We're always partial to good sushi here at Hot Dinners and on a freezing winter's night, we're not inclined to go too far to find it. So we were happy to take up the offer of a free sushi-making class from Sushi Academy London who are weeks away from launching their new restaurant and academy just off the Holloway Road.
Pained, or as they more eloquently put it 'particularly grieved' by some of the poor attempts at sushi they've seen in our fair city, the people behind Sushi Academy London decided to set up an academy. The main aim is to teach chefs and caterers how to make Edomae sushi professionally so they can open their own sushi resturant. For punters who are more interested in eating rather than making sushi, the good news is that they'll run a Sushi Academy Restaurant alongside the academy.
Despite being situated in the (how shall we put it) back end of North London behind Holloway Road station, the restaurant has some pretty important backers, not least the academy and restaurant's supervisory chef Mr Hiroyuki Kanda who has a three Michelin star restaurant in Tokyo.
The academy opens in January 2011 and will run a range of courses, with prominent chefs from Japan coming over as guest lecturers. There are also plans to run shorter day and evening courses for people who'd just like to know how to make sushi for their friends and family.
Hot Dinners tried a taster two-hour session in the art of sushi making where, under the capable instruction of Keiko Waters, we learned how to make basic rolled sushi (see left for our end results) as well as - shock horror - California rolls. Keiko, who trained at Kanda and has just moved over to London from Sydney, also served up some mushi sushi - a steamed dish which is apparently very popular in Kyoto during the winter. She's also not averse to a little experimentation and showed us some of her layered sushi dishes which she's been working on and which will feature on the restaurant's menu.
Our verdict? Holloway Road could always do with more decent restaurants, so we're looking forward to the opening of the Sushi Academy London restaurant and can recommend their fun and informative lessons. For more information, go to www.sushiacademy.org
