January 16, 2025
The Japanese Who Made 'Fake' Sushi Part 2: Nikkei Cuisine, and What 'Authentic' Really Means
Last time, we saw that the California Roll was invented by Japanese craftsmen. They used ingredients available in America and adapted to local preferences while trying to deliver the essence of sushi.
This wasn't an isolated exception. The same thing was happening on the other side of the Earth, in Peru.
From the late 19th to early 20th century, many Japanese emigrated to Peru. Initially as contract laborers on sugarcane plantations. After completing their contracts in harsh conditions, they moved to cities like Lima and began making a living with their knowledge. One of those ways was through cooking.
Peru has a national dish called "ceviche." Raw fish marinated in lime. In the traditional method, fish was soaked in lime for hours, sometimes overnight. The idea was to "cook" it with acid.
Japanese immigrants must have felt uncomfortable seeing this. Fish should be eaten fresh. If you soak it for hours, you lose the texture.
They introduced a method of adding lime just before serving. The sashimi approach. Preserving the fish's natural flavor and texture while adding the acidity that Peruvians loved. This change became the prototype of modern ceviche.
Furthermore, a dish called "tiradito" was born, fusing sashimi and ceviche. Thinly sliced raw fish topped with a sauce of ají amarillo peppers and lime. More flavorful than sashimi, lighter than ceviche. A new dish that was neither Japanese nor Peruvian.
In the 1970s, a 24-year-old Japanese sushi chef went to Lima. Nobu Matsuhisa. He was forced to make sushi using only locally available ingredients. The improvisational style that emerged later became known as "Nobu style," and he went on to build a restaurant empire around the world. Matsuhisa later said of the California Roll: "It reflects creativity and adaptability in the culinary world. It taught me that you can combine ingredients from different cultures to create something new and exciting."
These Japanese descendants in Peru weren't trying to make "fakes." They were trying to use the techniques and tastes of their homeland in a new land. The Nikkei cuisine that resulted is now Peru's pride and has taken over the world's fine dining scene.
Here, a question arises.
If we define "authentic Japanese food" as "the form currently served within Japan," then the California Roll and tiradito are certainly not "authentic." But is there a problem with that definition itself?
Consider Edomae sushi. Though it's synonymous with sushi today, nigiri-zushi only appeared in the early 19th century, late in the Edo period. Before that, sushi was "narezushi" or "oshizushi"—fermented fish or fish pressed into molds.
Hanaya Yohei, who invented nigiri-zushi, was an innovator by the standards of his time. Or perhaps he was called "unorthodox." Fresh fish placed on vinegared rice, shaped and served on the spot. Fast-food-like convenience. Completely different from traditional sushi.
But now, no one calls nigiri-zushi "fake." Time has passed, and it has become part of the culture.
The history of sushi has always been one of change—from narezushi to oshizushi, from oshizushi to nigiri-zushi. The craftsmen of each era drove that change. They inherited tradition while adapting its form for new environments and new customers. Ichiro Kato in Los Angeles, Hidekazu Tojo in Vancouver, Nobu Matsuhisa in Lima—they all stand in that lineage.
What is "authentic"?
If you use the same ingredients and follow the same recipe, can anyone make something "authentic"? Is sushi made by copying YouTube videos "authentic"?
I don't think so.
Authenticity isn't about form. It's about inheriting a culture, understanding its essence, and having the will to bring it to life in a new land or a new era. When Kato saw toro in an avocado, behind it were decades of training that cultivated his palate. When Japanese descendants in Peru shortened ceviche's marinating time, behind it was the cultural memory of loving sashimi.
Recipes can be copied. But weaving cultural threads cannot be copied.
The California Roll is a cultural thread woven by Japanese people in a foreign land. If we call it "fake," perhaps we're understanding the meaning of "authentic" far too narrowly.