【Reading】たいしょう

【English Name】Head Sushi Chef

"Taisho" is a title referring to the owner or head chef who handles the nigiri inside the counter at a sushi restaurant. Originally a word meaning the highest-ranking general officer in the military, it came by extension to be widely used as a colloquial term for the head of a group or a boss.

At sushi restaurants, when a customer addresses the chef across the counter, calling out "Taisho" is considered the general etiquette. "Itamae-san" and "oyakata" are used similarly, but especially at counter-centered Edomae sushi restaurants, "taisho" can be said to be the most familiar appellation.

The taisho is a presence that determines the quality of the entire restaurant, not merely through the technical skill of forming nigiri, but also through discernment in procurement, the planning of preparation, and hospitality through conversation with customers. It is generally said that it takes many long years before a chef who has accumulated training becomes independent, opens his own restaurant, and comes to be called taisho.

It should be noted that at conveyor-belt sushi chains and the like, the structure in which the kitchen is not visible from the customer seats is common, and the tendency is that the term taisho is used mainly only at counter-style sushi restaurants.