Rancho Cucamonga, California, U.S.A.-headquartered Aquamar, a surimi and ready-to-eat seafood company, brought Michelin-starred sushi chefs and internationally-known Big Wave surfers to Seafood Expo North America (SENA) as part of their Sushi’s Next Big Wave campaign.
Aquamar CEO Daryl Gormley told the crowd gathered in SENA’s Wave Maker Zone the campaign began with his own experience learning the history of the iconic American fusion sushi dish, the California roll. He said that in the 1960s, when Japanese chefs began to immigrate to America, they found that “traditional sushi just wasn’t welcome at that point for the Western palate.”
American consumers feared raw fish, and they found the nori (seaweed), which traditionally wrapped sushi rolls, to be unappetizing.
In response, Gormley said, “[Japanese American chefs] innovated and created the California roll,” and Aquamar was there from the beginning.
“Aquamar founders were the first people to produce modern surimi in North America, and that became the California roll,” Gormley said.
The sushi challenge highlighted Aquamar’s association with the Surfer Big Wave Challenge, which showcases the most extreme moments in big-wave surfing each year. Gormley said Aquamar partnered with surfers because the surf community had played a big role in popularizing sushi first in Southen California, then throughout the country.
Aquamar is sponsoring the Big Wave Challenge “Wipeout of the Year” award, which celebrates the most epic and entertaining surf falls of the year. The competition crowns its winner at the annual Big Wave Surfing competition and gala in Nazaré, Portugal.
To celebrate the partnership at SENA, Aquamar brought together decorated sushi chefs from two North American cities that have perfected the Cali Roll: L.A., where the roll was invented, and Vancouver, where a thriving Japanese arts and culture community has led to further innovations on the roll. The Cali Roll Clash invited these star chefs to turn the classic upside down yet again in a sushi-making competition.
“It’s all about knowing when to respect tradition, and when to flip it off,” said a company-produced video showed at the event.
The Cali Roll Clash featured Gormley and Bill Sharp, founder of the Big Wave Challenge Awards and co-producer of HBO’s “Hundred Foot Wave,” and brought multiple four-star sushi chefs to Boston, including Naoya Tsuruta, executive chef of Koi Restaurant Beverly Hills; Koji Fujiki, executive chef of Asanebo; Koichi Fujioka, executive chef of Sushi Bar; and Hiroshi Hoshiko, executive chef of Mahana.
Three leading Big Wave Surfers, Jojo Roper, Peter Mel, and Balaram Stack, guest judged the event, with help from audience taste testers.
The chefs had ten minutes to create their reinterpretations of the traditional California roll from scratch. Naoya Tsuruta and Koji Fujiki, from L.A., created a tribute to the city with the “L.A. Strong roll,” to which they added smoked red chili and tequila in place of the traditional sweet vinegar. Koichi Fujioka and Hiroshi Hoshiko, from Vancouver, produced a California roll that was pressed into a block made of rice and shredded surimi, with spinach sauce replacing traditional nori.
The team from Vancouver ultimately won the top prize from the surfer judge, but the audience choice award went to the “L.A. Strong Roll.”
