TRUST ME: Chef Kazunori Nozawa of Sushi Nozawa

Some know him for the incredible fish that he serves in his Studio City, California restaurant and others know him as “the Sushi Nazi”. Nozawa-san is a sushi purist period. His menu doesn’t include sushi rolls, chicken teriyaki, spicy tuna, or even miso soup. What he does serve is simply the very best fish available. He’s a great chef, but many people don’t understand his TRUST ME motto.

Nozawa-san explains his TRUST ME philosophy: “I want to serve what American people like in the most simple manner, simple is the best. Anyone can make rolls because it’s easy. But my simple sushi is not easy.” Nozawa understands that customers have their own preferences, but he’s been making sushi for 46 years. He learned his style of sushi from his mentors and teachers and knew that this was the style he wanted to do. “When I started my restaurant, I wanted to do the style that I learned. If it doesn’t work, I don’t care because this is my style.” Nozawa-san is honoring the sushi chefs before him by passing on authentic sushi to the next generation. It would disgrace his mentors if he lost this philosophy and just made sushi for the money. Sure, he’s old school, but they don’t make chefs like this anymore. Why is Nozawa-san like this? He respects the hundreds of years of tradition and feels it’s his responsibility to keep this authentic sushi tradition alive. The marketplace is filled with rock ‘n roll sushi chefs, hundreds of crazy sushi rolls, and fusion restaurants, but there aren’t many places that you can rave about the fish quality or find true Edomae sushi (traditional style).




Early in his career, one customer told Nozawa-san that he didn’t like toro (Nozawa only serves bigeye and yellowfin tuna, he hasn’t served bluefin tuna since being in the U.S.). Nozawa-san asked, “Why don’t you like toro? Was it stringy at the other restaurant?” “Yes, it was stringy” answered the customer. “Toro” in Japanese means buttery and melts in your mouth, so the customer tried it Nozawa’s way. The customer was amazed and started trusting Nozawa-san’s recommendation from that point on.

True artists struggle during the early years and Sushi Nozawa was no exception. “In the beginning, we had no customers and when we did have customers we would argue because they had their own opinion on what they wanted” says Nozawa-san. It’s suggested that you order “omakase” at Sushi Nozawa, which means the customer is leaving it up to the chef to serve them the very best of the day. “To really experience sushi, you had to let the chef decide what was best for you. It was hard for Americans to do.” says Trevor Corson, author of “The Story of Sushi.” This isn’t new to Nozawa’s customers, as most of them would rather leave it up to him. I’ve been a Sushi Nozawa customer for many years and this is the one place that I’ve always left it up to the chef and haven’t been disappointed. It’s doubtful that the other people standing outside waiting to get in have been disappointed either.

Nozawa-san only serves the very best and if you use locally grown or caught ingredients, it’s even better. “It’s costly but you have to do it the right way. If it’s fishy, stringy, tough, or chewy, customers won’t come back. There are so many nice local fish such as barracuda, skipjack, bonito, Spanish mackerel, albacore, yellowfin tuna and the local sardines are great” says Nozawa-san. When he sees the faces of his customers enjoying this traditional style of sushi, he knows he doing it right. Since a lot of chefs don’t know traditional sushi, they can't educate Americans properly. Nozawa-san feels that Americans do enjoy authentic sushi; they just need to know what is right and wrong. Just like he’s done for the last 40+ years, he begins each day prepping the variety of fish he’s selected. When you combine his carefully prepared fish with warm sushi rice, along with his ponzu sauce, I’ll just say that it melts in your mouth. There’s a word in Hawaiian called “pono” and it means doing something in a correct & proper manner. When you prepare food in a pono fashion, it reflects in the quality of the food served. I guess it doesn’t really matter if it’s Hawaiian or Nozawa’s style; the result is still the same.

This honorable warrior is thinking about retiring soon, which will be sad for his loyal followers. On the top of his list of things to do when he retires is to get some much needed sleep. After all, he's been getting up early for years to make his daily 5 am trip to the fish markets. Unlike other chefs, he doesn't rely on the fish companies to make his selections and would rather pick out his own fish; this is why his sushi is so good. When he's caught up with his sleep, Nozawa-san is heading out to see the U.S. Don’t be surprised to see him behind the sushi bar in a rural area teaching his simple style of sushi. When he’s not on the road, Nozawa-san is partners in a sushi venture called “SugarFish”, Sushi Nozawa’s hip kid brother. With plans to open more locations, he’ll be busy handling the purchasing and quality control, which is very important to him. At least his followers can continue to get his TRUST ME menu after he retires.

“I have the best customers in the world and I appreciate them very much” Nozawa-san said as we were leaving. It wasn’t necessarily the words he used, but it was how he said it that made an impact on me. Kazunori Nozawa is one of the true Los Angeles sushi pioneers and we thank him for making us trust him.

In this day and age, maybe we need to be more open-minded and trust more…
Please continue to follow UMI and let's keep eating sushi, One Fish at a time.

Domo Arigato Nozawa-san.



Article and Photos by Jay Terauchi