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Michigan chef who won James Beard Award closes sushi restaurant
Michigan chef who won James Beard Award closes sushi restaurant

CBS News

time28-04-2025

  • Business
  • CBS News

Michigan chef who won James Beard Award closes sushi restaurant

A Michigan chef and restaurant owner who won a 2024 James Beard Award announced that his business is closing. Chef Hajume Sato, who owned Sozai in Clawson, announced the closure on social media Sunday, saying, "It is clear that the best thing for my family is for us to return to the Pacific Northwest." "It will be extremely difficult to leave Sozai behind. I put everything I had into building something special for my customers and to further my work as a sustainable seafood advocate," Sato said in the statement. "Thank you to everyone who has shared wonderful times with me at Sozai. I will cherish those memories. My sincerest hope is that you will continue to try new things." In 2024, Sato won the Best Chef: Great Lakes award, making him the first sushi chef to win a regional Best Chef award. He competed against other chefs from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. Sato first opened a restaurant in Seattle 30 years ago, but opened Sozai in 2019 after he and his wife relocated to Metro Detroit so his wife could receive cancer treatment. During his acceptance speech, Sato admitted he didn't know much about the James Beard Awards until a few years ago. When his wife called to tell him he had been nominated, he said, "Ah, that's for the fancy chefs, you know. I'm not it." "I'm one of those guys. Can I make the sushi rice a little better today than yesterday? Can I make an impact on one person's life when I serve sushi? That's who I am," Sato said.

Award-winning Sozai restaurant in Clawson shutters
Award-winning Sozai restaurant in Clawson shutters

Yahoo

time28-04-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

Award-winning Sozai restaurant in Clawson shutters

A notable, small and award-winning sushi restaurant centered on sustainable seafood has permanently closed. Sozai in Clawson's last day of service was Saturday, according to their website. Owner and chef Hajime Sato, reached via email Sunday evening, directed the Free Press to his Instagram and Facebook pages for a statement. The post said that he and his family are returning to the Pacific Northwest. 'After an extended period of reflection, it is clear that the best thing my family is for us to return to the Pacific Northwest,' the post read. Sato, in his social media messages, said it will be 'extremely difficult' to leave Sozai. 'I put everything I had into building something special for my customers and to further my work as a sustainable seafood advocate,' the post read. In 2021, Sato opened the small, 13-seat sushi bar in a W. 14 Mile strip mall. Sato is known for being a steadfast leader and advocate for sustainable sushi, seafood and place of origin fishery movement. Soon after its 2021 opening, Sozai quickly earned accolades and acclaim. Sozai was named the 2022 Detroit Free Pres Restaurant of the Year by Free Press restaurant critic Lyndsay C. Green. The sustainable seafood spot was also named to Bon Appétit's 50 Best New Restaurants 2022 list. Before opening Sozai in 2021, Sato who grew up in Japan, had a restaurant in Seattle for more than 25 years. Related: Clawson sushi chef Hajime Sato wins coveted James Beard Award: Best Chef Great Lakes Grateful for the win, Sato told the Free Press at the time, because it gave him a platform to speak out on ocean sustainability. He delivered that sustainability message during his James Beard Award speach in 2024 and encouraged others to do the same. In accepting his award, Sato's speech included his messages about how James Beard nominations allowed him to speak out on concerns with sustainability and the risks of overfishing. "But something changed after James Beard … people started listening to me. I've been doing ocean conservation and sustainable sushi for 15 years," Sato said. "Oceans (are) not in good shape. As you know, Earth is not in good shape. And a small restaurant like me cannot really do that much. But everybody here … nominations, winners, everybody, now you have a voice, just like I didn't have a voice, but because of James Beard, you have a little bit more voice." It was the second time that Sato was a James Beard finalist. He landed a spot in the 2023 James Beard Foundation Awards category for Outstanding Chef. Sato's win was the first time a Michigan chef earned the honored in the Best Chef category since 2011, according to the James Beard Award website, when Alex Young, formerly of Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor, was honored as Best Chef Great Lakes. In 2003, chef Takashi Yagihashi of the former Tribute restaurant in Farmington Hills took home the award for Best Chef: Midwest. Chef Jimmy Schmidt in 1993, then owner of the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit, was named Best Chef: Midwest. At the 2022 Restaurant and Chef Awards, Warda Bouguettaya, owner of Midtown's Warda Pâtisserie, won the title of Outstanding Pastry Chef. Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@ Follow @SusanMariecooks on Twitter. Subscribe to the Free Press. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Award-winning sushi chef Hajime Sato closes Sozai in Clawson

