Sushi Awards 2012: Nominated Restaurants
Sushi Awards: Sushi of the Year
The Sushi Awards 2012: UK Sushi Roll Championship boasted a stunning line-up of top chefs from five brilliant UK-based Japanese restaurants. Discover more about each Nominated Restaurant and Chef below.
After ten years of cooking spicy Malay cuisine in Malaysia, Chef Lee came to the UK to train in catering. His passion, however, is for Japanese cuisine; its intricacy, delicacy and appearance – it looks so simple yet is deceptively difficult to master. He is currently at Tsunami in London, a Japanese restaurant that's sleek and stylish, serving up laid-back lunches as well as classic dishes. Seeing the lovingly prepared plates of fresh sushi and sashimi fly out of the kitchen makes it clear how much pride Chef Lee takes in his food.
Chef Yamaguchi follows in the footsteps of colleague Asuka Kobayashi, winner of the 2011 UK Sushi Roll Championship. Chef Yamaguchi was born into a family of sushi chefs, and began his training under the strict instruction of his father. Proud and passionate about his legacy, he is now using his expertise to delight diners in the UK at Matsuri St. James's, the flagship Matsuri group restaurant. Oneof London's most renowned Japanese restaurants, it boasts a teppan-yaki area and festival-themed interior as well as the Sushi Counter where you can find Chef Yamaguchi.
Chef Matsuya is Head Sushi Chef at SO Restaurant, a contemporary and stylish Japanese dining establishment with a distinct French twist, voted the UK's Favourite Japanese restaurant by Japanese residents in the UK in the 2009 Eat-Japan Dining Awards. Chef Matsuya has been a professional chef since joining the Self-Defense Forces in 1987 as a maritime chef for VIP guests. After running his own restaurant, in 2006 he moved to the UK for a new challenge: using his experience as a sushi chef to bring the authentic taste of Japan to British diners.
Chef Qiang has 20 years of experience in the London sushi world, working at several leading restaurants before joining the vibrant Tsuru group as Lead Sushi Chef. Tsuru was launched by three passionate foodies to bring sustainable, quality Japanese sushi, sashimi and other classic dishes to diners, and has firmly established itself as a great place for both lunch and dinner, with a fiercely loyal fan base in all three of its restaurants. Chef Qiang's roll promises to build on his strong experience in creating dishes are accessible, attractive, satisfying and sustainable.
Chef Nishioka is from the seafood-rich island of Kyushu and became a chef when he was 18. His interest in mastering a Japanese cuisine that was translatable overseas led him to the UK to work under Yasuhiro Mineno, one of London's leading Japanese chefs, for two years, returning to Japan briefly before taking up a position in Yashin in 2010. Since opening, Yashin has received multiple awards and rave reviews in The Times and the Daily Telegraph, amongst others, and was placed fifth in the TimeOut 2011 London's 50 Best Restaurants ranking.
Sushi Awards
