From Headshakes to Sushi Craze: The Rise of Raw Cuisine in America

If we mentioned “sushi” a decade or two ago – despite its growing popularity – we got headshakes and nose scrunches. “Raw? I don’t eat anything raw,” nay-sayers typically reply. Still, there are now more than 4,000 sushi restaurants in the U.S.! Raw foods have been part of every culture throughout history. The raw tenderized horsemeat eaten by Genghis Khan’s hordes inspired master of French cuisine Escoffier to create Steak Tartare in 1920. In the 1960s famous Venice hotelier and proprietor of Harry’s Bar created Carpaccio, thinly sliced and pounded beef, veal, venison, salmon, etc. served with white truffle, lemon and olive oil. Elegant, but where did he get the idea? The Japanese had been serving sashimi for hundreds of years! A recent study by the National Restaurant Association revealed that sushi is the fastest growing cuisine in the nation, with expected industry growth reaching into the multi-billions over the next five years. Of the one-third of Americans who have never tried sushi, several surveys reveal, almost two-thirds are willing to try it. So – if you are the one-third of that one third that’s still saying “no way,” please check out our next installment!