than eating at a sushi restaurant that you'll think something's wrong. Once you have the equipment (and there's not much of that,) for $20 worth of ingredients, you can make enough sushi to completely stuff at least four people.

That's what students have learned at our sushi classes! Chef Gabriel goes over the equipment (which is available for purchase), techniques, and ingredients, and then we get down to work rolling and making sushi. Classes have been a great deal of fun and have ended with incredibly huge sushi feasts. Come join one and find out for yourself how easy and fun sushi can be to make at home!

This class was the second in a two-part Sushi series, the first of which focused on the rice itself and rolling the sushi, and the second—this one—of which focused on buying and cutting the fish. Click to the next Sushi class at the bottom or top of this page for photos of students making sushi.

Before class begins, the fish and knives are laid ready. We use fresh, wild-caught salmon when available. The plates, clockwise from top, contain squid, ebi prawns, and tuna; the plate in the bottom left corner of the photo holds edamame, soybean pods that have been blanched and salted for snacking.

After discussing where to buy fish and how to determine its freshness, Chef Gabriel demonstrates to the students how to fillet, skin, bone, and cut it for sushi. Students were able to practice their techniques, too, to get the knowledge in fingers as well as in mind.

At the end of class we sat down to enjoy an enormous sushi feast!

previous Individual class Sushi! next Individual class
more Sushi photos