Last night I watched the Jiro Dream of Sushi documentary which has been highly acclaimed by both my friends and other review sites. So what’s so unique about his sushi over others? For starters, you must make reservations months in advance and the food starts at ¥30,000 ($300). However, this is not for the sake of eliteness or exclusivity, rather it’s due to extremely high demand. After all, it was the first sushi restaurant with a Michelin Star rating and was recognized by the Japanese government as a living national treasure. His sushi is regarded as levels about any other. At 85, he still comes into work every single day of the week full of energy and loves his work. A feat few can match.
The documentary made a profound impression on me as I tried to see through to his essence. Beneath the art form of sushi and his 70+ years of dedication to his profession, he’s an artist much like Steve Jobs. He takes extreme care in looking over every aspect of the sushi which comes down to the ingredients, preparation, his team, restaurant ambience, and even the gender and placement of the guests. He’s spent so much time practicing Kaizen (constant, never-ending improvement) that each of the ingredients require a lifetime of expertise to even know if they’re of the right quality. His tuna vendor only selects the best from that week’s single best catch and if there is nothing of high enough grade, he won’t send anything to Jiro. His rice vendor only delivers to Jiro and when approached by the Hyatt with a very nice offering he replied, “Why would I sell to you? You don’t know how to make it right.” All of Jiro’s vendor relationships are based on mutual benefit not just for each other, but for delivering high quality to the end user, the customer. Quality is always first.
One of my favorite quotes from Jiro was, “in order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food”. Jiro went further to say:
Quality of ingredients is important, but you need to develop a palate capable of discerning good and bad. Without good taste, you can’t make good food. If your sense of taste is lower than that of the customers, how will you impress them?
This speaks to any field of interest. You need to spend enough time with it to be able to detect, taste and smell all the subtleties in the art. That is the only way to become the best at it. Whether that’s with computer devices as Jobs did, with sushi as Jiro did or with basketball as Michael Jordan did. A little bit of raw talent doesn’t hurt either.
I really enjoyed this movie and I’d highly recommend it to any who wants to step into the shoes of a master at his craft.
Last night I watched the Jiro Dream of Sushi documentary which has been highly acclaimed by both my friends and other review sites. So what’s so unique about his sushi over others? For starters, you must make reservations months in advance and the food starts at ¥30,000 ($300). However, this is not for the sake of eliteness or exclusivity, rather it’s due to extremely high demand. After all, it was the first sushi restaurant with a Michelin Star rating and was recognized by the Japanese government as a living national treasure. His sushi is regarded as levels about any other. At 85, he still comes into work every single day of the week full of energy and loves his work. A feat few can match.
The documentary made a profound impression on me as I tried to see through to his essence. Beneath the art form of sushi and his 70+ years of dedication to his profession, he’s an artist much like Steve Jobs. He takes extreme care in looking over every aspect of the sushi which comes down to the ingredients, preparation, his team, restaurant ambience, and even the gender and placement of the guests. He’s spent so much time practicing Kaizen (constant, never-ending improvement) that each of the ingredients require a lifetime of expertise to even know if they’re of the right quality. His tuna vendor only selects the best from that week’s single best catch and if there is nothing of high enough grade, he won’t send anything to Jiro. His rice vendor only delivers to Jiro and when approached by the Hyatt with a very nice offering he replied, “Why would I sell to you? You don’t know how to make it right.” All of Jiro’s vendor relationships are based on mutual benefit not just for each other, but for delivering high quality to the end user, the customer. Quality is always first.
One of my favorite quotes from Jiro was, “in order to make delicious food, you must eat delicious food”. Jiro went further to say: