I just found an old picture from the 2006 from California Sushi Academy and a picture taken last month. Toshi still were his glasses in his forehead.
In 2006, we were all terrified every 14 days because our sushi skills were tested. Toshi is also a judge at sushi competitions in Japan and he is very tough as a judge.
In the first picture, Toshi is checking how clean my chef uniform is and then he is checking how sharp my sushi knife is.
Such a skill test consisted of fillet mackerel, sahimi, nigiri test, sushi roll test and presentation. Not only did he test our skills he also took time on how long we were about to make the food.
Thank god, I became No. 2 in the final and crucial skill test.
A lot has happened since then and today I am not dying of fear.
Read more about Sushi chef & sake sommelier Zoë Escher
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Zoë has lectured and held sushi courses for A. P. Moller – Maersk, Hugo Boss Nordic, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Velux, Gorrissen Federspiel, Accenture audit Elbek & Vejrup and many more.