06/04/2026
Fun fact, forever ago for a brief minute I was a sushi 'chef'. I use the word chef lightly here because being an actual sushi chef takes years of training and I respect that history and tradition.
I had moved to Northern California on a whim and needed a job, any job. This was back when searching for a job meant looking through the help wanted ads in the newspaper.
I was applying for jobs and not having any luck. There was an ad for a Sushi Chef. It explicitly stated 'Experience Necessary'.
Had I ever rolled sushi? Nope. Had I eaten sushi? Yep.
I applied.
I went in with a resume. The owner had me sit down next to him at the counter as he looked over my resume. Again, not a second of sushi chef experience on it.
He finished reading it, looked at me and asked, "have you ever made sushi?". I said, "no, but I have eaten it". 😬😊
He looked back down at my resume and said, "can you come in Thursday?".
That was it. No other questions and no 'what the hell are you doing here white girl with no sushi experience'?
And that's how I became a baby sushi chef for a minute. I was the only white person who worked there. I still don't know why they hired me!
I did learn a lot there and still sometimes dream about having a small sushi business.
The most important thing I learned there is that sushi is truly about the rice. Like, every aspect of the rice.
How is it rinsed, cooked, seasoned, stirred, cooled, spread onto the nori, etc. Of course how it's grown matters as well and that wasn't something we could control.
You can have the best ingredients ever and if your rice is mushy or under or over seasoned your sushi ain't going to be all that good.
So a big shout out to a guy who was desperate enough to hire a white girl to make sushi for his restaurant!
P.s. I could not come in Thursday like he asked because I was already going to be out of town that weekend. I said, 'I can come in Tuesday' and he still hired me. Desperate much! 😹
