"All I ever wanted to do was attend culinary school and open my own restaurant, so at a very early age my parents helped me open a tiny upscale sandwich bistro and catering business in our small university town. It was my playground, I experimented with everything and loved it. Then one day a client told me he wanted to rent out the restaurant for a night and treat his office staff to sushi because there was nothing like that around there. I just nodded and said, ‘Yeah, you’re so right! That’s a great idea!’ And then, as soon as he left, I’m looking around and saying, ‘Oh my god, what is sushi?’ I had no idea. I guess when you’re young, you feel invincible. So I went to the library, checked out probably 35 books on Japanese cuisine, and read them cover to cover. Luckily, the tiny Asian store in town had sushi rice, vinegar, and seaweed, but the books suggested all these other crazy ingredients I had no way of getting my hands on. So I said, ‘Okay, this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to smoke some salmon, use catfish, crawfish, shrimp, pickled okra, and whatever else is local, and I’m just going to invent my own sushi. We’re going to make it through this party and we’re not going to kill anybody by using raw stuff. It will be fun, and that will be that.
"Well, word got out around town, and it wasn’t long before sushi was on our regular menu. I made it with whatever I could get, so it wasn't traditional, but people loved it. Then one day a guy called in to reserve a table for twelve. Our team got everything together, and then in walks this American guy, followed by 11 Japanese men who were in the country to help get a Toyota plant started. I flipped out. I looked at my employees, said, ‘I’ll be back in a second’, reached over and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels, ran to the bathroom, and locked myself in.’ I said, ‘I’m not coming out. I’m not coming out of the bathroom. This is it. Never again.’ The employees started knocking on the door and saying, ‘Marisa, you have to come out! They’ve ordered so much stuff; we have to get this order ready!’ They had to threaten to call my parents to get me out of there. I was on the verge of tears, but the Japanese group seemed to really like everything we served. I think they got a kick out of it because here was this little place out in the middle of nowhere serving sushi. They took pictures of everything and they ate it all. At the end of the night I made a vow to myself. I said, ‘Never again do I want to feel that I have to hide from somebody because I don’t know what I’m doing.’ I started doing research and found a school in California where I could learn to become a professional sushi chef. Everybody thought I was crazy, but I went anyway, and a few months later, I became the first African-American woman to graduate from the school.
"I've been in Memphis for 13 years now, specializing in teaching in-home sushi classes, doing demonstrations and talks about sushi, and making sushi for events. I’m kind of a traveling sushi chef. Because I embraced Judaism a few years ago, I also do a lot of events in the Jewish community. And I’ve written two sushi cookbooks.
"If you were to talk to my parents, I think they would say that I’ve always been kind of ‘out there.’ That’s pretty much the story of my life. I get really interested in something and it haunts me to the point where I have to find out all about it; I have to do it. If I don’t, it just keeps popping up everywhere."
"Well, word got out around town, and it wasn’t long before sushi was on our regular menu. I made it with whatever I could get, so it wasn't traditional, but people loved it. Then one day a guy called in to reserve a table for twelve. Our team got everything together, and then in walks this American guy, followed by 11 Japanese men who were in the country to help get a Toyota plant started. I flipped out. I looked at my employees, said, ‘I’ll be back in a second’, reached over and grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels, ran to the bathroom, and locked myself in.’ I said, ‘I’m not coming out. I’m not coming out of the bathroom. This is it. Never again.’ The employees started knocking on the door and saying, ‘Marisa, you have to come out! They’ve ordered so much stuff; we have to get this order ready!’ They had to threaten to call my parents to get me out of there. I was on the verge of tears, but the Japanese group seemed to really like everything we served. I think they got a kick out of it because here was this little place out in the middle of nowhere serving sushi. They took pictures of everything and they ate it all. At the end of the night I made a vow to myself. I said, ‘Never again do I want to feel that I have to hide from somebody because I don’t know what I’m doing.’ I started doing research and found a school in California where I could learn to become a professional sushi chef. Everybody thought I was crazy, but I went anyway, and a few months later, I became the first African-American woman to graduate from the school.
"I've been in Memphis for 13 years now, specializing in teaching in-home sushi classes, doing demonstrations and talks about sushi, and making sushi for events. I’m kind of a traveling sushi chef. Because I embraced Judaism a few years ago, I also do a lot of events in the Jewish community. And I’ve written two sushi cookbooks.
"If you were to talk to my parents, I think they would say that I’ve always been kind of ‘out there.’ That’s pretty much the story of my life. I get really interested in something and it haunts me to the point where I have to find out all about it; I have to do it. If I don’t, it just keeps popping up everywhere."
Marisa will be signing copies of her latest book, Vegetarian Sushi Secrets, at 6:30 pm, Tuesday, October 25, at the Booksellers of Laurelwood, 387 Perkins Rd Ext. Click HERE for more info.
Book cover photo (above) and food photos (below) courtesy of Marisa Baggett
Marisa Baggett, Sushi Chef
- Website: http://www.marisabaggett.com/
- Email: [email protected]
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