Sushi Made Easy

I once read a quote by Matsushita - 'No matter how deep a study you make - what you really have to rely on is your own intuition and when it comes down to it, you don't really know what's going to happen until you do it'.

I am a foodie and I enjoy cooking. I don't profess to be talented at either pursuits but I love food which is a good start. I enjoy cooking classes because I learn better (and remember more) when I see it cooked before my very eyes. I've taken a number of cooking classes over the years and the experience varies depending on the teacher, the environment and cost. I've eaten a great deal of sushi and sashimi in my time so it was long overdue that I take a class and find a Japanese teacher. As fate would have it I met Reiko Hashimoto catering at a friend's party and instantly warmed to her and hey presto problem solved! I signed up for her next class.

Reiko's back story - she has been teaching Japanese cooking for over 12 years. Born in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, Reiko grew up in a traditional Japanese family with a food-fanatic mother. She started work as an air hostess based in Hong Kong, left the airline to make a career cooking and teaching Japanese cuisine to her foreign friends back in Japan. Reiko made  her way to London and established 'Hashi' to cater for Japanese dinner parties and following repeated requests from her guests, started to teach Japanese cooking.

The instant appeal of the class is that it's local - it's in Reiko's home in Wimbledon and the class size is small - maximum of seven. So last Saturday morning I found myself along with four strangers huddled around her kitchen, sitting around an island in front of a neat folder containing our class notes and sipping warm green tea. The format of the class is casual, it feels more like a chat amongst friends rather than a formal class which doesn't detract from Reiko's professionalism. She walks us through the basics including Japanese pantry staples such as dashi (stock), sushi rice, nori (seaweed sheets), wasabi, vinegar and miso paste for miso soup. Her mannerism is gentle and unassuming, it's obvious she's mastered not only the cooking aspect but the class instruction aspect. Believe me, I've witnessed great cooks fall short on instruction. The suppliers are local and she is more than happy to substitute sense for good ingredients that aren't strictly Japanese but do the job good enough - a practical woman who shops at Waitrose for certain products and saves money without compromising on quality where she can. I like her style.

You can tell she is passionate about her cooking as it reflects in her infectious enthusiasm. As we all start to relax, wash our hands and roll up our sleeves, she demonstrates effortlessly how to make sushi rice, emphasising the process required to make the perfect rice for the perfect sushi. In Reiko's words 'if you get the sushi rice right, you're very close to making the perfect sushi'. We get onto tamagoyaki egg omelette cooked in the cutest little rectangular pans. Again, perfection. Taste sensational. Onto sushi next and beautifully laid out ingredients, Reiko demonstrates how to roll. She could probably do it blindfolded. Armed with my mat and enthusiasm, I have a go and hey presto, roll one done. Not bad at all if I say so myself. The atmosphere is convivial and not at all intimidating. We laugh and comment on each other's efforts and of course, see who can roll the best looking one fastest. One of the guys won dammit. We move through nigiri onto sashimi. The freshest selection of tuna and salmon (the usual suspects) and sea bream and yellow tail, I've ever tasted. If raw fish is not your thing, vegetarian or cannivorous options are available. I'm hopeless around food especially when it is literally at my fingertips so I've been tasting 'samples' all morning and Reiko kindly nudges us to eat any imperfections (bless her Japanese aesthetics) before slicing our finished sushi rolls. Trick is to wipe the knife between slices with a damp cloth each time to achieve pristine clean slices.

Four hours for a cooking class seems like a long time but honestly it went really quickly and what I enjoyed most was that it seemed to be at the right pace with the right balance of dishes. I've been to some classes where you feel so rushed to catch up to the next dish that it doesn't feel like you're learning anything other than learning to catch up so Reiko has struck a fine balance. Everyone in the class I spoke to agreed as we sat down for lunch to share the fruits of our labour with some warm sake. I didn't leave the class a sushi-master aspiring to the kitchens of Nobu but I did leave with a warm heart, a wry smile and sushi confidence.

Have I made sushi since? Honestly, yes I have and will continue to do so as it's fun and sociable. I have the basics now in my kitchen pantry thanks to the sushi starter kit I got from the class and a couple of other items I've bought subsequently. It's fun and it's dead easy if you know how. I've also bought Reiko's book entitled 'Hashi' hot off the press (signed of course) and I'm going back for Gourmet classes in the New Year.

For further information on Reiko and her cooking classes or catering, visit www.hashicooking.co.uk.  Reiko's cookbook - 'Hashi- a Japanese Cookery Course' is out now.