¡°Why don¡¯t you come around to the other side of the counter?¡± sushi chef Junichi Onuki chirped from behind the bar. He laid down the sharp yanagi-ba knife he¡¯d been using to slice fillets of sea bream and beckoned in a gesture of welcome.
I¡¯d asked Onuki, owner and chef of Isana Sushi Bar in Tokyo¡¯s Nishi-Azabu district, to teach me about cutlery and other kitchen utensils in the sushi chef¡¯s toolbox. Although I¡¯d toured many professional kitchens before, no one had ever invited me behind the bar at a sushi restaurant. After years of sitting at sushi counters as a customer, it felt both thrilling and mildly transgressive.
Onuki had arranged his workstation for me exactly as he would during dinner service. On the immaculate white cutting board sat a yanagi-ba ¡ª the long, thin knife used for slicing fish ¡ª alongside a fine-grained sharkskin wasabi grater and ceramic pots filled with homemade nikiri soy sauce and ana-tsume sauce for eel. In another jar were tweezers for removing pin bones, a perforated spoon for scooping up ikura (salmon roe), a small grater for zesting yuzu citrus, and a tiny wooden brush used to sprinkle the fragrant yuzu rind onto pieces of sashimi.
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