Wasabi forever!

>> Excitable sushi maestro's fascinating world of fresh fish and cooked rice

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Josh Fox

Age: 30

Occupation: Mobile Sushi Caterer/Performance Chef

Salary: about $30,000.

Bio: This Snowdon resident and huge Marty Feldman fan can take his mobile catering company, Genki Sushi, just about anywhere and set up a live sushi bar. A vegetarian, and rumoured to be one damn animated chef when he is "in the zone," Josh has been cooking since he was eight years old and considers his catering business to be "50 per cent food and 50 per cent entertainment." Inspired by television's singing cook Pasquale, Josh can and will talk about the glory of rice long after he has been begged to stop.

On his performance schtick: "It's not like I'm doing theatre exactly but when I'm cooking it's definitely a show. My sushi table becomes the centre of every party. Basically, I'm just an incredibly hyper, animated, entertaining type of guy so when I'm sitting there with a party full of people salivating over the front of my table just waiting to taste the next groovy thing I've made, I'm, like, in the zone. And when I'm in the zone, it's a performance. I dance, I sing, I light shit on fire, I tell jokes, I play with sharp knives, I really get in to it."

Where he picked up his exceptional cooking techniques: "I have had many mentors. Basically I'm like a sponge. I'll get tips on cooking from the hotdog vendor up the street if I think he's got good tricks."

On rice: "As long as you have the rice, you could put Spam on it and still call it sushi. My mentor made me prepare at least 50 pounds of rice before allowing me to serve any of it. Rice is more than a big deal, it is everything. There are so many variables in preparing rice and you have to adjust to all of them. People freak when they see my rice because they've never seen anything like it. The grains are so small, it's like barley. And it's so fluffy."

Are ladies always trying to bed the sushi chef? "Oh yeah. As a chef you become a magnet for this sort of thing. People hit on me left, right and centre. A chef is like a celebrity. When you're eating in a restaurant and the chef comes over to your table you feel special. There's something glamorous about a chef that people want to be close to. A chef is a lot like a rock star."

On how to tell if a fish is fresh: "You've got to look it in the eyes and if they're cloudy, then it's not fresh. If it smells like fish, don't buy it. Listen, there is a lot to know about fish."

Favourite TV show: The Iron Chef.

Current ambition: To star in his own TV cooking show. "The format is going to be, like, very gonzo reality TV cooking, basically."

Something he does for fun: Josh enjoys breeding invertebrates and designing jewelry.

Musical preferences: Curved Air, Red Crayola, old "fonk" like Sly and the Family Stone.

Favourite film: Yellowbeard, Marty Feldman's last film.

Last book read: Dr. Dolittle. "For me, not for my kids."

Words of wisdom: "Find something that you would do for free and find a way to make the world pay you for it." :

Comments? dimwit@openface.ca