The Japanese took it home. The winner of the Seven Sushi Samurai contest at the Eat-Japan Sushi Awards 2007 is Masashi Ogata! He represented the Asahizushi restaurant in Miyagi, Japan and won with his dish “Golden Shooting Star”.
“This ambitious dish recreates the exquisite taste and texture of shark’s fin, the traditional culinary speciality of Asashizushi’s homeground, whilst remaining 100% vegetarian. Assembling ingredients such as Japanese seaweed, fruit syrup, avocado and cornflakes (!), this is a truly remarkable culinary feat.” Mmm… Sounds interesting. And surprising. I have never tasted shark fin, but did not think it would taste anything like fruit syrup, avocado and cornflakes…
All the recipes in this years competition shows that the sushi chefs are seriously developing from the more traditional types of sushi and bringing it into whole new areas. One of the judges were the chef at the Fat Duck, Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant west of London, who according to “The Observer” has a menu item of snail porridge… In addition to him the judging panel consisted of Henry Harris, chef director of Soho House; Steve Munkley, vice president of the Craft Guild of Chefs; Jun Tanaka, head chef at Pearl restaurant, London; Paul Wootton, editor of Restaurant magazine; and Kyle Connaughton, head chef of development for the Fat Duck Experimental Kitchen.
Last years winner Ramsey was runner up at the event with his dish “Whole Salmon”, featuring all the parts of the fish, including the head, with a passion-fruit marinade and a coffee-mustard sauce. Sim was third with “Red Square” combining red tuna with cream cheese and a sweet-sour dressing.
About 300 people attended the event.
I was not one of them… Buhuu huuuu huuu.
Next year!
The three winning dishes:
( Hey Eat-Japan.com - we need bigger pictures than this! You eat with your eyes first… 
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Links:
Hi there,
I was one of the lucky 300 who got to sample the Seven Sushi Samurais’ creations. I tried 6 out of 7 (the mille feuille was beautiful but just had too many ingredients that I cannot eat, unfortunately.) I thought the Whole Salmon had the best presentation - including paper thin pickled ginger origami cranes! Being a California native, I was disappointed that the Taco Sushi did not do better, but sadly it just didn’t work. I think the tortilla chips were too salty and detracted from the sushi. Too bad - it was pretty and I really wanted the chef to succeed. The Red Square was interesting; not really my cup of tea but well-presented and definitely creative. The beef miso and seabass were flawless but almost too conventional. But the Golden Shooting Star was absolutely amazing. Fascinating flavor and texture (I certainly noticed the crunch of the corn flakes - but in a good way!); good portion size; gorgeous presentation; and true innovation. I was quite happy that the only vegetarian sushi won the prize. It was well deserved.
Hope you make it to next year’s event!
-WT
Mmmm… Sounds fascinating. Lucky you. And lucky chefs, who got such a great audience; paying attention to all those details they were striving their utmost to convey… Hmm. Thank you so much for your comment! I will do my very best to attend next year! Maybe we’ll meet up.