Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary film by David Gelb, opens in Asheville on Friday, April 6 at the Carolina Asheville. The film was picked up by the Tribeca Film Festival and, by all reports, it's much more than just food porn — although there's plenty of that, too.
Here's the premise:
85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s best sushi chef, is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat sushi restaurant located, of all places, in a Tokyo subway station. Despite the inauspicious location of his restaurant, Jiro is the first sushi chef to receive three Michelin stars. People travel from all over the world to eat there, proving once and for all that great food trumps a crappy location (see our story in last week’s paper).
In an interview with Eater National's Gabe Ulla, Jiro director David Gelb says that he was inspired by his love of sushi to make the movie — although he didn't zero in on a staruntil chef Daniel Boulud insisted that Gelb visit Sukiyabashi Jiro. "It was as if I had never had sushi before," Gelb says.
"Beyond that, I saw that Jiro was such an interesting person with an incredible story — an interesting family dynamic, too. His eldest son, Yoshikazu, works with him at the restaurant in that pursuit of perfection. It began to dawn on me that this could be a movie about more than just sushi. It could be a film about a very inspiring person and about a compelling philosophy of work and about a family."
We've seen the trailer, and it's difficult to get through it without drooling. You can see it too at http://avl.mx/cz.
The Carolina Asheville is located at 1640 Hendersonville Road. For show times, visit http://www.carolinacinemas.com.
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