Sushi's gender roles changing

By practicing a centuries-old tradition, Meiko Wong is also breaking one.

By NICOLE HUTCHESON, Times Staff Writer
Published September 4, 2007

Meiko Wong, 22, has worked at the Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse on N. Dale Mabry Highway for four and a half years, starting as a server and working her way up to assistant sushi chef. She works part-time in addition to being a microbiology student at the University of South Florida.
	[Times photo: Daniel Wallace]

ADVERTISEMENT See video A New Tradition [Times photo: Daniel Wallace] A spicy samurai roll (foreground) and a summer water roll, made by Meiko Wong at Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse.

TAMPA - Meiko Wong's movements are quick and fluid as she dices crab, flattens seaweed and slices tuna.

The 22-year-old is in her element, holding court behind the sushi bar at Kobe's Steakhouse and Sushi Bar.

Wong, who is Japanese, started at Kobe's almost five years ago, working her way up from server to kitchen assistant and now sushi chef. The journey began as a way to earn extra money for school but turned into something much bigger.

Somewhere along the way, her maki rolls became a symbol of progress.

It's an unspoken but understood rule in Japanese culture: Sushi is a boys club. A tight-knit fraternity of sorts, centuries old.

There are about 95 restaurants in the Tampa Bay area that serve sushi, according to the Tampa Bay Sushi Society. Only a few have female sushi chefs. It's a small, but significant percentage, considering cosmopolitan hubs such as New York and Los Angeles boast only a handful of female chefs.

Observers attribute the presence of women behind the bar to Americans' love of sushi. What started as a technique used by Southeast Asian fishermen to preserve their food using rice and vinegar has evolved into a bustling business in the United States.

These days, there's a tuna shortage in New York because of all the demand in the Midwest, and supermarket shoppers toss California rolls into their carts alongside the Tide.

The problem is that the national work force's ability to meet the demand for all things sushi just isn't there, said Trevor Corson, author of The Zen of Fish, The Story of Sushi, From Samurai to Supermarket.

"A lot of women are bringing something new to sushi," said Corson, whose book features female sushi chefs across the country. "They're filling a void."

Meiko Wong doesn't strive to be a novelty. In fact, she prefers an androgynous look when at work: hair pulled tightly back, scrubbed face and tiny earrings.

"They think women wear a lot of perfume and makeup, and there is this idea that it will actually get in the food," Wong says with a bit of a giggle. "It is raw fish, so you have to be very clean and sanitary."

Wong was a server at Kobe's when her manager, Kenny Chin, needed an extra sushi chef. He noticed Wong was swift. He knew she wanted to become a doctor. Clean and hygienic, he thought to himself. He told a sushi chef at the Tampa location to begin teaching her. She learned to slice neta or raw fish, to add vinegar to the rice and place the seaweed onto the makisu, or bamboo mat.

She caught on quickly and began to add her own flair. Colorful presentations give her sushi an air of whimsy.

"It's supposed to be an adventure," Wong said. "That's what sushi is about."

But Wong admits it hasn't been an easy road.

"A lot of people coming to Kobe aren't Asian, so they don't know so much of the social taboo," Wong said. "But they know it's uncommon so they are surprised. ... It took me a while to be recognized."

Traditionalists point to a whole slew of reasons women should not be sushi chefs. Women have warmer body temperatures, so they could cook the sushi while handling it. Women also are considered bad luck when it comes to sushi.

"There remains this general sexism or patriarchal attitude that women don't have the samurai guts and skill to handle knives," Corson said.

Sushi has always been about more than fish. Like martial arts, it can take decades before a sushi chef is considered a master. It's as much a ritual as it is a dining experience.

There are those who would prefer to keep it that way.

Purists like chef Hiro Urasawa, for instance. It's about $250 for a sushi experience at the master chef's five-star Beverly Hills restaurant that bears a 90210 ZIP code.

"In Japan, women work in the house, not outside," said Urasawa, who is known to top his ikura caviar with a gold flake. "That is a woman's job in Japan."

He said he would never consider employing a female sushi chef.

But Tampa is not Beverly Hills. And Meiko Wong has a celebrity in the house on this recent Saturday night. Former light heavyweight boxing champ Antonio Tarver saunters to the sushi bar and plucks a menu after shaking hands with a few admirers along the way.

Wong looks up from her work and smiles graciously at the champ.

"I like it when I get to show off a little," she said after placing a bowl of baby octopus in front of hungry customers. "It's rewarding."

Nicole Hutcheson can be reached at nhutcheson@sptimes.com or 727893-8828.

Five things about sushi

-Sushi actually didn't begin in Japan but in China during the 7th century, where fermented rice was used to preserve fish. It was later adapted by the Japanese.

- Most think "sushi" means raw fish. Actually dishes made with raw fish are called "sashimi." Sushi is any dish made with vinegar rice, and may or may not be raw.

-The first sushi bar opened in the United States in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo in the late 1960s.

- Sushi-grade fish must be frozen for several hours before being served.

-Traditionally sushi is to be eaten with your hands, not chopsticks.

[Last modified September 4, 2007, 00:28:41]