Photo by Karim Shamsi-Basha.
Dresden Statum is training to become one of the nation’s few female sushi chefs. She is learning from Leo Lin at KOME’ restaurant in Hoover.
When the phrase “female sushi chef” is typed into Google, the first result that pops up is an article from restaurant review site Zagat, titled, “Why are there no female sushi chefs?”
That fact is what drives Hoover resident Dresden Statum to continue her sushi master training under owner and chef Leo Lin at KOMÉ in Hoover.
Statum, a Homewood High School graduate, is determined to be one of the few female sushi masters in the U.S. and has been preparing for several months. Having worked under many bosses, she said, her current boss and teacher Lin has done the most to push her to be her best.
SUSHI MASTER TRAINING
Statum worked for Lin twice previously, but for monetary reasons had to find other employment. A few months ago, she returned and made the official choice to begin training to be a sushi chef.
While she was deciding whether to go through training, she asked her family and friends if they thought she had what it took, and they all told her the she did. When she asked Lin, he said, “It doesn’t matter what I think. What do you think?” That’s when she knew he would be the perfect teacher for her.
The thing that keeps her going, she said, is Lin’s patience and the fact that she is making a statement for women all over the world.
Part of Statum’s morning routine, she said, is repeating four names out loud: Yumi Chiba, Nakaba Miyazaki, Miki Izumisawa and Leo Lin. “All of these people make it possible for me to achieve my goals,” Statum said.
The first three are other female sushi chefs, some of whom had to train in secret, and they serve as Statum’s inspiration. Through her training, she aims to be as talented as the names she recites each day.
The steps of the training begin with house rolls, then specialty rolls, then nigiri sashimi and lastly sauces. It takes a total of two to three years to be called a chef — a drastic difference from traditional Japananese training in which apprentices wash rice for the first three years, she said.
Statum’s end goal of sushi master can take at least 10 years, but it’s not actually up to the chef themselves. It’s a title that’s “earned over a long period of time,” she said.
FIGHTING FOR WOMEN EVERYWHERE
The appeal of this career comes from her lifelong love of cooking and a passion to become a female chef in a male-dominated industry.
“In the culinary world, sushi chefs are pretty much the rockstars, because not everyone can do it,” Statum said.
In her experience, she’s been told women can’t cook sushi for different reasons: women’s body temperatures are higher, so their warmer hands will negatively influence the integrity of the fish, or that women wear perfume that interferes with the taste.
“I have to break that stigma,” Statum said.
To her, though, the training means more than just cooking. She hopes to pave the road for other little girls with similar dreams. On top of sushi training, she is working toward her American Culinary Federation certification, which also takes 10 years to achieve master chef.
Ultimately, she said, when she gets to the level she wants, she hopes to see more women there with her as well.
“Women, we can do anything,” she said. “In the past 200 years we’ve come so far, and I think right now we are on the precipice of total equality, and it takes people like Leo to make that happen.”
