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(!) Books

20200130 How I became a sushi chef cover

Published September 19, 2019

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Told with wit and humor, in his memoir, renowned Sushi Chef, Educator, and Author, Kaz Matsune, founder of Breakthrough Sushi, recalls his raucously funny adventures of sex, drugs, romance, celebrities, strippers, and Hollywood Rock ‘n Roll Sushi training, as he set out, with no previous culinary experience, to achieve his life-long dream of becoming a sushi chef owning his own business, while entertaining and educating his readers along the way in the art of making sushi gained from the Sushi Masters who mentored him. 

(almost) All the Answers You Always Wanted to Hear from Your Sushi Chef

(and perhaps you were too intimidated to ask)

(almost) all the answers you always want

Published September 16, 2019

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Kaz Matsune is a renowned Sushi chef, with over sixteen years of experience, who worked at many Sushi restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, presents you the book with all the answers you have ever had about Sushi but were afraid to ask. Sushi, a Japanese dish that has captured the world’s taste buds because of its variety and unique cooking techniques. This book has almost all the answers and everything you want to know broken down logically and explained clearly. It’s a book that you can read and enrich your Sushi experience as if you were in Japan as well as enable yourself to enjoy the diversified Sushi in a cavalier fashion.

Breakthrough Sushi Cookbook

Breakthrough Sushi Cookbook cover.jpg

Published October 24, 2019

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Kaz Matsue founded Breakthrough Sushi in 2012. Since then, he has been teaching Sushi Classes in San Francisco using sustainable fish.Breakthrough Sushi Cookbook captures the sushi recipes, techniques and tools Kaz demonstrated during the class, as well as additional tips such as where to get fish and ingredients in the Bay Area.

Profie

(¿) Profile

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Kaz Matsune was born with a love for cooking. His passion led him to be a diligent student and a skilled sushi chef at restaurants such as Minako (San Francisco's first organic, Japanese restaurant), Ozumo, and the famed Fort Mason restaurant, Greens.

Today, Kaz teaches corporate teams and sushi lovers of all stripes his craft with Breakthrough Sushi - the first and only sustainable team building sushi company in the US.

Over the course of his 21-year professional culinary career, Kaz has served top celebrities and some of the Bay Area's top companies, including Google, Facebook, Oracle, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon Wireless, and Citibank. He has taught over 15,000 sushi lovers and even held lessons at the Culinary Institute of America at Copia.

Kaz has also appeared in videos for Grammarly and Survey Monkey, as well as ad campaigns for Adobe and Eventbrite. His writing is featured on Quora, The Huffington Post, Slate, Apple News, and he has published three books on sushi. The most recent book, How I Became a Sushi Chef, is a memoir of his culinary journey.

Writings

(*) Writings

Why I Love Making Sushi More than Eating it

November 30, 2017

I love making Sushi more than eating it.

I love it because when I started being a Sushi chef seventeen years ago, I had no idea how to make Sushi Rice, how to cut Maguro, fillet Kanpachi, make a California Roll, Dragon Roll, Shrimp Tempura roll, or to make Sashimi and Nigiri. I enjoyed every step in learning all the techniques associated with making Sushi. I love it because I have met so many great Sushi Chefs who taught me what I know today. I am ever so grateful. Many of them told me about the mise en place of Sushi, how to take care of my tools like knives, how to be efficient in the kitchen, and most importantly, how to work cleanly at the Sushi Bar. I was a very messy worker when I started.

 

(read more)

February 2, 2017

Here are some restaurant etiquette rules in sushi and Japanese kitchens.

Say "good morning" at the beginning of the shift. No matter what time of the day your shift starts, you always greet by saying "ohayo gozai masu," good morning in Japanese. This is common practice at restaurants in Japan, as well as in the entertainment industry. In the beginning, I felt weird saying "good morning" at 3 p.m., and after a while, I got used to it, and it just became natural. Why and when this rule started is unclear, though, some say the word "ohayo" signifies the beginning.

 

(read more)

February 2, 2017

There are many reasons to use a soup lid in Japanese cuisine, and many reasons why sushi restaurants in the United States may not use a lid. Here are a few ideas:

The lid keeps the soup hot and the dust out. Back in the olden days (i.e., 300 - 400 years ago) in Japan, the kitchen was far away from the dining area, so they used lids to keep the soup warm. The lid also kept the dust out while transporting the soup. At restaurants in the U.S., soup is served at the beginning of the meal, and it only takes a few seconds to transport, so there really is no need to use a lid to keep it warm. In a modern kitchen, there is no need to worry about keeping ashes from burning coal from the cooking fire out of the food, either.

 

(read more)

January 17, 2019

The ordinary sign at the corner strip mall store was nothing fancy. Just large green letters on a white background, “SUSHI.”

“Is that it?” Toshi asked me in doubt.

“I think so,” I replied.

We both looked at each other as if to say, Should we go in, or should we not?

“This must be it. That’s the correct address,” I said. I remembered what Ko told me—it doesn’t look like a sushi restaurant from the outside. He was absolutely right; it did not.

“Let’s go in,” I said.

(read more)

September 4, 2018

Despite what we hear about Yakuza in Japanese media, their lifestyle appears to be different from what most of us think. (myself included.)

Here is a story I heard from my father-in-law.

My-father-in law, Den, has been running a small restaurant in a rural area of Japan for the past 30 years. It's located in the remote part of the town.

(read more)

Reviews

(") Reviews

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N W Hope 

September 12, 2018

English being Mr. Matzune's second language, he definitely was able to keep my interest. His journey was most interesting and enlightening. I had to read it more than once. And I decided to give it to a couple who are Sushi Chefs at our location grocery store. They loved the book also! They said reading about the other Sushi Chefs, Mr. Matsune included in his book appealed to them the most. I agreed. I learned such a greater appreciation for all the training of a Sushi Chef and the trials they must face. I honor them. And my passion for Sushi has grown considerably!

20200130 How I became a sushi chef cover

Eve Hal

January 10, 2020

This story deserves a 5-star. I am always fascinated by people's lives, especially those who inspire. It's not every day we see someone from a humble background and one of the best cultures in the world to reach the position where Kaz Matsune is now. I wasn't sure about eating sushi before, after reading this book, I went to my cousin's place, found a sushi restaurant (in India), and tasted my first sushi, and I loved it!

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J.J S

July 17, 2019

It was episode by episode style m. Each small story told me the kazw’s journey.This is story of growing and drama.I wanted know why he had to spend bad time in Sa Francisco almost near homeless then how he met his wife.I assume that time he was single.

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