Been a week since my last post. Crazy past one with the time change, full moon,world series,UT game, and lots of special events including one for the March of Dimes the past Sunday. Lots of good people out to support a great cause; it's my 6th year of participation. At the site i started thinking back on our first year when we made food on site for the event at the Four Seasons hotel. I went all out. We made 5 dishes, of various types and kinds...even had a couple of our waitstaff dressed in kimonos! It was a fine showing for a new resto trying to make it on the scene. Since then if i sampled what we made each year over the past 6, it would be a good barometer of where Uchi was standing in it's maturation process i'm sure. From popsicles the first year, to rabbit terrine and canary melon gazpacho with lobster the last! We've come a long way.
It also got me thinking of our sushi chefs. When we put the idea together of opening Uchi in 2002, it was just that.."an idea". Lots of details and work to put it all in motion, but probably the hardest hurdle to overcome in the beginning was how to find a staff of at least 5 sushi chefs to open the place. What a challenge! To start, i had one friend i had worked with before that was working in NYC at a place called Bond St....but was currently at Jewel Bako. I made him an offer to move back down to help me get Uchi open. His name is Michael Briones. He was sushi chef #1.
The next chef i found was a Japanese guy working here in town at Sushi Sake named Taka. I had worked with Taka in the past at Musashino.....and Japanese guys were very hard to find...so i made him an offer too....he took it and became sushi chef #2.
The third chef was another Japanese guy who was a friend of Taka's...but still living in Japan. He said he was ready to come over and work, but had zero sushi experience. I didn't care..i could train him. I got him a student visa to come over, which later became a work visa, and he has been with us ever since. His name is Saio Masazumi.
The 4th chef would come from a reference from a friend. A Korean kid with lots of heart, ready to learn, but also with no sushi experience. His name was Jonah Kim.
The 5th chef was a guy i had met locally working at Benihana making sushi name Jay Huang...i talked to him and made an offer, and he completed the team.
Needless to say, that first 18 months was hell. All of the chef's and i were working almost every day, 6 days a week, just trying to figure it all out. I was teaching,training,cleaning,cooking,cutting all of the fish, picking up all of the fish at the airport in my 88 suburban 3 times a week....and lived at the restaurant from 9am till midnight for a year. It was what had to be done, and i loved it. Never in a million years back then would i of dreamed Uchi would become what it is today, and for that sometimes i'm just speechless.
Thanks to everyone in Austin for making it all possible.
Current pic of Uchiko space. Michael Hsu has done such an amazing job on the redux of the building a lot of people think it's entirely new!
Just in 30 minutes ago; live scallops! We'll shuck these to order tonight and serve them as sashimi with lemon and sea salt. Simple is the best. 
This pic is one of our desserts items at Uchi: Peanut butter semifreddo w/ apple-miso sorbet. The original idea was to base a dessert on how great apples go with peanut butter. The "somewhat" frozen texture of the savory/salty/ sweet peanut butter custard together with the flavor of the sorbet is amazing! 
The sushi bar at Uchi, seated in front of Ishihara Yoshizo and Christian Camacho. Love this b&w photo; feels so Japanese gangster film noir. Oddly enough sometimes the seats at the sushi bar are the hardest to fill at the restaurant...even though just like any other sushi restaurant they are the best seats to sit in to enjoy the experience and eat the very best food/fish the place has to offer. One of my most favorite things is when we're in other cities is to go and check out Japanese restos and sit at their sushi bars. You never know what those chef's are hiding back there!
Picture taken by Mark Miks circa 05. Possible glossary photo or full page glossy. This shot was done with "film"; old school! The fish in the picture is called kohada/gizzard shad. One of my absolute fav fish to cure and eat.
Uchi cookbook progress: It's an idea i've been tossing around for the past few years, but it seems to be coming together as of late. Trying to lock down a publisher and iron out details on all the rest over the next couple months of this year. Hoping to have all dishes finalized, and recipes complete by then as well. Looking as much as possible to keep everything local; talent,writers,design,pics,etc. The pic to the side is one of the rolls i think we'll include called the "pitchfork". Stylistically, the book will be a "behind the scenes" at Uchi and all it's prep, and will try to purvey what it's really like to eat there and what makes us such a unique place overall. Foodwise the book will focus on Uchi's permanent menu featuring tastings and sushi, our seasonal specials that are changing daily, and quite a few desserts as well. Exciting!
Been a week since my last post. Crazy past one with the time change, full moon,world series,UT game, and lots of special events including one for the March of Dimes the past Sunday. Lots of good people out to support a great cause; it's my 6th year of participation. At the site i started thinking back on our first year when we made food on site for the event at the Four Seasons hotel. I went all out. We made 5 dishes, of various types and kinds...even had a couple of our waitstaff dressed in kimonos! It was a fine showing for a new resto trying to make it on the scene. Since then if i sampled what we made each year over the past 6, it would be a good barometer of where Uchi was standing in it's maturation process i'm sure. From popsicles the first year, to rabbit terrine and canary melon gazpacho with lobster the last! We've come a long way. 