The Complete Guide to Sushi & Sashimi Review - For the Home Sushi Chef Perfection is Attainable

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For anyone who has ever tried to make Sushi at home, hoping for the quality and the presentation of the experts and ended eating splitting, half-filled, uneven, lopsided, California Rolls, The Complete Guide to Sushi & Sashimi is for you.

For those of certain persuasion one may think rolling the Nori (the seaweed outer wrap) should be as simple as other rolling techniques. It is not. The idea behind rolling, or folding, any food from a Burrito to an omelet to wrap sandwiches and of course back to our Sushi is the technique of the chef and the amount of food on this inside of the roll.


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The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi uses a technique employed by most culinary schools, immersion. Full size color photos are extremely helpful even for those who have sworn never to use the instruction manual of anything.

Oddly, sushi isn’t tricky to make as long as you have the right utensils and some patience to get acquainted with the techniques. And it does take practice, deciding to create the most complicated first often leads to floppy rolls with unsealing Nori.

Beginning with the simple, and of course learning to julienne the ingredients like Tuna, carrots, cucumber and even avocado truly aid the effort as large bulky pieces and visions of perfectly rolled Sushi clash and end in disappointment.

Jeffrey Elliot, former Director of Culinary Relations for Zwilling J.A. Henckels, Demeyere and Staub and Executive Chef for Z.A. Henckels USA,  co-authored The Complete Guide Sushi & Sashimi along with Executive Sushi Chef Robby Cook who, between the two, have created a must have manual for the adventurous home chef and lover of Japanese cuisine.

The Complete Guide to Sushi & Sashimi is a step by step guide beginning with the essentials needed to create perfect rice, ingredients, filleting fish for the freshest sushi and even onto plating techniques, the perfect blend of wasabi and soy, other reasons for the ginger and socially acceptable ways to consume the delicacies once the roll and craft is mastered.

With sections dedicated to each, the ingredients, and again I attest, as having an adventurous side, making the sushi without instruction (how hard can it be, really?) takes center stage without experts, who obviously give more respect to the process than I thought necessary and produce perfect pieces every time.

Cook shares his experiences with Fluke, octopus and red snapper and other types of fish and seafood. Sushi, maki, sashimi, nigari and oshizushi the tried and true and the unknown, are all included with the recipes to complete along with over 500 full color pictures. Tips from the experts and technique tricks are also detailed inside the hardcover, with a hidden wire, binding,

The Complete Guide to Sushi & Sashimi provides full size, perfectly clear, beautifully glossy, high resolution, photos that even if the directions seems unclear the clarity of the photos make it nearly impossible to mistake in the creation.

The authors offered a few tidbits of their own on ‘How this Book Differs from others; What type of Audience The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi will benefit most; Why the book is important and key messages.

The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi differs from others as the authors “provide verbal and visual clues with both photos and graphics” and it has “comprehensive step-by-step instruction.”

In determining the audience they added “anyone who want to start making sushi from the home cook to the professional who wants to add sushi to their repertoire and home cooks interested in creating an array of different types of sushi sashimi, rolls, and other sushi inspired dishes.”

Why the book is important? From Jeffrey Eliot, “it provides solid foundation for someone to go on to master sushi with practice.” And from Robby Cook, “it offers technique and recipes based on traditional style.”

The key message from both is practice and keep it fun. Creating sushi should be fun and enjoyable.

Preparation is key, 75% of making Sushi is preparation. Using your fingers to eat sushi is okay and considered socially acceptable in Asian cultures. Also each sushi piece is meant to be eaten in one bite. It will usually fall apart otherwise.

Nori (Seaweed roll) is a great source of minerals found in the ocean and the vinegar used in sushi rice is important in promoting cell metabolism. Eating pickled ginger  in between bites of sushi will cleanse the palate. It also helps kill bacteria. And best practices when using soy and wasabi dipping fish side to side not rice side.

The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi is as enjoyable to look through as the expertise of the chef’s advances into the more expert Chef, checkerboard style Sushi that fit symmetrically to form kaleidoscope shapes during plating are presented to stretch the skill of the advance home chef.

The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi is a great holiday or any day book for the beginner, the novice or the expert. Learning the technique to create a perfectly rolled sushi is thrilling when all the elements come together. The Nori seals, the rice blends perfect and finally sliced neatly. It’s an accomplishment.


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The Complete Guide to Sushi & Sashimi is available in the United States and United Kingdom. With 288 and over 500 full color pictures it is an essential guide for every kitchen. The ultimate and definitive instructional The Complete Guide to Sushi and Sashimi is available for under $30.00 everywhere.

The Complete Guide to Sushi & Sashimi is available through Amazon, Ebay and Barnes & Noble.