Niki Nakayama’s Otsukuri Recipe: Traditional Tuna Sashimi

Niki Nakayama is the world-renowned chef, culinary personality, and owner of the award-winning Los Angeles restaurant n/naka. In 1997, she took on a formal apprenticeship in kaiseki under Chef Masa Sato in Japan. The decision to do so set her on a path that would revolutionize the culinary world’s understanding of Japanese food and seasonal cooking.

Otsukuri is another word for sliced raw fish, a fundamental element of Japanese cuisine. Otsukuri means “cutting”; this speaks to the importance of how you slice the fish.

“Cutting is one of the most important techniques to master, so that we always do right by the ingredients.” — Niki Nakayama

Selecting the right kind of fish, cutting it, and presenting it are all skills that professional Japanese chefs must be able to demonstrate. Luckily, Niki has some pointers on how to prepare and serve your own otsukuri.

“Otsukuri” and “sashimi” are two different words for the same thing: thinly sliced raw fish. However, they come from different Japanese dialects. Although both words originated in the Kansai region of Japan, by the late Edo period, the Kansai dialect adopted “otsukuri,” and the Kanto dialect favored “sashimi.”

Maguro (tuna) is the most prized and commonly eaten fish in Japan, beloved for its flavor and the celebratory coloring of its red meat, Niki says. The most important commercial tuna species are:

1. 1. Albacore (Thunnus alalunga): Albacore has the lightest flesh of all the tuna species, ranging from light beige to brown. Albacore flesh is mild and rich but less firm than Bluefin and Yellowfin. Try it in Niki’s grilled tuna recipe.
2. 2. Bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus): The largest of all commercially available species of tuna (averaging 200–400 pounds), Bluefin tuna are top predators, making them important to the marine ecosystem. Its flesh is the darkest and fattiest (15 percent) among tuna varieties, making Bluefin highly prized commercially. Indeed, the Pacific bluefin tuna is so highly sought-after that a single fish can fetch millions of dollars at Tokyo’s famed Toyosu Fish Market auction. Scarcity is a factor, too. Bluefin is subject to overfishing, and there are catch limits in place to help restore the population.
3. 3. Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares): Also known as ahi tuna, Yellowfin gets its name from its long yellow dorsal fin along its side. Considered more flavorful than albacore, it’s leaner than Bluefin.

The two categories of meat from the tuna are the fatty toro (which means “to melt”) and the lean akami (“red meat”). These come from different sections of the tuna.

1. 1. Akami: The back of the fish (where its spine runs) yields akami. The back loins are known as se; the loins are further divided into three main sections. Seshimo is near the tail; since it’s what the fish uses the most to swim, this part has the least amount of fat and is the lowest-quality akami (not used for sushi and sashimi but good for other preparations). Senaka is the center of the upper loin (the best of the akami).
2. 2. Toro: The belly loins, or hara, are the fattiest part of the tuna, which are also divided into three main sections: Harashimo is near the tail; haranaka is the center, where fatty chu-toro is; and harakami is closer to the head, where you’ll find o-toro, the extra-fatty meat.

Otsukuri is all about the way you cut the fish and accompanying vegetables. Every sushi chef must learn these six essential knife skills:

1. 1. Katsuramuki: Niki uses this rotary cutting technique to peel vegetables in preparation for garnish. She uses an usuba knife, which has a very thin, straight blade used specifically for this cut. To make this cut, hold the knife in your cutting hand and the vegetable in the other. Set the edge of the blade against the ingredient lengthwise. Slightly angle the blade. Use your thumb to guide the knife as you turn the ingredient in the opposite hand. Move the knife back and forth gently while turning the vegetable. The tendency is to push too hard with either or both hands, but you should be moving lightly. The angle of the knife will determine the thickness of the resulting sheet.
2. 2. Ken: Ken is the Japanese word for “julienne.” Use this cutting technique to slice vegetables, such as daikon or carrot, into fine one-sixteenth-inch slices.
3. 3. Koguchigiri: Also known as an edge cut, this technique involves cutting straight, thin slices, using the knuckles of your non-cutting hand to guide the blade. Use it to slice vegetables such as scallion or radish.
4. 4. Matsu-giri: Matsu-giri (“pine cut”) gives long vegetables like cucumber the appearance of a pine tree. To cut a cucumber using matsu-giri, trim the ends and sides of the cucumber, make several thin, lengthwise cuts, then hold the blade at a forty-five-degree angle to make partial slices in the outer skin of the cucumber. Finally, fan out the cuts to resemble a branch with pine needles.
5. 5. Hirazukuri: Hirazukuri is a cutting technique for slightly thicker pieces of sashimi (thicker than usuzukuri, which are fine slices), used for fattier fish such as tuna. To make a hirazukrui cut, hold the knife perpendicular to the fish and slice at a forty-five-degree angle.
6. 6. Rosette: Rosettes present sashimi in a unique way. It involves slicing raw fish into several thin pieces, slightly overlapping them, then using chopsticks to roll them into a shape resembling a rose. To make a rosette from tuna, slice the tuna very thinly at a slight angle—hold the blade of the knife at about a forty-five-degree angle. Cut twenty slices and arrange them in four lines on your cutting board by slightly overlapping five slices vertically for each rosette, with the short ends of the slices facing you. Use chopsticks to roll the slices and form a rosette.

Take it from a pro. Here are four tips from Chef Niki Makayama to consider when preparing otsukuri:

1. 1. Fresh wasabi root tastes best. If you can’t find fresh wasabi root, prepared wasabi paste is available at Japanese markets and select grocery stores. Rather than mixing the wasabi with the soy sauce, dab a little wasabi on your sashimi with your chopsticks, then dip the fish with wasabi into the soy sauce.
2. 2. Add life with your plating technique. The emphasis on the plating of the otsukuri course rests firmly on beauty, but it also conveys a sense of being alive. There should be a movement to it, Niki says. “Yama-tani-kawa!” She heard that phrase repeatedly from one of the chefs she worked with in Japan. It means “mountain valley river,” a reference to the different heights that the components on the plate should create.
3. 3. Use the entire knife blade. In Japanese cooking, you don’t rock the knife back and forth against the cutting board. Slice through the vegetable, using the whole blade from the front of the knife toward the back, pulling it toward you. Then lift the knife to slice again.
4. 4. Refrigerate the tuna until you are ready to use it. “You’ll find with Japanese cooking,” Niki says, “very little is ever served at room temperature. If it’s supposed to be hot, it’s going to be hot. If it’s supposed to be cold, it’s going to be very cold.”
5. 5. The best way to shop for fish is by talking with your local fishmonger. You want fresh, sashimi-grade tuna from a reputable seafood market or fish counter. The best seafood sellers will offer the whole loin, but Japanese markets also carry small fillets or tuna steaks for sashimi. Fresh tuna should be firm with a deep red color. (If this color is too bright and vibrant, Niki warns, it could mean the seller used artificial color. Make sure to ask where and when the supplier caught the tuna.) Albacore tuna also should be firm but with a paler color.