Over the last 50 years, the popularity of sushi has risen stratospherically in North America. It has gone from a foreign delicacy with little mainstream appeal, to one of the most consumed foods on the continent. The California roll was at the center of this success, after being invented in…Canada.
To trace the history of sushi in North America, we need to head back to Vancouver, British Columbia, and the year 1971. A young chef called Hidekazu Tojo was trying to forge a career for himself. In a moment of divine inspiration, he flipped traditional sushi rolls inside out. The California roll was born.
The inside-out-style maki roll was more appealing to North American customers, concealing the seaweed and stuffing the rolls with the recognizable tastes of cucumbers, avocado, and crab.
Such was the success of this inside-out roll, the California roll became only the beginning of Tojo’s contributions. Countless more sushi ingredients are now concealed in the same way, and Tojo has become a globally respected sushi chef, still working out of his longtime home, Vancouver.
Despite the commercial appeal of the California roll, Tojo remains adamant about its purity as a food. “I’m a chef. I’m not a businessman,” he told Montecristo Magazine. “Businesspeople want profit, profit, profit. I like to make real food. Not imitation. Everything is handmade, mostly I use local ingredients. I use organic product. I’m surprised when I go to the supermarket: the cucumber has no taste. Tomato? No taste. They use chemicals. My way is real meat, no imitation.”
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So while the widespread appeal of sushi has come with its downsides in terms of quality, the man who helped popularise it across the North American continent still maintains the highest standards, over five decades later.
The California roll isn’t the only type of sushi with a surprising story. Check out our video below for the even more surprising origin of salmon sushi.
