Our guest today is Hajime Sato who is the chef/owner of Sozai near Detroit, Michigan. Hajime has been known for keenly pursuing sustainability, which is very challenging for a sushi chef, for the last 14 years.

His efforts have been widely recognized, and this year, Hajime became one of the five nominees for the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Chef Award. The James Beard Foundation Awards are often called the Academy Awards for culinary professionals, so you can tell how powerful Hajime’s voice is.

In this episode, we will discuss how Hajime came to the U.S. and became a sustainability-minded chef, how he manages to offer sustainable seafood at his Japanese restaurant Sozai, what unknown, delicious and sustainable seafood we should try, what we should do now for the future to keep enjoying seafood, and much, much more!!!

Photo courtesy of Rebecca Simonov.

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