All great things have to start somewhere, and many of the most popular cultural phenomena take root in hidden corners of the world before they grow into classics that sweep the globe. Oftentimes, when the early stages of a craze go undocumented, there's uncertainty about the humble beginnings and that shrouded piece of the storyline creates intrigue ..
. which brings us to the California roll. The modified Japanese sushi wrap has become wildly popular in the West, though there's debate about who actually created the beloved maki.
Some credit it to Ichiro Mashita, a sushi chef that worked in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo in the 1960s, while others say master sushi chef Ken Suesa invented it in a restaurant near Hollywood. But the man who's most widely regarded as originator of the California roll is Hidekazu Tojo, a legendary chef who still owns and operates his own self-named restaurant in Vancouver. Deferring to internet consensus that that's true, Tojo's is the only place in the world you can go to get sushi handmade by the man who created the California roll.
An ambassador on Japanese cuisine By all accounts, the California roll was invented out of necessity. Mashita, Suesa and Tojo purportedly tweaked the traditional makizushi roll, a Japanese wrap made with raw fish and seaweed. Sushi has become in Canada and the U.
S. But in the late 1960s and early 70, all three chefs felt compelled to remix the to appeal to casual Western connoisseurs unnerved by uncooked seafood. The Calif.