Metro Detroit's best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways
Metro Detroit's best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways

Yahoo

time30-03-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Metro Detroit's best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways

Imagine what your favorite restaurant might look like without immigrant workers. If the snap of your fingers vanished each foreign-born employee, what would you see? An eerily empty kitchen. Water left running by the dishwasher who spontaneously left his post. A shattered bottle dropped from the hands of the sommelier who disappeared while pouring your glass of Chardonnay and reservation pages flipped from the breeze that swept away the maître d'. Without the immigrant restaurant operators who share their culture with us through the language of food, we might have to travel thousands of miles for a taste of Filipino breads. We'd be without the first-generation Haitian Americans bringing heat to dishes with pikliz, a spicy pickled slaw. Some will not have to use their imagination to envision the impact the loss of immigrants would have on the restaurant industry, because on Feb. 3, roughly 100 businesses across southeast Michigan participated in a Day Without Immigrants. Dozens of restaurants closed their doors and immigrant workers took the day off in protest of the federal government's hardline stance on immigration. It was the second protest of its kind, following a Day Without Immigrants in 2017 during President Donald Trump's first term. The impact of losing immigrant culinarians is immense. What we gain from them is paramount to the depth of our food system. Metro Detroiters are proud to be a part of a melting pot of cultures and flavors. There's a delight in our proximity to Canada and its exports like poutine. Our palates have been refined by the Levantine flavors of Dearborn and Yemeni and Bangladeshi staples in Hamtramck. We've become fluent in the language of tacos from lessons in Mexicantown, and can distinguish the intricacies of noodle varieties across Asian traditions. And then there's the coney. The very dish that represents Detroit on a national stage was brought to the city by a Greek immigrant. The restaurants that have shone a spotlight on Detroit and contributed to the city's reputation for a flourishing food scene are largely operated by immigrant chef-owners. In 2003, the Japanese chef Takashi Yagihashi was the first metro Detroiter to take home a James Beard Foundation Award in nearly 20 years. Algerian pastry chef Warda Bouguettaya would be the next, almost 20 years later, followed by Japanese chef Hajime Sato of Sozai in 2024. Our own programs, the Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Restaurant of the Year and Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences list, are consistently topped with immigrant-led establishments and restaurants inspired by ethnic cuisines. In 2022, Baobab Fare took the No.1 spot. The East African restaurant is run by Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, the husband-and-wife duo who fled Burundi and sought asylum in Detroit. Last year, Noori Pocha, the Korean gastropub slinging Korean fried chicken in Clawson came in at No. 2 and Alpino, with its dairy-forward menu inspired by The Alps, was named Restaurant of the Year., My friend and predecessor as Free Press restaurant critic Mark Kurlyandchik wrote about the immigrant community's significance to metro Detroit's food industry in 2020. 'So many of us were immigrants at some point along the way — and it's our beautiful cultural tapestry that makes America great,' he wrote. 'Let's celebrate it.' Five years later, we're still celebrating. Tomorrow, March 31, we will begin unveiling the 2025 Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences, culminating with the Restaurant of the Year on Wednesday, April 2. Of the 12 establishments being recognized, at least half are led by culinary artists who come from immigrant families. They cook with passion and generosity, each dish an act of hospitality for diners to fall in love, not only with their food, but their heritage. Additionally, what makes our food scene so bountiful is its diversity. It's the camaraderie between the Latin American restaurant and the Southeast Asian farmer growing its cabbage, the Caribbean restaurant and the retro diner that bring varying options to a single neighborhood. While diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are also subject to the White House's chainsaw, our list honors diversity in leadership, format, price point and cuisine. The 2025 class of honorees is largely comprised of minority-operated food businesses. They're run by women, LGBTQ+ food professionals and Black and brown cooks. The list is a reflection of metro Detroit's wonderfully diverse food scene and the country's food scene at large. It represents what's always made America great. Stay tuned for the reveal of this year's Top 10 starting Monday, March 31. For a chance to win five $100 gift cards to dine at restaurants on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list, visit Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for extras and insider scoops on Detroit-area dining. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways

