You Can Still Eat A California Roll From The Chef Who Created It

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.

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 much more widely accepted in Canada and the U.S. But in the late 1960s and early 70, all three chefs felt compelled to remix the maki roll to appeal to casual Western connoisseurs unnerved by uncooked seafood. The California roll, also known as the "inside-out roll," hides the seaweed inside and adds rice on the outer layer. It usually also replaces the spicy tuna or raw fish ingredients with avocado, cucumber chunks and cooked imitation crab meat.

Chef Tojo has become such an institution that Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries appointed him a goodwill ambassador of Japanese cuisine in 2016. His restaurant peaked in popularity when he appeared on his friend Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show in 2008.

Some purists decry Chef Tojo's most famous creation as a knock off of traditional Japanese sushi. But growing up near the iconic food town Osaka, which is nicknamed the kitchen of Japan, gave Tojo a more liberal-minded approach to food. In 2017, he told Montecristo Magazine he opened his Vancouver restaurant in 1988 to try more experimental recipes.

"The sign says Tojo's. It doesn't say Tojo's Japanese Restaurant or Tojo's Sushi. If it says Tojo's Japanese Restaurant and then I make this," he explained, pointing to a table sign advertising a specialty roll made with quinoa instead of rice "someone says, 'Oh, that's not Japanese food.' I like more freedom. So – Tojo's."