Fish in a Flash

If you knew sushi like Dennis Kish knows sushi, you might agree that “frozen sushi” is not an oxymoron.

Kish is a Northern California food broker who, at a San Francisco sales meeting Monday, sampled the wares of Fifo Food System Inc. of Gardena and came away a believer.

Fifo--which in this case stands for “frozen in, fresh out,” not “first in, first out”--claims to be the first company to have developed the cooking and production techniques necessary to make reliable “flash-frozen” sushi, the Japanese raw-fish-and-rice delicacy.

Devotees of the pricey specialty normally enjoy it at sushi bars, where chefs assemble the treats to order. But Tad Iwamoto, a former Honda automotive-engineer-turned-restaurateur, thinks people should be able to enjoy sushi at home.

“This way is much better,” said Iwamoto, who began experimenting with frozen sushi five years ago. “You can leave the sushi in your freezer for a month and a half and thaw it at room temperature or use the microwave.”

So far, Fifo’s customers have been hotels and restaurants, including some that Iwamoto owns in Southern California. But he said he is also talking with Northwest Airlines about providing passenger meals and hopes to sell the item to Pavilions and other high-end grocery chains in six months or so. (The grocery store price would probably be $8.95 for 10 pieces.) His ultimate goal is to export frozen sushi to Japan, his homeland.

Diners at Iwamoto’s Hibachi restaurant in Manhattan Beach have been unwittingly eating formerly frozen sushi for more than two years. Sushi is the eatery’s No. 2 seller, after chicken teriyaki. Fifo sushi is also served at Tampopo Express in Terminal 2 at Los Angeles International Airport; Host Marriott Services Corp. operates that restaurant under a licensing arrangement with Iwamoto.

Getting to this point required years of tinkering. Early versions of the sushi suffered from freezer burn. The rice tended to dry out and fall apart. But Iwamoto said he believes the company has solved those problems by using purified water and cooking the rice longer. He said Fifo can now produce enough sushi to satisfy big customers.

In an informal tasting at The Times, reactions to the frozen sushi ranged from raves to “I could tell it wasn’t fresh.”

Kish said the salespeople from his company, Northern California Food Sales in Pleasanton, “flipped” over the flavor. As a concept for in-store delis and freezer cases, he added, “it’s definitely a winner.”

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Times staff writer Martha Groves can be reached by fax at (213) 473-2480 or by e-mail at martha.groves@latimes.com