Dropping names
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, they say. But in the world of sushi, it
appears there may be a few rotten ones.
If that sounds dramatic, one only has
to look at the statement sent out last
month by Global Link Retail Management
on behalf of Sushi Saito, the once threeMichelin-star
Edomae sushi restaurant
that has an outpost in Hong Kong. (The
Michelin Guide revoked the stars for the
Tokyo original in 2019 after the restaurant
changed its reservations system to
become referral only, thereby excluding
the general public from booking.)
It starts off by opaquely referring to a
fair bit of tongue wagging going around
about the restaurant: “Recently, the
origins of ‘Sushi Saito’ has been a widely
discussed topic by many people,” reads
the intro to the one-page statement.
After a few lines extolling the virtues of
founder Takashi Saito and his campaign to
promote Edomae-style sushi around the
world, it gets serious.
“However, various persons have
been misusing the ‘Sushi Saito’ brand,
which has caused Mr Takashi Saito
great distress.”
It appears that the great name of Saito
has been besmirched by those who wish
to bask in the afterglow of his reputation –
the culinary equivalent of a disingenuous
name-drop, a technique well worn by your
average social climber.
In the food world, such dubious
practices are widespread, particularly
when it comes to marketing and media –
have a young, up-and-coming chef who
no one knows, or someone who just isn’t
all that talented (but just paid you a big
fat retainer to get them onto the world’s
various best restaurants lists)? Just throw
in that they worked for so-and-so once at
Big Name Restaurant A, B or C. And wait.
Never mind the fact that they only
spent a few days interning there before
deciding they didn’t want to peel potatoes
or pod peas any more, or that the closest
they ever got to touching a chef’s knife
was in the dishwashing department.
Fortunately for you, more often than not,
many food journalists these days don’t
care to do their due diligence and your
cheffy upstart will have already climbed
more than halfway out of the valley of
obscurity and into many a column inch
extolling them as the great disciple of
Master X, Y or Z.
When it comes to some of the biggest
names in the business, there are endless
family trees that chart the often nepotistic
brotherhood of chefs that have all sprung
from a few mighty greats. We’re talking the
culinary descendants of French fathers of
gastronomy, of course – Joël Robuchon,
Alain Ducasse, Pierre Koffmann among
them – as well as the endless parade of
stagiaires who have been through the
churn of culinary temples such as The Fat
Duck, El Bulli and Noma.
The DNA of Sushi Saito, however, is one
that is now fiercely protected. The main
bulk of the statement is given over to a
list of eight restaurants around the world
that can claim to be part of the exclusive
group. Moreover, the list includes names
of the chefs in charge at each who have
“completed the technical skill training
and possesses the virtues recognised by
Mr Takashi Saito”.
Among them are Tokyo restaurants
Sushi Shunji, Sushi Tsubomi and 3110NZ
By LDH Kitchen, the last of which is
run by Ikuya Kobayashi, who previously
headed up Sushi Saito in Hong Kong.
Masashi Kubota now heads the Hong
Kong branch, after leaving Taka by Sushi
Saito at The St Regis Kuala Lumpur (the
restaurant has since been renamed as
simply Taka, with all mentions of Saito
scrubbed from the hotel’s website).
In addition, Shion Uino, who worked
in Sushi Saito in Tokyo for eight years
before moving to New York to open his
own sushi-ya, is listed as an independent
operator who “does not directly belong
to the Sushi Saito group but is approved
by Mr Takashi Saito as a qualified sushi
professional”. Uino now runs the popular
Shion 69 Leonard Street restaurant in the
Big Apple’s Tribeca district.
“We want to take this opportunity
to clarify that apart from the abovementioned
chefs, any person who
claims to have worked at any restaurant
belonging to the ‘Sushi Saito’ group or has
worked under Mr Takashi Saito for only a
short period of time does not represent
that Mr Takashi Saito has approved of his
technical skill or that he has completed his
training,” the notice continues. “We are
not affiliated with such persons in any way
and we will not offer them any support.”
And so there you have it: the line has
been drawn, as cleanly as forged Japanese
steel gliding effortlessly through fish.