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Foreword by Trevor Corson

Bestselling author of The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely Saga of Raw Fish and Rice and sushi concierge at the Michelin-starred restaurants in New York City.

What is sushi? And who is this new sushi chef, Marisa Baggett? The beginnings of an answer to the first question might come as a surprise, because sushi doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with raw fish. Sushi starts with the rice, flavored with an age-old recipe. A dash of tart vinegar, a sprinkling of salt, and a hint of sweet sugar, drizzled onto freshly cooked Japonica short-grain rice—that is the foundation for all sushi today. Beyond that, what sushi looks like, and what other ingredients make an appearance, is a matter for infinite improvisation. This will bring us back to the second question, about Marisa Baggett, in a moment.

Even in Japan, the history of sushi has been a story of endless reinvention. The origins of sushi go back to a bizarre and potent meal first served up in Southeast Asia, in which fermented rice was packed around pickled river fish, perhaps more than two thousand years ago. The technique spread to other regions, and in Japan this form of sushi became so highly prized that by 718 A.D. people were actually allowed to use sushi to pay their taxes.

Over the centuries sushi evolved in Japan, taking the shapes of cakes, balls, and rolls, eaten from trays, boxes, and bowls. The toppings and fillings changed, too, along with the seasonings and condiments, and different regions of Japan prided themselves on their unique styles.

The “authentic” sushi we associate today with traditional Japanese sushi bars—a style called “Edomae-zushi”—was in fact a relatively recent invention, limited to the region around Tokyo. It’s come to represent Japanese sushi as a whole due to a series of historical accidents. Little known to us, one of those accidents was caused by the United States. In the late 1940s a group of American bureaucrats working in Tokyo issued a decree that accidentally caused Edomae-zushi to become the de facto official sushi of all of Japan.

Even with this American twist, sushi almost never made it to America. In Los Angeles, a Japanese food importer finally succeeded in bringing sushi to these shores, but he almost gave up before he started, convinced that Americans would never touch the stuff. It was only after he’d failed at importing an assortment of other East Asian delicacies (among them, it is said, chocolate covered ants and snake meat) that he reconsidered and gave sushi a shot.

As sushi finally took root in the U.S. its natural evolution continued, and it blossomed. Japanese chefs experimented in their efforts to reach the American diner, creating new kinds of rolls that caught on, the first of which has attained lasting fame as the California Roll. The fact that rolls became so popular here seems appropriate, since the first sushi roll recipe back in Japan appears to have been published in 1776, the year of the American Revolution.

Today, sushi has become so widespread in America and has been adapted so completely to American tastes that it has literally become an American meal—many of us need look no further than our supermarket or even the baseball stadium to buy a box of sushi. Sushi-making ingredients and tools for the amateur at home have become ubiquitous, too.

Along with all this, one of the more welcome developments on the culinary scene in recent years has been the rise of a new generation of talented sushi chefs who are rising to mastery of the myriad forms of this ancient cuisine—and who maintain great respect for its traditions—despite not necessarily having roots in Japan or even Asia themselves.

These sushi chefs have ethnic and cultural backgrounds that span the globe, yet their passion for both classical and modern forms of sushi inspires them towards a deep dedication to the Japanese spirit of the food, even as they continue to improvise on the basic recipe of seasoned rice. And very happily for the rest of us, these chefs, perhaps more so even than their esteemed Japanese predecessors, are uniquely placed to be cross-cultural ambassadors of the cuisine, completely fluent as they are both in our American habits of dining and the Japanese heritage they practice every day behind the American sushi bar.

Which returns us to the question: Who is Marisa Baggett?

Long before I met Marisa I’d heard about her from Japanese-American sushi-industry insiders in Los Angeles, whose job it is to watch for new trends and up-and-coming chefs in the American sushi business. Marisa was special, they said—but, they added, you won’t find her in L.A., or New York. When I finally tracked Marisa down, it was where she was living and working in Memphis, Tennessee, not far from Mississippi where she was born and raised.

Before encountering Marisa in person, I spent a few hours on the phone with her, which convinced me she was the real deal—a sushi perfectionist dedicated to the old-school spirit of Japan, even as she improvised using her own unique inflection of American traditions. As Marisa herself had aptly put it to me, what made sushi authentic at the end of the day was a foundation of respectful technique, augmented by seasonal ingredients that captured regional flavors, prepared with the utmost care, and served with a personal touch to the customer at the sushi bar. I work closely in Manhattan with a classically trained Edomaezushi chef from Japan who’s been crafting sushi for three decades, and that pretty much captures his philosophy, too. But I still wanted to see for myself. When I finally had the chance to fly down south and experience Marisa and her sushi in person, I encountered a chef with the presence of a Zen master. Moving meditatively before her cutting board and ingredients, wielding her meticulously polished blade and other traditional implements, Marisa exuded a focus and reverence that was impressive even when compared to the many Japanese chefs I’ve encountered both in and outside of Japan. At the same time, Marisa’s elegant sushi had a distinctly American spirit, with whimsical touches that paid tribute to her own heritage.

Sushi will continue to evolve, and its future no doubt lies down many different paths. Marisa is a pioneer forging one of those paths, and doing so with grace, respect, and enviable skill. We are fortunate that she has chosen to share her mastery and enthusiasm with us in this book. Absorb what she teaches, practice and enjoy it, and you will be joining her unique journey—not to mention eating very well along the way.

Trevor Corson

author of The Story of Sushi: An Unlikely

Saga of Raw Fish and Rice