Restaurant Insider: Iron Chef & Sin-Free Sushi

News, gossip and general musings on openings, closings and fanfare in Seattle

By Seattle Mag December 31, 1969

Category: Seattlepi.com featured stories

 

News, gossip and general musings on openings, closings and fanfare in Seattle’s kitchens

Sin-free Sushi
High mercury levels, concerns about sustainability and overfishing, farmed seafoods—lately, ordering at the sushi bar requires either carrying a checklist of so-called “safe” seafoods or donning blinders. Chef/owner Hajime Sato of Mashiko (4725 California Ave. SW; 206.935.4339; sushiwhore.com), West Seattle’s much-adored sushi bar, has attacked the issue head on: He’s now the first chef in Washington state to serve only sustainable sushi. You may miss your hamachi, bluefin and unagi, but then again, the true spirit of sushi is leaving yourself open to whatever the chef deems freshest and best that day. Doing this at Mashiko means you’ll get to experience the pleasures of local sardines (yes, sardines!), trout, wild salmon, even cod liver (to sub for monkfish liver). It’s just a guess, but I’ll bet asking Sato to create an omakase (chef’s choice) menu with his new lineup of sustainable seafoods will feel as exhilarating as ever. Maybe even more so.

Tube Time

Don’t miss James Beard Award–winning chef Holly Smith (owner of Café Juanita and Poco Carretto) on The Next Iron Chef. The show will follow 10 chef-testants as they travel around the world, cooking unusual local foods (jellyfish?) in the hopes of becoming the Food Network’s next Iron Chef. The season begins on Sunday, October 4 at 9 p.m. on the Food Network. (www.foodnetwork.com/the-next-iron-chef/package/index.html/)

 

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