Dedication To Sushi Tradition

An iron law of sushi holds that the more impressive the restaurant, the smaller the sign.

- Pete Wells

Take the block of cedar next to a metal door on New York's East 41st Street. About the size and shape of a reporter's notebook, the wood is carved with Japanese characters that are translated on an even smaller sign that sits just below, like a subtitle: Sushi Sho.

You could walk past and never guess that on the other side of the door, one of the most influential sushi masters in the world, Keiji Nakazawa, has been at work since March, when the restaurant opened to very little fanfare.

Chef Nakazawa also runs three sushi counters in Tokyo and another Sushi Sho in Honolulu, each harder to book than the last. He has also trained about 30 chefs who carry on his style at their own restaurants in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and Los Angeles.

One thing the small sign might lead you to suspect is that the experience inside will not come cheap. A rapidly alternating succession of appetizers and nigiri at Sushi Sho's five-sided cypress counter costs US$450 (S$600), service included.

You could stop there, but few customers do. Most go on to order at least a few items from the okonomi menu, like smooth and creamy monkfish liver with a shaving of pickled watermelon that was harvested when it was no bigger than a mango. These supplemental dishes run from US$10 for a roll made with apples dried and seasoned in the style of kanpyo to US$50 for red sea urchin.

The more dishes you taste, the clearer it becomes that chef Nakazawa is extraordinarily accomplished in his craft. He is, in fact, the latest in a wave of Japanese sushi masters, including Tadashi Yoshida of Yoshino and Shion Uino of 69 Leonard Street, who have helped to make New York the most important sushi city in the world outside Japan.