By now, most of us have seen the video of the chef at the top of the list.
This one, which aired on the Food Network and on ABC’s Shark Tank, is definitely one of the funniest ones.
But the chef’s story is just as compelling, and more than a little bit depressing, as it is hilarious.
This is the guy who, during a visit to the Chinese city of Wuhan, allegedly went to the kitchen and asked the chef if he was a sushi chef.
He was actually just a restaurant cook, but he had his own line of sushi and he also had a sushi restaurant in his hometown of Wuxi.
When he was asked about this, the chef responded, “It’s not my restaurant, it’s yours, you’re a chef.”
But in reality, the restaurant owner, Lin Zhongshu, was actually an incredibly skilled chef and the chef was actually the owner of a sushi bar in Wuhang.
And so when the chef asked Lin to take the job, Lin was shocked, and told the chef to get lost.
“I said, ‘I don’t want to be a sushi cook,'” Lin told the New York Times.
“And I said, you don’t have to be, you have to become a chef.
You don’t need to be in the kitchen.
You just need to become someone who knows how to cook sushi.
You’ve already done that, and you can do it.”
The chef then went on to explain that he wanted to “open a restaurant for people like you,” and the restaurant owners were “stunned” by the request.
They then decided to hire the chef, who is now known as “Sushi Chef Lin.”
He went on and opened up a sushi-only restaurant, but now, the restaurants owner tells the New Yorker that the restaurant is closed, as the restaurant has been sold.
And because of the restaurant’s closure, Lin says that he has no plans to reopen it.
“People will be angry,” he says.
“We’ve all been through this, and I’ve been through it all myself.”
Lin Zhongs wife, who also worked as a sushi instructor, told the Times that Lin’s sushi-centric restaurant has become an institution in Wuxia, and that she and her husband “wouldn’t want anything to do with it anymore.”
[The New York Post] [New Yorker]