clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Watch: Inside the Sushi Chef Institute

David Bouhadana visits the Los Angeles program that launched his career

This week on Shokunin, host David Bouhadana gets back to his roots, visiting the place — and the man — that launched his career as a sushi chef.

Andy Matsuda was born in Japan, and studied sushi-making extensively before moving to California in the early 1980s at the age of 25. After a career in some of the country's top sushi restaurants and surviving cancer, Matsuda returned to Los Angeles with a new focus: to open the Sushi Chef Institute, a culinary training school focused on the Japanese tradition of sushi making. At the center of the Institute's programming is a two-month course designed to prepare students for careers in world-class sushi restaurants. Bouhadana graduated from this course when he was 21, and credits it with the fundamentals upon which he's built his career. As Matsuda says, "I don’t make sushi anymore. I make humans. I make chefs." Watch the video above to learn more.

More episodes of Shokunin | Subscribe to Eater on Youtube