Japan
Year 1: Your apprenticeship, AKA mopping floors and washing dishes, begins.
Year 2: You learn how to fillet small seafood like clams and shad.
Years 3 to 4: You’re promoted to shikomi, or food prepper, where you get to prepare some cooked dishes and staff meals.
Year 5: Now you’re ready for sushi rice. Congrats!
Year 6: You’re allowed behind the sushi bar, where you make only rolls for takeout.
Years 7 to 9: You have permission to speak to customers.
Year 10: A decade in and it’s official. Tada! You’re a full-fledged sushi chef.
Year 15: They let you run the restaurant—finally.
Los Angeles
Enroll in a 12-week sushi-chef course at California Sushi Academy. Tada! Get a job at Geisha House.
This feature originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of Los Angeles magazine
