Michelin-starred Chef Morihiro “Mori” Onodera’s 40-year culinary career began on his family’s modest livestock, vegetable and rice farm in Fujisawa (Iwate Prefecture), Japan. Out of necessity, he learned to prepare their meals from scratch, including homemade soy sauce, tofu and their farm grown rice. The seasonality and freshness of the ingredients available on their farm made a long lasting imprint on his later culinary philosophy. He worked for two years in Tokyo restaurants perfecting his skills, before arriving in Los Angeles in 1982, and spent the next two decades in the seminal restaurants Matsuhisa, Katsu and R-23 as well as Hatsuhana in New York City. He opened his celebrated namesake sushi bar in West Los Angeles which he helmed until 2011, receiving a Michelin star in 2008 and 2009.

Inspired by the Japanese artist Rosanjin, Chef Mori first introduced his handmade ceramics designed and created in the back of Mori Sushi. He also perfected and served a Japanese “koshihikari” strain of rice grown in Sacramento. That led to a new project in Uruguay growing rice they named “satsuki” to reference the spring harvest, and for the next 5 years distributed it to Los Angeles restaurants. It quickly became affectionately known in Los Angeles as “Mori’s” rice. Kome (rice), according to Chef Mori, is the most important ingredient in sushi. At Morihiro, a new rice grown in his hometown of Iwate, Japan is hand milled daily at the restaurant as fresh milling is essential to achieving a high moisture content. Chef Mori performs quality control on his rice, measuring its moisture content and the caliber of individual grains to ensure the rice meets his high standards.