What's up guys? it's Graham here. So have you ever wondered how a private Chef is able to charge all the way up to eight thousand dollars a night? Well today I have you covered because I'm trying one of the most unbelievable side hustles that I have ever seen. learning the art of making sushi and taking you along from start to finish as soon as you hit the like button and subscribe because that tells me whether or not you actually enjoy videos like this. So thank you guys so much! And also big thank you to Ag1 for sponsoring this video but more on that later.

Let's begin now: Hi my name is Roman Allen Sarmiento I'm the executive chef for the pepper Club here in Las Vegas I'm a sushi Master by trade and I do private Sushi events on the side so you guys are not able to smell this. You walk in and it just smells like the sea. like it smells like ocean. We get here at three o'clock in the morning daily.

Yeah and a lot of our fish arise from Los Angeles by truck. we have. you know, just Japanese Fish we have fresh salmon Frozen items put that on. uh, it's gonna ruin my hair though.

yeah. I can't prepare it. I Got a sweater cold in here, but in there it's a little bit better. Yeah Wow.

just for reference guys, it feels about 40 degrees in here. It's their fish cleaning room. They're breaking down a whole blooping tuna over here. some big eye.

come check it out. They got salmon on one side. you can see right here. This is our bluefin tuna.

We cut our tuna very early in the morning very important and then once the the air oxidize it, the flesh will be more red. It turns out more red. What people don't realize is that you can't go by color when it comes to tuna sometimes. Especially Bluefin You don't want bright red on tuna.

you want like a nice deep dark color red. If it's bright red, it's probably dyed all right. Graham We're gonna head back to the restaurant. yeah and break down all this fish.

Here you go. don't drop it. They're expensive. How do you start learning about all of this stuff? It seems so complicated to me for me like I'm a big fan of anime and I love Japanese culture and for me, getting into Sushi was probably the closest thing.

um to be training like a Samurai and I was a big fan of that. Master Class On breaking that fish, we're going to start with this. first step. Okay, first safety measure.

We have to give it to these guys. Okay, you're gonna get your scissors because if these guys ever poke you, yeah, well it's over. See how I'm handling the fish? Yes, very, very careful. These guys are very delicate.

Why aren't you wearing gloves? Why are you handling this with your hands making sure that you feel everything? It's not spoiled fish or anything. It's fresh so you're being if you're able to see and feel where the scales are. all that and that's one of the big no-nos in sushi is when you have scales on your sushi, that means you didn't clean it well enough. Scales are going this way.

So we're gonna do is we're gonna push it this in this direction. right? Step nice and light. It's awkward for me to see this fish because I love fish and I have an aquarium. So I see this and feel like you know it's tough for me to want to cut this.

Don't catch feelings man. Yeah, don't catch feelings. The hard part is that I see it. it's got really cute teeth.

It's just. you know I feel bad now I was born in the Philippines yeah I was born in the Philippines I moved to the states when I was a teenager I wanted more I wanted more I don't want to go back to where my family's struggling to do this or that I want to be able to just do more for my future family and friends and show them like Hey Look, if I can do it, anybody can do it. You just have to have the work ethic. You have to have that that mental strength to keep going when you don't.

when you don't want to keep going, you're going to do that. It's like a little like a plate there. Like a boat plate. Yeah, push through that plate.

go all the way in. this exposes. Oh my gosh. see that I'm cutting it? Yeah, pay attention.

You got to do this. Look I mean I'm listening I Shouldn't have eaten before this. So so people need to understand how this goes and people need to appreciate Sushi more because there's a lot of work that goes into it. So Graham was freaking out about the guts.

Uh, it got a little squeamish, but um, he needs to understand. That's part of the gig, you know. imagine all the work that goes into this so you know I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Wow, Okay, so no scales I'm feeling around.

no scales. You're gonna do that one next. Okay, leave all your stuff here. Oh well.

I was not expecting that. It's so slimy. Get in there, get your hands dirty. Yeah, this is a lot more difficult than I expected.

Before you turn it, check here. look I Can feel all the skill here I can feel all the scale here. For a restaurant. for anybody serving food, have little things like that, this is basic 101 stuff.

