Lesson Report: Four-Week Summer Course (Part4: 1-week Sushi)
May 20, 2025
Isabella’s four weeks have flown by, and we’ve already reached the final week. Let’s enjoy the last days to the fullest! So, for the finale, we’re doing a sushi lesson. Although she’s not very fond of fish, her family loves it, so she wants to learn sushi-making skills to be able to serve it to her family and friends.
We immediately started practicing making the rice balls! She was taught the basic steps of how to form sushi and carefully followed each step. It seems quite challenging, but she’s setting her own time goals and doing her best!
Now it’s time to tackle the fish, which she doesn’t really like it. While watching the teacher’s demonstration, she seems to be experiencing a mix of the desire to master the technique and a fear of watching. However, she will try her best!
Next, she practiced cutting the sliced horse mackerel and making the nigiri. It seems difficult to cut them into even sizes. Since the thickness of the fish pieces varied, the size of the rice balls also ended up being inconsistent, as they were adjusted to match the size of the fish
She gave the horse mackerel a try, despite her aversion to fish, and… it seems she actually found it delicious! This might give her even more motivation to dive deeper into the lessons. We’re looking forward to seeing how she enjoys the rest of the course!
Next, it was time for the maki roll lesson. The step where everyone struggled to spread the rice on the seaweed wasn’t as bad as she expected, and she was able to do it quite well!
On the second day, we’ll start with the basic rice ball practice again. There’s a little improvement compared to yesterday, but there’s still some variation in shape and size. Let’s do it carefully, carefully.
Continuing from yesterday, today’s challenge is the filleting of horse mackerel. There are still parts where a lot of meat sticks to the bones, but there’s definitely improvement.
Handling the knife, placing the sliced fish, and so on—it’s crucial to perform each step carefully and with precision. As for the shaping, there’s a bit of improvement compared to yesterday.
It’s a tempura lesson today. She was impressed when the instructor explained how to keep the shrimp from curling. The batter is completely different from when she tried it at home, and it tastes so much better.
Today, she also tried filleting fish of different sizes. she thought the bigger ones would be easier, but she was surprised to find that they were actually more difficult. It’s important to carefully understand the bone structure and do it with precision.
When filleting, it’s important to think ahead about the shaping process. If the fish is filleted neatly, it becomes easier to slice, and if the slicing is done well, it makes the nigiri process smoother.
And today, she worked on the sushi shop’s tamagoyaki. Until now, she’s made fluffy omelets and dashi-maki tamago, but sushi tamagoyaki is a whole different challenge. They’re all difficult in their own way, and this one is tough too. Once again, it’s all about practice!
Over the past three days, I’ve gained a better understanding of what I need to work on, and I’m feeling very positive, especially wanting to practice more on filleting. Let’s give it our all for the remaining two days!
Today, we visited the fish market in the morning. We looked at various types of fish and had a lot of interesting discussions. Thanks to the generosity of a tuna wholesaler, I even got to hold the long knife used for filleting tuna.
After returning to the restaurant, we continued with our usual practice of filleting and nigiri. Tomorrow is the final day. Let’s give it our all and try to improve as much as we can until the very end!
The final day started with prepping the shrimp.
Thinking about serving friends and family at home, she also made California rolls today, with everyone enjoying the freedom to add whatever ingredients she liked and having fun experimenting.
Today, she showed her dad the results of all the hard work she’s put in. And he was satisfied, saying it was delicious.
It seems she enjoyed herself in her own way until the very end. I believe this experience will make her even more interested in cooking and Japanese cuisine. I’ve had such a fun time over the past four weeks with Bella! Thank you! Please come visit anytime. Everyone will be waiting for you!
