Sushiya and provenance

I recently had my expensive sushi experience.

The sushi chef is not the one who has a movie made about him and operates a sushiya with 10 seats and three Michelin stars. That shop is near Ginza.  Meals there are $400 per person.

My sushi chef has a 12 seat restaurant and the meals are only $200 per person. This sushi of course is extraordinary. This shop is in Shimbashi. This chef was awarded last year’s top Japan sushi chef award.

The reason I bring this to your attention is because Mr.Nagayama, Katsu does something that I considered to be the act of a marketing genius.

Every evening there is a large piece of rice paper on the wall with the name of the seafood to be served in the top column, followed by a description of how the food was caught, in detail whether net or long line or hook, as well as the wholesale supplier and the locale of origin either a town or a segment of ocean. One piece of the tuna came from a fish caught off of Ireland.

I call this document the Provenance of the food.  there are many other types of business that could display such a document of provenance from fancy American restaurants to shoe stores. It is a brilliant way to connect customers to their products.

Chef Nagayama happens to write his providence document with an extremely beautiful calligraphic hand. I don’t expect that from anyone else.