Picture your average high-end sushi chef in L.A. If you’re remotely familiar with the city’s sushi scene, or have even just watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the image in your mind is likely of an older man of East Asian, most likely Japanese, descent, quietly and deftly slicing raw fish behind a counter. While most of the city’s top sushi restaurants are still owned and operated by men, one highly skilled female chef has entered the chat: Nozomi Mori, the young upstart behind West L.A.’s four-month-old Mori Nozomi, which I recently awarded a five-star review.
Compared to her male counterparts, Mori has crafted a standout high-end omakase experience with a focus on grace and aesthetics not dissimilar to chado, or traditional Japanese tea ceremony. This isn’t a coincidence; the self-directed chef spent two years as a student at Yusuian, a Japanese tea room located in Malibu that offers weekly classes for dedicated members and biannual introductory events. While there, she met other skilled artisans who taught her ikebana, or formal Japanese flower arrangement, and how to make wagashi, the category of traditional Japanese sweets that includes mochi. Both art forms elevate a meal at Mori Nozomi and set it apart from L.A.’s often identical-seeming high-end omakase experiences.
The 36-year-old native of Hyōgo—a prefecture within the Kansai region that borders Osaka—also brings years of high-end retail experience to the hospitality at Mori Nozomi. Before immigrating to the United States and training as a sushi chef, Mori spent her early twenties working as a salesperson for Gucci in Osaka and traveling all over the world. (She’s been to over 30 different countries.). Her experiences in the U.S. inspired her to move to Los Angeles at age 29, where upon arrival she decided to interview for a role as a server at a sushi restaurant. To her surprise, the manager instead offered her a job in the kitchen.
“I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll try.’ I start[ed working as a] sushi chef, and then I was like, ‘I really like it,’” says Mori, who I interviewed with the assistance of Megumi Yagihashi, her publicist and translator. Something inside her clicked. Reflecting on her experiences eating abroad, she decided to pursue a career in sushi, spending a formative half-decade at Moto Azabu in Marina del Rey, where the septuagenarian men behind the counter welcomed her with open arms and taught her everything she needed to know.
“I learned a lot of things from Moto Azabu. After that, COVID hit, and I saw so [much] fish was wasted,” Mori adds. “And then I was like, I want to open omakase because then I can organize my fish. I know how many people come in and how much fish I need.”
Historically, most aspiring female sushi chefs haven't had the same experience. The predominantly male world of highly skilled sushi chefs, or itamae, has discriminated against and looked down on women who have attempted to enter the field. This has been due to a couple of once widely-held misconceptions, the two most notable being the myth that the slightly higher average female core body temperature adversely affects how a woman would handle raw fish and that women lack the physical stamina to survive and thrive within the culinary field as a whole. While Mori says her experiences with sushi mentorship in L.A. have largely been positive, she also agrees that her years of training might have turned out quite differently had she pursued learning the craft in her native country.
In early 2023, she left Moto Azabu to start what would end up being a brief stint at Sushi Ginza Onodera. By the end of the year, a mutual friend connected her with Masanori Nagano, the final chef-owner to operate now-closed Mori Sushi. (FYI: Nagano is the protégé of the restaurant’s founding chef, Morihiro Onodera, who can now be found at his namesake Michelin-starred Morihiro in Atwater Village.) Nagano had decided to close Mori Sushi, and the space was up for grabs.
Having already been on the hunt for restaurant space on the Westside, Mori jumped at the opportunity and secured the lease. From the landscaping outside, which includes a bonsai stone pine and plenty of vibrant, red-green heavenly bamboo, to the floral arrangements in the center of the dining room, every design choice made by the aesthetically inclined chef is thoughtful and intentional. The focus on beauty extends to the dishware, including beautifully inlaid vintage gold-lacquered plates Mori personally brought back from Japan.
What is far less concrete but still perceptible, however, is the approach to service at Mori Nozomi. From start to finish, every movement by Mori and her staff is elegant and measured, in a manner obviously inspired by chado. “In a tea ceremony, you have so many rules and exact positions, even your pinky finger,” Mori says. In many ways, it’s the same situation when it comes to high-end sushi, she adds.
Unlike chado, however, which typically involves brewing tea and serving wagashi, Mori and her staff are grilling seafood, preparing nigiri and presenting rarified delicacies with flourish. In essence, creating a graceful sushi experience from start to finish is far more of a high-wire act—and the chef manages to stick the landing, every time.
Mori Nozomi earned five stars from us. For more details on what else to expect from dining here, read our full review.