Customer Reviews

Stop Chop and Roll ...Sushi Made Simple [VHS]

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The dynamic sushi maker on the front of this video is masking its home-video quality and general non-professionalism. This could be made by anyone with a camcorder, the footage of actual sushi restauarants is brief and has been given a strange effect, and they are blurry on their direction--some of this info is for the idiot (often American names for food that a knowledgeable chef would not likely use) and other info assumes way too much from a beginner. Make your own video, pretend your mildly interested in the subject matter and sell it yourself. It obviously can be done.

After years of attempting to make sushi that stuck together while i ate, I have finally learned some of the secrets to the art through this enjoyable video. The first half of the video shows the essential ingredients and techniques to making sushi and explains the finer details logically and concisely. I learned how to make at least five different types of rolls, the equipment I would need, and the timing. The second half of the video artfully shows some excellent sushi chefs preparing beautiful and mouthwatering dishes to a great soundtrack. Overall, Gerard has taken the mystery out of sushi and shows the world how to prepare it with flair and style.

After viewing "Stop Chop And Roll," it became obvious that this is not sushi made simple. In fact, most of this video is helpful for a veteran home sushi maker who has made many maki rolls, formed many nigiri and is looking for new ideas and a new challenges in sushi making. For a beginner, this video leaves many crucial sticking points out. In fact, this video skips right to the California reverse roll (rice on the outside), which is a little more complex than the simple and favorite tuna roll, or tekka maki (nori on the outside). Throughout the video there is little explanation and the student is basically left to learn by watching renown sushi chefs do their specialties. There is no time spent on how to actually roll maki, which has taken me some time to do correctly, and is not entirely simple.

But for the experienced, this video will be helpful in recreating some of the specialty rolls one has at the sushi bar. It shows the making of the Catapillar Roll, Philadelphia Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll, Hand Rolls, Eel (but unfortunately does not tell you what eel sauce is composed of), and a couple variations on maki.

The sushi in this video is not the only work of art, the video itself attempts to also have an 'artistic' bent in the way it was filmed and edited. Personally, I just wanted to see the sushi being made, and could leave the often distracting camera effects and far-too-close-in cinematography, which happens in the last 5 minutes as we attempt to watch a master sushi chef at work. Unfortunately due to the director's use of cheap video camera tricks, this portion is hard to watch.