Sushi takes on an international flavor

— -- Sushi lovers dining at the new Hachi restaurant at Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas can construct their meals of Japanese delicacies from a wide-ranging menu that includes 30 types of nigiri and sashimi, four dozen hand rolls and tempuras, and more than 30 sakes.

The most diverse aspect of the restaurant, however, isn't the food but the people who prepare it. The three top managers are a Filipino, a Mexican and a Brit, and only two of the other nine chefs are Japanese.

The multicultural lineup is somewhat unusual in the tradition-steeped realm of Japanese restaurants, but it's becoming the norm as the demand for sushi grows.

"This may be the first time it's ever happened that a Mexican guy is in charge of Japanese sushi chefs," says Linda Rodriguez, Hachi's Filipino executive chef, referring to Cesario Luna. "But so far, so good. They're taking the lead and following him."

The hiring decisions took into account not only talent and experience but also the increasingly short supply of Japanese-born, formally trained sushi chefs across the country. Rodriguez was trained by Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu fame and has worked for years with Luna, who trained with Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto.

Over the past decade, the number of Japanese restaurants in the USA has doubled to more than 9,000, according to trade publication Japanese Restaurant News, and Japanese cuisine's popularity also has spread globally. At the same time, Japan's population has been declining for decades, resulting in a smaller pool of candidates willing to undergo the five to 10 years of training required to become a top sushi chef.

In Japan, apprentices may spend two or three years doing menial kitchen tasks, then learning to make sushi rice. It can take many more years to learn knife techniques, how to select and prepare fresh fish, and how to create the basic repertoire of dishes. Absorbing the historical, social and artistic aspects of the profession takes additional time.

A trained chef desiring to work in the USA may have to wait three to five years for a work permit.

"We have a big problem with working visas, and even if they get one and come here, they may change their mind and go back to Japan," says Terry Segawa, owner of Tako Grill in Bethesda, Md., where six of the chefs are from Central America and only one is from Japan.

The challenges have led restaurateurs to look to chefs from other cultures who have learned the ropes while working alongside sushi masters or by attending one of the handful of schools that have opened in recent years and offer a more compressed curriculum. The California Sushi Academy in Los Angeles, for example, offers 12-week and five-day professional courses.

Segawa occasionally invites chefs from Japan to come to the restaurant to teach, and he conducts in-house training programs, which is sufficient to impart most skills, he says. But sushi culture also is closely tied to the traditions of the Japanese tea ceremony that emerged in the 12th century, and Segawa believes "there is an artistic aspect that only comes from within."

Adds Katsuya Uechi, who runs three popular Los Angeles sushi restaurants: "Not only is it important to lean toward the traditions of sushi culture because of the artistic elements, but also because the traditions address hygiene and health concerns."

Of the 60 or so chefs he employs, 70% to 80% are Japanese, and the rest come from elsewhere in Asia and South America. All are trained by the head chef at each restaurant.

"Because we deal with raw fish every day, we have more risk than other cuisines. Therefore, it is important for us to be very knowledgeable about everything related to fish, from varieties to storage, freshness and flavor."

Some managers in charge of hiring, particularly at more progressive restaurants, say classically trained Japanese chefs can be too steeped in tradition and resistant to making the boundary-pushing dishes that American diners have embraced.

"Traditional chefs won't mix jalapeño and mango with hamachi. It's too off-the-wall," says executive chef Patrick Vaccariello of the new Gold St. restaurant in New York.

Though Vaccariello interviewed some native Japanese, he hired four Mexican chefs "because they're willing to experiment. Most of the Spanish-speaking gentlemen who do know sushi have worked their way up the ladder from dishwasher. They stay with you and pay back your training."

Rodriguez, who also served as executive chef at New York's famously posh sushi restaurant BondSt (where she worked with her British-born husband, Martin Swift, who's now the room chef at Hachi), says that ideally, a restaurant should have a mix of cultures.

"People do want to see the Asian face behind the counter — they don't want to see all white guys," she says.

But ultimately, she says, cultural background probably isn't the most important factor in the making of a good sushi chef.

"It's whether that person can deal with the work that it takes," she says. "It's a tough job. You have to be on top of everything every day because you're dealing with fresh fish."