Sushi with Chef Joseph Poon

As a gift, I enrolled myself and my man in Chef Joseph Poon’s sushi class. I’ve never taken a cooking class, so didn’t know what to expect.

Just by chance, I happened to see Chef Poon on the local morning news show the very day of my class. He’s a bit of a celebrity chef and has been dubbed the unofficial ambassador of China Town. He’s also very involved in community charity. He is cute and very energetic.

After spending an evening with him, lets just say that energetic is an understatement. This man is incredible, and not in an annoying way. He is full of life, jokes and smiles. He is genuinely driven and happy. I cannot gush enough about his personality.

There were about ten people in the sushi class. We all gathered around a long table in his restaurant and followed his directions while drinking and laughing. His teaching style involved many jokes, animated demonstrations, and running back and forth to the kitchen to fetch us beer and wine.

He playfully reprimanded us by saying, “I kill you,” if we did anything wrong. Trust me, he can get away with it. He also liked to remind us not to squeeze the rice, but wait till later for “hanky panky” and squeeze our “honey” at home. Cheesy. But, again, he can get away with it.

There’s no skimping on ingredients or his giving of himself. Before we knew it, we had assembled an ungodly amount of sushi to take home. We weren’t eating the sushi –a meal would await us after the lesson and a quick walking tour of a few locales in China Town.

Chef Poon and his restaurant will accommodate any food request you may have. His kitchen prepared me a vegetarian dinner.

As we ate dessert, he continued to share his knowledge. He demonstrated candy pulling and simple food sculpting.

Laughter abounded, wine was spilled, and knives were wielded as we learned sushi secrets and dined.

I can’t recommend enough giving the gift of Chef Poon to yourself or someone else. It was the most entertaining, fun and enjoyable class that I’ve ever taken, and it’s all because of Chef Poon. If you don’t take one of his classes, “I kill you.”

Gushing over.