Flashback: 2022 Restaurant of the Year stood out with stellar, sustainable sushi
Flashback: 2022 Restaurant of the Year stood out with stellar, sustainable sushi

Yahoo

time28-03-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Flashback: 2022 Restaurant of the Year stood out with stellar, sustainable sushi

Originally published Feb. 11, 2022. The Free Press will reveal its 2025 Restaurant of the Year and Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences next week. In the meantime, here's a look at a past Restaurant of the Year, Sozai in Clawson. Sozai Chef Hajime Soto would go on to win the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef in 2024. It's 4:59 p.m. and I have arrived for my reservation at Sozai, an unassuming sushi bar in a Clawson strip mall. When I called to make the reservation a few days earlier, a friendly voice penciled me in for the first seating of the night, 5:03 p.m. I'd imagined the three-minute oddity was just a formality. A nod to a Shinto teaching or some mystical Japanese proverb. Surely, I would arrive at 5:00 p.m. and no sooner would a server be setting down my glass of water — no ice and a slice of lemon. Instead, the doors are locked and with tinted windows and bamboo paneling, it's hard to tell whether there is a trace of life in the space. At 5:03 p.m. a shadow approaches the entrance. I hear the clank of the door unlocking and take that as my cue. As I cross the threshold, I'm greeted by a smiling host whose friendly voice I recognize from days before. Turns out, the only symbolism in Sozai's opening time is its likeness to the playful and rebellious chef at the helm. 5:03 p.m. is plainly Hajime Sato's middle finger to conventional wisdom and industry standards. Sato's defiance of the status quo is as evident in Sozai's hours of operation as it is in the restaurant's overall mission and commitment to sustainability. He challenges diners to consider why restaurant hours should begin and end in double zeros in the same way that he calls you to question how your eating habits contribute to the world's growing population of endangered aquatic species. If you enjoy delicacies at seafood-centric restaurants, there's a chance you play a role in the consumption of unethically sourced ingredients. Sato wants to talk about that. Sato fosters a conversational dining experience even before you step foot into the restaurant. Rather than using ubiquitous, third-party, online booking services, the restaurant only accepts reservations by phone within business hours. This offers the opportunity to share dietary restrictions and aversions, and to ask questions about omakase, the tasting menu experience available at the sushi bar. The five-tier omakase menu ranges from six to 10 courses and culminates with a kappo offering, a formal, hours-long feast of sushi dishes at the complete discretion of the chef. There is an a la carte option, a world of sushi and sashimi, nigiri and makimono. There are small plates where bright green edamame are covered in a veil of shiitake salt. And poke bowls that are so wonderfully rich and layered in texture and flavor. One mouthful of Sato's take on the Hawaiian dish teeming with hunks of mild sashimi saturated in a sweet, umami soy-ginger bath, offers a lesson in varying levels of crunch — a soft crunch from shavings of buttery macadamia nuts and crisp, chopped cucumbers; the snap of slippery slivers of seaweed; the pop of tiny sesame seeds. Past booking your reservation by phone, the omakase sushi bar is where the conversation continues. The 13-seat sushi bar, where the only element separating diners from Sato and sushi chef Brian Agacinski is a strip of blond wood reclaimed from local abandoned homes, is the heart of Sozai. It's the place where you'll sink your teeth into sweet, plump scallops and if you ask, it's the place you'll learn about the origin of those scallops and the sustainable fishery Sato worked diligently with to bring to your plate. Since the 1970s, the country has seen an uptick in its appetite for seafood, a trend that is consistent across the globe. The increase in the global consumption of fish and other aquatic species has led to overfishing, what occurs when fish stocks are fished to the point of depletion. