Laurel Randolph wrote about the rise of sushi in the United States:

• The first known American sushi restaurant was opened in 1966 in California, by a Japanese man looking to spread his native culture.
• It became popular with Japanese businessmen who invited their western counterparts who took a liking to the dish.
• It was also the beginnings of the health food craze, and sushi began to draw the attention of movie stars, making the restaurant a Californian hot spot.
• In the 1970s the California roll was invented and this unleashed a wave of experimentation across the United States.
• Soon sushi included things like jalapenos, cream cheese, and steak. Some places, of course, tried deep frying sushi rolls.
• But there are concerns about the decline of quality sushi. Fewer sushi chefs are travelling to the United States from Japan – possibly as a result of the difficulties in obtaining a visa.
• While there have been several great non-Japanese sushi chefs, they were often well trained in special academies – something that is also becoming less common.

Read about the wider 1,700 year history of sushi, and more over here.

Source: Paste