Just a couple of decades ago, the mere concept of sushi would have been horrifying to many Americans. These days, you can pick up a spicy tuna roll along with your Cheerios at nearly any grocery store. One of the biggest proponents of the mainstreaming of this once-exotic cuisine has been Jeremy Umland, a seafood connoisseur and founder of Ozumo, a small California chain of Japanese restaurants that has been at the forefront of bringing uni, unagi and all things sushi to the masses.
“Sushi rolls have almost become a commodity. You can get them premade and refrigerated at Costco,” he says. “My wife used to bring them home twice a week, and the seaweed would get soggy and the rice would harden. I thought there was a great niche there for preparing fast and fresh sushi rolls.”
Last year he conceived a middle ground between his upscale restaurants and the mass-market sushi wilting at the supermarket. He came up with a quick-serve concept called u-sushi: Customers design their own rolls at the counter, then a kitchen full of automated machines helps cooks prepare them for takeout in just minutes.