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2017, more than 34% of the fish stocks of the world's marine fisheries were classified as overfished. Additionally, since 1974, the percentage of fish stocks that are within biologically sustainable levels has decreased by nearly 25%. Sushi restaurants, centered on the use of fish and various forms of seafood, risk contributing to the oceanic crisis if they don't begin to honor sustainable fishing practices. In many cases, sushi restaurants offer menu items featuring bluefin tuna, for example, a species as endangered as the giant panda. In metro Detroit, Sato is poised to become a pioneer of the sustainable sushi movement. Sato is inherently inquisitive. He remembers genuinely questioning why his father would yell at the television during sporting events — 'why yell if they can't hear you?' he recalls asking — and carried a curious spirit into the early years of his career. As a young apprentice of an established sushi chef in his native Japan, Sato sought after the reasoning behind Japanese cooking techniques and common kitchen practices, quickly learning that head chefs didn't take kindly to his questioning of authority. His superiors attributed most practices to matters of tradition and in profoundly abusive environments, Sato was careful not to prod further. In his own teaching roles, though, he questioned everything. Sato's findings illuminated the ways in which traditional sushi methods contributed to the extinction of oceanic species. Bluefin tuna, unagi (freshwater eel) and Hamachi (Japanese yellowtail), are all common ingredients in sushi dishes and at the time, they were even ingredients Sato used in the kitchens where he worked. He soon learned they were also vulnerable species at risk of overfishing. 'You really have to study each fish, which is almost impossible for most people,' Sato says. 'And that's why I'm a little crazy.' Sato has always gone against the grain. Growing up in Japan, he was the boy who was far more interested in the arts than he was in the law or engineering fields his parents had in mind for him. And when he ventured to the states as an exchange student as a teen, he didn't land in New York or Los Angeles or any one of the major cities romanticized on television and in films. Instead, he found himself in the northwest, in the Rocky Mountain state of Idaho, and eventually, the Pacific Northwest, where he opened Mashiko, Seattle's first sustainable sushi bar. Sato looked to Casson Trenor, the environmentalist and restaurateur behind Tataki, the country's first sustainable sushi bar. At Mashiko, Sato worked tirelessly to connect with ethical and sustainable distributors, often substituting endangered fish with equally flavorful options. Sato's efforts were noticed. 'I still remember sleeping on the floor of that restaurant,' he says, reminiscing about the late nights it wasn't worth going home only to turn back around a few hours later. Instead, he'd prop himself under a table to catch some shuteye before getting back to work. He recalls a night he was jolted out of his sleep by a woman forcefully banging on the restaurant window in a panic. 'When I popped up, she was relieved — she thought I was dead,' he laughs. For Sato, Mashiko became a home, and for others, an acclaimed Seattle restaurant beloved by critics and diners alike. With Sozai, Sato brings the same level of craft and dedication to the sustainability movement to Michigan. Little bubbles of oil skim the surface of a warm bowl of inaka miso soup. Unlike most brothy misos, this one is chock-full of charred slices of onion and pillows of tofu so delicate they melt almost as soon as they hit your tongue. Cool pieces of chopped shrimp garnish a bed of crisp chrysanthemum greens in a basin of briny liquid. The dish is herbaceous and sweet and savory at once, not unlike a chilled herbal tea. Crisp vegetables, crushed herbs and ribbons of fresh, pungent ginger and wasabi accompany an assortment of sashimi featuring inch-thick slices of fish sourced from sustainable fisheries from Alaska to Florida to Massachusetts and Washington. A