Chefs in Atlanta, Nashville, and Charlotte give us a backstage pass to one of the South’s most popular restaurant models.
In a restaurant culture that frequently identifies itself through local ingredients, at first glance omakase seems to stand out as an anomaly. Is a concept that relies on regularly imported, fresh product environmentally and financially sustainable?
Spoiler alert: The answer is yes, with caveats. J. Trent Harris, chef of the MICHELIN-starred Mujō in Atlanta, says, “I think there’s a misconception. I’m not chartering a flight specifically for my fish. There are already international flights going back and forth— cargo flights and sometimes domestic flights that have cargo space as well. We would not be able to afford to bring in an entire plane charter—even if it was all the sushi restaurants in Atlanta, it wouldn’t make sense financially.”
Chef Junior Vo recently opened Kase x Noko, a 14-seat omakase experience that is one of the most sought-after reservations in Nashville. “If people say they’re getting fish from Japan, a majority of the time, it’s not directly,” he elaborates. “There’s a distributor in the US. Through the years I’ve ordered in many different ways, and the way I’m using right now seems to be the most effective for me and the best quality. Yama Seafood out of New Jersey has been in business for about 50 years, and they have connections to Japan and everywhere in the world, literally, to get the best product.”
Harris points out that while shipping fish from the other side of the planet is “not necessarily the most sustainable practice,” we don’t blink an eye about importing other items, like coffee, olive oil, or produce that doesn’t grow in our climate. Plus, he adds, “sometimes our idea of what’s local can be a little skewed. I think we have to be asking alot of questions about the sustainability of our entire food system, and not just fish that’s coming in from Japan, because we have so many ingredients coming in from all over the world.”
Chef Robin Anthony of Omakase Experience by PrimeFish in Charlotte, North Carolina, points out that thinking of all fish as essentially the same product is also a common misconception. Along the Southern Atlantic coast, he says, “we can’t use local fish because it’s a totally different cuisine.” The exception is North Carolina bluefin tuna, which is often shipped to Japan rather than sold locally because of the higher price it can yield there. But with most other species, water temperature makes a difference; warmer Atlantic Coast waters allow for more parasites to live in the fish and also decreases fat content. Anthony hastens to add that this doesn’t make Atlantic or local seafood lower in quality. “That seafood is great for Southern cuisine. It’s not for sushi. But also the fish from Japan is not as good for Southern food because it has so much fat, it’s too greasy sometimes. The sauce cannot penetrate inside the meat. Different cuisine, different type of fish.”
There are also differences not only in environment but in handling: In Japan, the fish is humanely killed with specific procedures called ike-jime and shinkeijime, which ultimately affect flavor, appearance, and shelf life. In addition, Japan has a system of fishing and farming that has been in place for decades. The Japanese government faced issues of overfishing by passing laws to limit catch quantities, cultivated seaweed forests so wild species could thrive, and incentivized high-quality farming. Anthony says farming sometimes yields superior results: “With wild caught we don’t know what the fish are eating, but for example, at a farm in Gotō Island in the south of Japan, they feed their bluefin with sardine and mackerel. We can taste that flavor.”
Harris agrees. “We feel very good about working with Japanese seafood.
They have very responsibly managed fisheries. I don’t want to give the impression that there aren’t great American fishermen out there who really care about what they’re doing. It’s just the logistics of it here. The whole system is different than it is in Japan. It’s very hard for an individual to get us the product that’s suitable for the type of cuisine we’re doing.”
Anthony says shipping has benefits as well, because fish used for omakase is aged. And seafood from Japan is often less expensive, for at least two reasons. “The government supports them a lot,” Anthony says. “And there’s the spirit of ikigai. Ikigai means you’re never satisfied.” Japanese fish farmers employing this mindset work hard to become experts in their specific area and are constantly in pursuit of higher quality and lower cost.
Even so, Anthony acknowledges, his omakase experience isn’t the money maker among his concepts. “We are successful because of [PrimeFish] that does volume.”
This is an area where Kase x Noko is doing things a little differently. The price point on Vo’s omakase menu is $75, as opposed to Omakase Experience by PrimeFish’s $325 and Mujō’s $245.
To do this, Vo balances high quality with approachability and affordability. “I focus on tuna and spend a little more on that versus another fish that isn’t so popular. I’m also big on sushi rice and seaweed.” Then he prioritizes reducing waste: “Parts we can’t serve as the nigiri will get a second life in hand rolls or tuna tartare on toast.”
All three chefs agree that they’d like to see some changes in the industry. Vo worries that with the popularity of omakase, some concepts are focused on the spectacle more than the quality of the fish and the guest experience. Anthony says he’d like to see chefs offer one or two courses representing local seafood where it makes sense. Last summer he used spiny lobster from Florida instead of Japan, and this summer he wants to use rock shrimp from the Carolina coast.
And Harris wants to see the US develop stronger logistics and learn Japanese handling practices to meet the increasing demand for omakase. “I would hope that creates more of a market and a niche for American fishermen to provide some of the seafood domestically we’d like to be able to work with,” he says. “That’s how we make larger systemic changes—there has to be demand for it.
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