The High Life - Forget hamburgers. Never mind burritos. If globalisation has a favourite food group in the new millennium, it has to be sushi.
Two decades ago, it would be hard to fathom the rise of raw fish in the West, but changing taste buds in North America and Europe have dictated otherwise. Today, menu items such as sashimi, maki and nigiri are part of the reason that burger chains and fried-food dealers are taking a hit at the cash register. Mainstream consumers are looking to wean themselves off of high-in-calories, low-in-taste foods, and instead indulge in dishes considered to be hip, healthy and cultured.
Sushi certainly fits the bill. It's fresh, tasty, low-calorie, low-fat, low-cholesterol. And a new generation of open minds - and mouths - from around the world are translating this into more and more dollars being spent in the pursuit of raw fish.
Japanese restaurants have long had their place in urban hubs such as New York and London. But now, sushi as a dining experience is making huge inroads in middle-America - in towns from Kansas to Des Moines, Iowa and venues like airports and baseball stadiums.
How lucrative are the sushi sweepstakes? A National Restaurant Association survey released last year showed significant growth in the popularity of Japanese food in the United States. The survey showed that 21% of American consumers eat sushi often or at least occasionally, up from 15% in 1994. The dining trend - which has been mostly spearheaded by immigrants from Asia - is creating a new breed of culinary and entrepreneurial heavyweights in North America.
Hidekazu Tojo, the owner of "Tojo's" restaurant in Vancouver, Canada, is a case in point. "The Emperor of West Broadway", as he is known by his patrons, has been on a decades-long mission to bridge the great divide between Asian and North American tastebuds.
Thirty years after his move from Asia to North America, he is now the proprietor of one of the continent's best-regarded Japanese restaurants, and a purveyor of sushi to heavy-hitters from business and political circles, as well as entertainment celebrity ranks.
And in a city that is now home to hundreds of Japanese restaurants, including nearly 200 in the downtown core, his venue is consistently ranked number one in the city by critics and mainstream diners alike.
Originally from Kagoshima in southern Japan, he arrived in the Americas during the early 1970s. He plied his culinary trade with several restaurants in the city, including a spot in Vancouver's Little Tokyo district, watching how the eating habits of North Americans differed from their Asian counterparts.
"There were only a few Japanese restaurants when I got here," he says, and for the most part, "only Japanese businessmen came". Back then, Japanese food such as teriyaki, tempura and miso soup, was still viewed in most of North America as something of an oddity.
As a sushi chef, Tojo started luring nervous Canadian diners with safer fare, including prawns and tuna sashimi. After putting them at ease with those dishes, he would then raise the stakes - bringing out more adventurous sashimi plates like sea urchin and octopus. Or in the case of seaweed-wrapped maki (sushi rolls), Tojo might substitute the seaweed with something more European, like French crepe.
His formula was a hit - and remains so to this day. And across North America and Europe, the stage was being set for the sushi revolution.
"From an exotic, almost unpalatable ethnic specialty, then to haute cuisine of the most rarefied sort, sushi has become not just cool, but popular," reports Theodore Bestor, professor of anthropology and associate director of the East Asia Program at Cornell University in New York State.
"Japan's emergence on the global economic scene in the 1970s as the business destination du jour, coupled with a rejection of hearty, red-meat American fare in favour of healthy cuisine like rice, fish, and vegetables, and the appeal of the high-concept aesthetics of Japanese design all prepared the world for a sushi fad."
At the time, and through the 1980s, Tojo's name was gaining favour with the city's diners - whose tastebuds were also beginning to evolve, thanks to an increasing appreciation for foreign dishes, especially of the Asian variety.
In 1988, he launched his own establishment. Knowing full well that diners would be visiting his restaurant as much for his reputation as his new menu offerings, he named the business after himself. It didn't take long for "Tojo's" to become the new darling of Japanese restaurants.
His colourful personality and spirited, original dishes are now the stuff of legend in the city - but it's Tojo's understanding of his customers' needs, and the tailoring of his business towards them, that has brought success. "When I make a creation, it looks good, and tastes good," he says. "And of course, the price is right. That's how I approach the people."