thin, citrusy lime wheel rests between a sliced scallop. Rounds of monkfish liver, in their orange tint, are like slices of sweet potatoes. If given a piece of bread, I might rip a piece and smear it with the velvety paté. The heads of Canadian amaebi, or spot prawns, are battered and fried tempura-style for a light and airy crunch. Some will cringe at the sight of the crustacean's beady eyeballs and wispy tentacles. I am unabashed. Sato has come a long way since his days sleeping on Mashiko's floor and washing his face in the restaurant's mop sink, but his work at Sozai is equally demanding. Sato says he begins his days texting sustainable distributors — this month, he hoped to introduce sustainable octopus, for which he'd received a tip when we spoke last month. No dice. "That's the thing, sometimes it takes months or years to make connections to get great things that are also sustainable," he says. "I haven't given up." Sato then goes on to work at the restaurant, which is open for dinner service Tuesday through Saturday. At home after hours, a seemingly endless stash of content on new aquaculture findings awaits him. Keeping up on articles, podcasts and documentary films on the subject fills the few gaps in his days. Ambitious sourcing for Sozai is not limited to seafood. The restaurant serves herbal teas made by premium brands, including Sugimoto Tea, a Washington-based brand that sources its tea leaves from ethical and sustainable farms in the Shizuoka Prefecture along Japan's Pacific coast. A loose-leaf blend made with white peony blossoms is aromatic. A floral perfume fills the air as I pour the brew from a small white teapot. A certified saké advisor, Sato also collaborates with distributors to introduce new varieties of the rice-based spirit. There are varieties that are available exclusively at Sozai in the state of Michigan, and others, which Sato says, are in the process of licensing in Michigan just for the restaurant. 'I cannot believe they're doing it for me, but I love that I will be able to give my customers the story on who's behind this saké and what kind of rice they grow. That's really exciting to me,' Sato says. The Rihaku Dreamy Clouds Nigori is refined and lightly sweet. It pairs well with the more robust flavors in the earlier dishes of the Nami omakase experience. Agacinski offers another recommendation to pair with the next round of courses — the sashimi and assorted nigiri. Drunken Whale, light in flavor yet smooth in finish, is of course, the perfect pairing. 'We can make more money and it's easier to encourage customers to buy bottles of saké, but we actually discourage that. Especially if you're doing a course meal — do you think one saké can match with every single meal? If I say that, I'm either lying or I'm lazy,' Sato says. 'Either way, I'm not really a good chef.' Nothing about Sozai nor its amusing leader is lazy. The multihyphenate chef moonlights as a ceramic artist, crafting the restaurant's flatware by hand. Sipping saké from the thick rim of an iridescent white guinomi made by Sato, or a traditional Japanese saké cup, enhances the mouthfeel of the room-temp elixir. Sustainability is a holistic endeavor at Sozai, trickling into the quality of life for the restaurant employees. All workers are paid fair wages and full-time employees qualify for medical benefits, a perk that is expected in traditional industries yet largely unheard of for food service workers. Sato's enthusiasm for his work is admirable. He's charismatic with an upbeat sensibility and a seemingly infinite supply of energy that powers him to pour into every element that is so keenly meticulous about Sozai. And he does it all well before — and after — 5:03 p.m. How Sozai is doing its part: Fair wages, sustainability Cuisine: Japanese with an emphasis on sushi ​​​​​​Price Point: Omakase $50-$120+; A la carte $5-$60 Location: 449 W. Fourteen Mile Road, Clawson. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for extras and insider scoops on Detroit-area dining. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2022 Restaurant of the Year, Sozai, boasted sustainable sushi

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