Sushi Iwase

Unlike most sushi chefs, who embark on their culinary journeys from childhood, Chef Kenji Iwase had a comparatively late start. When he was a salaryman at 20, he had a fateful encounter with a piece of nigiri—and from that moment on, he was destined to be a sushi chef. Plunging himself into training at Sushi Hide in Yotsuya, his career saw him behind even more of the most storied counters in the sushi scene, including Nishi-Azabu’s Sushi Sho Masa and Takumi Sushi Ko in Aoyama, before he left to start Sushi Iwase in 2012. Over his years of training, Chef Iwase has established connections with suppliers from all over the country. Not content with simply sourcing his seafood from Toyosu Fish Market, his network extends to furthest ends of the country, including Hokkaido and southern Kyushu, to find the ideal ingredients with which to adorn his shari rice. And what rice it is. Rather than using standard koshihikari rice, Chef Iwase opts for the Ishikawa-grown Mizuho no Kagayaki, whose larger grains and glossy texture give it a distinct mouthfeel. It is these characteristics that make it such a crucial part of the restaurant’s signature dish, sea urchin rice. The sea urchin is mixed thoroughly into the Mizuho no Kagayaki, suffusing it entirely with the sea urchin’s sweet-salty tang, and giving it an entirely different texture from typical sea urchin nigiri-zushi.