Seattle Time

Michelin stars aren't transferable, and chefs who get them can't be cloned — here's how one is trying to replicate his "new wave" omakase.

“It was also around the time when it was really in vogue to be upset at anyone for doing something that they considered cultural appropriation,” he continues. And that’s kind of what we’re trying to go for.” The season of “Top Chef” that he was on, Lee points out, was “seven, eight years ago.” “I grew up in the San Fernando Valley along Ventura Boulevard, which is pretty famous for the amount of sushi bars — we’re the second-largest concentration of sushi bars per capita in the world still today,” he says. Lee’s also been a contestant on “Top Chef,” “Chopped” and more. for this concept specifically to be the most-starred concept of, you know, ever.” (Seattle’s not going to help with that at the moment, for what it’s worth; the Michelin Guide currently only confers stars in some parts of the U.S., not including the Pacific Northwest.) To maintain quality in pursuit of that goal, Lee says he designed the exclusive, 10-seat-only Sushi By Scratch setup to keep the teams small and executing “at a very, very high level.” He realized fairly early on, he says, that he needed to “teach everybody to not do what I do, but to think the way that I think. Tham takes center stage at the $165-per-person sushi bar having graduated from culinary school just 7½ years ago; he has worked with the company since, save a yearlong internship arranged by Lee at triple-Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn in San Francisco.