The Best Sushi in California | Morimoto Napa

Iron Chef Morimoto

You may be familiar with iron chef Morimoto from the popular TV show iron Chef America and the original iron chef Japan. I had the opportunity to work for iron chef back in 2013 through 2016. I worked alongside him at the sushi bar in his biggest restaurant in Florida at Disney Springs. I spent over 3+ years learning sushi under a legend. Chef is probably most popular in known for his New York take on Japanese cuisine. Keeping the food simple and elegant but attention to detail at its finest. He has blown up in the industry with restaurants all over the world and product lines and even the face of automation in the restaurant industry. Even though he is almost 80 years old we can expect to see more from iron chef Morimoto in the near future.

What it’s like working for an Iron Chef

I’ll explore this topic more in my blogs in the next section of this blog in the categories “Stories from the pass”. If you are interested in my chef stories, Go on and check them out over here! You can hear my journeys of working in Michelin star kitchens and traveling cross country to work at restaurants.

My First Time Working with Chef Morimoto

my first time working for Chef Morimoto was during the US open tennis tournament in Flushing Queens. I was just fresh out of culinary school and the opportunity seemed too amazing to pass up. I actually documented that journey of a grueling 6 hour commute every day for 3 weeks straight. Check it out here if you are interested in seeing me almost die.

What Makes Chef’s Sushi signature?

having worked for Chef morimoto for multiple years Isaac had the opportunity to learn the technique behind his sushi. The thing that makes his sushi the most unique is that he polishes the rice in house every single day before service. Chef patented a sushi polishing machine that is used for sake but reduce the size of the industrial machine to fit inside his restaurants. We can adjust the hulling of each grain determine how much of a endosperm we want to retain on each grain of rice. What this is going to do is ensure a light fluffy rice that’s going to retain most of its moisture and have a different bite. All of the rice set is used in his restaurants come from an organic rice farm in California. I have had my favorite rice brands that I use that I can find in my markets because there’s no way in hell that I’m going to get my own polishing machine to polish my own rice.

Sauce is the Boss

soy sauce is another key ingredient when eating sushi and chef Morimoto does not take this concept lightly. The voice of blend it’s not just soy sauce out of a bottle is brewed in house to create a more in-depth flavor soy sauce. No I’m not saying that he ferement his own soybeans and makes soy sauce in house but what he does do is fortify it with ingredients to make it more tasty and a pair well with the sushi. I have the recipe that I made to make the soy sauce and it’s pretty easy and it does change the game quite a bit. Are you going to do a steep potato flakes in soy sauce with a little bit of water and allow it to steep warm like you’re making a tea and then drain the excess bonito flakes so that you don’t get an residual bonito in your soy sauce.

Ill put a recipe here!

First Date with my Future wife!

That was are the first dates with my girlfriend who is now my wife was at Morimoto in New York City. That was one of our first fine dining experiences and I was in shock because I was a college student and I spent well over $400 on a meal for two people. That was the first time ever in my life I ever spent that much money on food and I almost threw up everything at eight because when I got that bill I almost shit my pants. You can watch that video it’s not very good because I wasn’t a very good document a Rari back then. But the video will be available in my video of Morimoto Napa, just click on the card in the top right.

Morimoto Napa

This restaurant was beautiful. The scenery from the outdoor to the giant doors and tall ceilings and it to being on a river in the backside of the restaurant. It was super scenic and a joyful place to be and the restaurants around it created a very enticing atmosphere that made me want to walk around and almost made me feel like I was in Venice for some reason. There seem to be a little boats that you could rent in right on the river right behind the restaurant. It seems like it would be a great place to go during the day to walk around and participate in multiple activities.

The restaurant itself had beautiful architecture and display the kitchen as you walk to to your dining seat. The staff was friendly and the food was delicious and I had zero complaints.

Our friend worked at this restaurant and she came out and said hello and hook us up with some desserts and appetizers. It’s always amazing to see our friends work and to stay committed into places and to grow in the industry and as individuals.

You can watch more about our celebration time at Morimoto Napa in this video attached below. Restaurants owned by Morimoto will always have a place in my heart because I’ve learned so much working for them and I’ve learned so much by eating at them. I never thought that I would even consider myself a sushi chef but haven’t worked for the great iron Chef I feel like I’m on a level that was on imagined of my younger self. I took an opportunity and I took a risk and it may be better. Iron chefs food continues to inspire me and help me develop my story as I become a better Chef.