Text/Thief Sudden

Natalie Portman, a famous Hollywood movie star, mentioned a trip to Japan in her speech at Harvard graduation ceremony:

She and her husband were invited to a sushi restaurant in Tokyo to taste sushi. The sushi was so delicious that even a vegetarian could not help eating it, but she found that there were only a few seats in the store. She is curious, since the sushi is so delicious and popular, why not follow the chain marketing model of McDonald's and KFC, expand the scale of operation and strive to expand.

Later, a friend living in Japan explained to her that the most well-known restaurants in Tokyo are small in scale, with only one storefront, and they only cook single dishes for decades. Because they want to do what they do to the extreme, the focus is not on operation, but on the pursuit of perfection and beauty.

My friend also explained to him emphatically that Japan is a country that advocates Taoism, and all walks of life can learn Taoism to the extreme. For example, flower Taoism, fragrant Taoism, tea ceremony and Taoism are the spirit of doing things to the extreme.

It is said that the sushi restaurant that Natalie Portman went to was Jiro Kikuwabashi, which was opened and operated by Jiro Ono. The humble small storefront hidden in the basement of the Tokyo office building has won the highest evaluation of the three stars in the Michelin Guide, a gourmet bible, for two consecutive years, and is regarded as a gourmet enjoyment experience worth waiting in line for a lifetime. Jiro Ono, who is over 9 years old, is the oldest Samsung chef in the world, known as the God of Sushi, and has a lofty position in the Japanese catering industry.

throughout his life, Jiro Ono has been studying and making sushi with all his heart, and always demands himself and his apprentices with the highest standards during his work.

He buys fish from the best fishmonger, shrimp from the best shrimp peddler and rice from the best rice peddler to ensure that all the ingredients are the freshest and highest quality. In an interview with the media, he said: ingredients are the soul of food, and there must be no negligence and will.

The bright red tuna is placed on the vinegar rice, and Jiro Ono holds the sushi in a ceremonial and refined way and presents it to customers. He observes customers very carefully, adjusts the size of sushi according to the difference in food intake between men and women, and even observes the left-handed habits of customers and adjusts the position of sushi.

In order to maximize the development and inheritance of his sushi-making skills, Jiro Ono will personally supervise all procedures, from the selection of ingredients, to the temperature of vinegar rice, to the length of pickled fish, to the techniques and intensity of octopus massage, and never neglect them.

Even to protect his sushi-making hands, Jiro Ono always wears white gloves when he is not working, even when he sleeps. This is also his understanding of the cooking industry: the gap in food is by no means the innovation in marketing gimmicks, but the perfection and perfection in cooking details.

According to a senior apprentice in a Jiro Ono store, it is generally believed that the rice used to make sushi is cold, but in fact it should be consistent with human body temperature, and it is the most delicious to cook it under great pressure. Every ingredient has the most delicious ideal moment, which needs to be grasped just right. The processing of shrimp and octopus takes longer. Octopus needs manual massage to make the meat more delicate and delicious, rather than rubbery. And all these secrets about cooking food are all due to the decades-long study of ingredients and cooking skills by Master Jiro Ono.

Jiro Ono said in an interview: You must love your job, and you must fall in love with your job. Even at this age, I feel that my cooking skills are still not perfect. Anyway, I will keep climbing and try to climb to the top, but no one knows where the top is.

A real craftsman has similar characteristics. They are extremely serious, meticulous in details, paranoid, opinionated, but full of enthusiasm. They are all perfectionists.

it is this almost paranoid idea of striving for perfection in work that has created a generation of masters.

As the Japanese writer Mison Yano described in "Keeping Craft", they are just like this, knowing the characteristics of materials, honing their own skills and making good things. This is their life itself and their philosophy of life.

A person with craftsman spirit is permeated with the idea of Excellence all the time in his mind and personality, and his behavior and temperament will be influenced by it all his life.

it is a temperament of striving for perfection, which is the safety and certainty after getting rid of impetuousness and eagerness for success, and the release and persistence after giving up the utilitarian heart.

This kind of temperament will make him get the greatest satisfaction from his work. The happy mood and satisfaction caused by the successful completion of a job or a perfect work can never be compared and replaced by other sensory enjoyment.

the heart is in one art, and its art must work; If you are in one position, you must do your job.

If a person can devote his whole life's time and energy, enthusiasm and patience, persistence and exploration, and try his best to make his work perfect and extreme, then no matter which field he chooses or what kind of work he is engaged in, he will eventually achieve good results.