The Story of Sushi: How a Fermented Dish Became a Global Fast Food

Sushi’s appearance in US grocery stores, usually coated in sauces and fried toppings, demonstrates how the once simple dish evolves as it globalizes. But sushi was a much different recipe 1,200 years ago when it was first mentioned in Japanese records. The likely derivation of “sushi” is “something sour” indicating that it was a fermented food, one that took months if not years to prepare. Sushi’s history can be measured by the various attempts to shorten its fermentation period to the point that nearly all sushi today is no longer fermented. Yet, in our global culinary world where everyone now craves umami, “ancient” fermented sushi holds new possibilities of flavor to enrich our understanding of the culinary past and offer new taste profiles for the future beyond what we might think possible for Japanese food.

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This event is a part of YCAPS' "Getting to Know Japan Series" co-sponsored by Japan Foundation, New York (JFNY).

Speaker:

Eric C. Rath is a professor of history at the University of Kansas where he teaches courses on food history and premodern Japan. A specialist in traditional Japanese foodways, his books include Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan (2010), Japan’s Cuisines: Food, Place and Identity (2016), and Oishii: The History of Sushi (2021). He is a member of the editorial collective of Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies and he is currently completing a history of sake.

Format: This event will be recorded and published in our web archive. Questions are encouraged during the live event.

Registration: Required Link

Moderator: Amani Kidd, Program Director of Getting to Know Japan

Webinar Cost: Free of charge

Co-sponsors: Japan Foundation, New York