Tojo also has an acute understanding of branding - an imperative to survival in a city where sushi restaurants of all stripes now line the streets. "I am proud to work at my job," he says. "That means I like to make it my own style, my own recipe. All the good chefs, they have originality."
For many restaurant owners, it's a lack of creativity that can lead to downturns for the business. Diners choose to eat out for many reasons: convenience, service, entertainment, and of course, the menu itself. But even if the food and service are consistently high in quality, boredom can sometimes set in for a regular customer. And when that happens, it should give proprietors serious concern. As in so many other businesses, it's easier to lure a returning diner through the doors than a fresh face.
It's a reality Tojo is more than happy to cater to. "I have lots of regular customers," he says. "One customer I had, he came almost every day for 25 years. So I have to make something different for my customers, so that they enjoy dining out."
As Vancouver has established itself as a northern outpost for the movie-makers in Hollywood, he's also attracted an A-list of entertainment celebrities. At any given time, actors such as Eddie Murphy, Morgan Freeman and Robin Williams might be seen hobnobbing with the chef, or sinking their teeth into a plate of "Rainbow Rolls" or "Tojo's Tuna". Other celebrities that frequent his establishment include William Shatner, Tom Selleck, Rhea Perlman, Sarah Mclachlan, and Bryan Adams.
The internationalisation of sushi hasn't just afforded the jet-set the opportunity to sample Japanese fare, however. A number of restaurants, with names such as "Sushi Bang", "Sushi Boy" and "Mr Sushi", offer cheap and delicious meals for those customers on a tight budget. Realising that Asian flavours continue to gain popularity, entrepreneurs are now taking their cues from Japanese chefs in bringing sushi to the masses.
Montreal-based "Soto", for example, has already established three full-service restaurants in the greater Montreal area. Its takeout, delivery and Japanese grocery service, called "Soto Express", has 12 locations in Canada.
The company is now setting its sights on the lucrative US Eastern seaboard, and plans to open between 15 and 30 locations in Washington, DC, and surrounding suburbs, in the coming months.
Even more interesting is the growth of the sushi business in the American Midwest. According to the Chicago Reporter, chefs from that city's burgeoning Latino community are now breaking into the culinary niche as chefs - after having paid their dues as kitchen help under the tutelage of the Japanese masters. Among the city's 139 sushi chefs, 25 are Mexican and 17 are Ecuadorian.
"For Latino immigrants, the sushi market represents a windfall, offering well-paying, highly visible jobs," says the Reporter. "In Chicago, Hispanic chefs are playing a significant role in the Americanisation of a distinctive cuisine." One tangible result from this development, the Mexican maki roll, is comprised of yellow tail fish, the herb cilantro, jalapeņos, and spicy mayonnaise. Not surprisingly, it's already a hit in the Midwest capital.
Other small business success stories abound far from either the Pacific or Atlantic coasts. In Denver, a sushi producer called Sushi Redi delivers fresh sushi to about 130 grocery stores in the city and outlying suburbs. According to the Denver Business Journal, the company is now the largest sushi-maker in Colorado and currently lays claim to revenues nearing the US$3 million mark. This for an outfit that has only been in business for a couple of years.
It's the emerging sushi trade in cities such as Chicago, Denver, Dallas and Phoenix that has piqued the interest of food industry types the world over. Once written off as a West Coast fad confined to cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tojo's own Vancouver, the Japanese cuisine is making huge strides with markets across the US and Canada.
Back in Vancouver, mind you, the cut-throat sushi industry means that Tojo has taken his version of Japanese food to an art form. The legendary chef continues to strive for top billing - and not necessarily against Japanese rivals, but rather, "the best five restaurants in the city, any category".
It's that kind of swagger, and pride, that has paved the way for sushi chefs the world over. "You must really love your cooking to succeed," Tojo says. "And you must be in love with your job. Everything after that comes easy."