Sushi Making Cooking Class in Montreal

Last week I held a sushi making workshop. Here are the photos. You should come next time. The five participants (I can only handle up to 8 in my space) would all agree. $40 for lobster nigiri; inside-out California rolls with sustainable Nordic shrimp, avocado, cucumber and toasted sesame seeds; sustainable wild whitefish maki (cardine, a little like turbot. My favourite poissonerie recommended it for sushi. I won’t recommend that possonerie, though, because they also had a sign out for wild Atlantic salmon, which is illegal to sell. When I pointed it out the man tried to convince me that it was fine, but ended up telling me that they were farmed but the farmed stock came from the wild. Not the same, I said. He took down the sign…Several other customers had asked him about it earlier in the day, but he didn’t take it down then for some reason.) and “what to do with the leftovers”-quick and easy handrolls. The class participants also learned how to cut proper cucumber and avocado, how to fan sushi rice after spreading the rice-vinegar dressing, and most importantly, how to drink Wakatake nigori sake I’d been saving from a trip to Seattle in September.

Here are the photos:

Properly cut sashimi is an art. So is rolling. But all this for a fair price is a miracle. The most touching comment of the evening was from one participant who said, “I go to sushi restaurants and I end up spending a lot of money, and I never leave this satisfied.”

I’m always happy to splurge on quality ingredients for a class, and the especially with sushi, you can do a lot more variety of rolls than what you’d probably do for just yourself. It was a fair bit of effort, but in two hours we were stuffing ourselves, and that’s after letting the rice soak for 30 minutes and then cool properly. Thanks to a great class of participants/hungry students.

Classes take place on Wednesday and Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I can accommodate 5-8 people (10 if you’re really willing to squeeze). If you’re not 5-8 people, don’t worry! Just give me some options on dates and I’ll advertise for more people to fill up the class. $35 per person or $40 with sake. (I have one more great bottle left from the Seattle trip.) To book, contact Amie at watson dot amie at gmail dot com.