School to shame the sushi imposters

The first sushi school in Europe is coming to the capital and hopes to teach Londoners the difference between "pseudo sushi" and the real deal.

Sushi Academy London will be supervised by three-Michelin star chef Hiroyuki Kanda, owner and chef of the Kanda restaurant in Tokyo.

It will offer courses from workshops for cooking enthusiasts to classes designed for professional chefs — and those who graduate from the advanced class will be offered the chance to train in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Japan.

Masataka Oikawa, managing director of the academy, decided to open the academy because he is "grieved" at the present state of sushi in London.

He said: "The sushi boom in Europe and America is in fact fuelled by a simple form of pseudo sushi that can be produced by people who do not correctly learn the skills of traditional Edomae sushi but merely ape them."

Mr Kanda said sushi should never smell of fish — and if so it is not fresh.

It should be the size of the palm of your hand, and made into perfect rectangles that stand unaided.

And sushi is not something that you save for later: the rice should not be refrigerated.

Shirley Booth, author of Food of Japan, said: "It's a mystery to me how most ready-made sushi has become so popular. It doesn't bear any resemblance to freshly made sushi.

"The rice should be creamy, soft, velvety and still warm, while the fish should be cool and fresh."

The Sushi Academy's curriculum includes traditional and contemporary Japanese dishes, and wine lessons so enthusiasts know what to serve with their meal.

For those who want to sample the food rather than learn to create it, the Sushi Academy London restaurant will sit alongside the academy in the new Arsenal development in Highbury.

A handful of rice, some fish ... and let's try that one again

Rolling sticky rice into a ball, slicing a sliver of fresh fish and putting the two together doesn't sound too tricky.

But I assure you, it takes a lot more skill than you might think.

Firstly, rice. Copying chef Hiroyuki Kanda, I took a handful and started rolling it round my palm. While Kanda's rice immediately formed a perfect ball in his hand, mine was reluctant to stick to itself, but instead covered my hands, wrists, nails ...

A second attempt was a little more successful, but I suspect it may take a lot of practice to form the perfect palm-sized rectangles that Kanda makes look effortless.

Slicing fish for sushi is also a skill that takes years to perfect. Kanda cuts so cleanly you can hear the metal of the sharp blade slice through tuna. It's all about pulling the knife (no pushing) while creating a circular motion with your wrist. My efforts couldn't compete, but after a couple of attempts I was pleased to have made something that almost resembled sushi. And it tasted a lot better than it looked.