SPOTLIGHT: Yuki Gomi on Making Sushi
Japanese chef, Yuki Gomi has been teaching Japanese cookery classes for decades. As with many of Workshop’s mentors, her passion for cooking stems from her childhood. Yuki grew up in Yamanashi close to the mountains surrounding Mount Fuji. Here she was immersed in fresh air, beautiful scenery and home-grown organic vegetables, which set the scene for every meal. The exciting buzz of Tokyo was only an hour and a half away, which only fuelled her exploration of Japanese food beyond her home region.
Yuki credits her mother as her biggest inspiration. Yuki told us her mother instilled the virtues of well-prepared food at an early age. Yuki’s father also played his part, by encouraging her curiosity with foodie treats from Tokyo, and by taking her to amazing restaurants that helped her to develop her palate.
Yuki’s mentor, Mr Tokunaga, Soba chef based in Yamanashi, was another huge influence on her learning and development as a chef. His words of wisdom that Yuki recalls most clearly are that ‘most importantly, you have to understand the ingredients and their quality, this is the basis for the best dishes’. Yuki explains that she “learnt that through experience and repetition, you will understand more about the dish.”
This sentiment of practice and experience runs through the veins of Workshop. And when it comes to making sushi, that advice could not be any truer. If you are tempted to try Yuki’s Simple Sushi workshop then this is her top tip for making perfect sushi:
“Focus on making the perfect sushi rice, get this right and everything else will follow. Cooling the rice properly after it has cooked, is critical.”
If you join Yuki’s workshop you’ll become confident in you sushi rice making skills by the end of module one. From there you’ll be introduced to a range of more complex sushi dishes. Yuki also advises that “even though sushi making can be approached simply; neatness and accuracy are extremely important. So, follow the recipes step by step carefully, especially when you make the rice and cover the nori (seaweed paper) with rice. Then you will make great looking, tasty sushi!”
Yuki loves the step-by-step approach of Workshop that leads you through the recipe with an expert. She highlights that “There’s a certain casual intimacy that helps the home cook to relax and just enjoy the process, that perhaps you wouldn’t find in a large, more formal class.”
And finally, we asked Yuki about her own learning on Workshop and she told us she is looking forward to learning how different people cook around the world. Sounds like Chetna’s samosa workshop might be up there at the top of the list then!
Interested in sharing your own expertise and becoming a Workshop Mentor like Yuki?
Register interest for early access to the free Workshop Mentor app (coming soon) to create your own workshops from home.