You can't do this. uh-uh you don't belong in the industry. All right. Okay, yep, there's a plate there.

Yeah, get through the plate. There you go. This is what you wanted, right? Let's go. Oh my.

God Graham Definitely had a lot of interesting facial expressions and reactions. I was pulled. Oh my. God if it's detaching from the inside, pull it.

definitely. I Prefer just the fish at the grocery store versus this. Ready for the next one? Yeah, sure. Okay, first thing you do, you're gonna dig your heads in there.

Grab all the stuff you threw in that I should have been in the trash can. Yup, the guts. water. Oh so this is something you wouldn't want me to do, right? Nope.

And this is why I'm here. Okay I'd Screw this one up. It's just the type of fish it is. Uh, the meat's more tender.

Um, very, very delicate. The flavor is really light. It's that's why it's one of my favorites. It's great.

You know you'd be surprised how big these guys can get like this. Alex Kind of like your mom. You all need to understand that the rice is the most important thing in sushi. So we have to make sure that we wash it correctly.

cook correctly. Mix currently with the red vinegar. Two scoops of this. two scoops all the way to the rim.

Yup, another one. Okay, all right, let's go to the front. What some people will do is they'll start crumbling it and then you can start breaking the grain. You don't want to do that.

All we're doing is just sifting it around so that the starch gets washed away. Yeah, we're gonna keep doing that until this water. It's practically clear. All right guys.

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Go ahead, dig in there. It tastes just like sushi rice already. like the perfect try it. How do you perfect the rice? Because I've cooked rice before in the past and it's gotten like really mushy.

So rice is three things right. It's rice, water and heat. We're gonna look at all the clumps and we're gonna break down the clumps. but you notice we're not pushing that with us because if we squeeze it it becomes like cake.

I Don't go to anybody says rice is the most important thing in sushi. If you don't get this down right? Yeah, everything else is messed up. Why are you wiping down the sides like that? Because you have to respect the right. They're not wasteful.

It's one thing that most suggests aren't taught anymore is to respect the rice. You know, no rice on the floor, No rice on The Cutting Board Sushi's Beyond Food It's a lifestyle for most and especially people in Japan and that's why I I Like to bring people in here that have the heart for it If you're not good I'm all good with that. I can make you really good but I need the heart. Something that I can't teach you.

you know as hard so you have that. That's what I need. This is better than the gym. We're doing some chest day today chest and arms so what's in here? We have all our fish here.

we have uh you know Ginger Wasabi stuff like that. Wow. Okay, we have about an hour to get everything all sorted out. We gotta cut some fish.

We also have to make sure that the table is set. Uh, share plates Chopsticks ramekins I've never served anybody before in my life so I don't know what's gonna happen I Can't promise it's going to be any good. These are some of the fishes we've prepared earlier. We have our two you know, our bluefin tuna.

We have our Yellow Tail our salmon and some of the seasonal fish that we got from the Omakase box from earlier. It's going really well I Got this down. This is easy. This is more my speed I can guarantee the table is going to be set correctly I Like this.

So how much does all of this cost? It's a lot of stuff. So to start with everything. Yeah, with like one cutting board, part of your tools, your knife, everything. Two thousand dollars.

What's the most expensive part? the most exp. Honestly, right now I think he's cutting boards. These cutting boards are like six to eight hundred bucks. Your knives don't get dull on them, they don't.

There's like this type of material where you can literally do this all day and cut on top of it. Interesting, but your knives will stay sharp. Naked sushi is a very popular. It's a big hit.

We kind of focus more on the artistic side of it. You know what do you mean? Naked sushi? Like? You mean like like naked sushi like I Try to focus more on the artistic side of things. you know, higher body painters, a makeup artist, and how much does that cost? If someone wants to do like the top-notch everything, probably eight thousand dollars. Eight thousand dollars.

A thousand dollars. Yeah, this is the top side of the yellowtail, the backside and we're going to use this for our uh, one of our carpaccios that we're gonna do for uh for tonight. Get that nice shape that I'm looking for so that when I cut for the Carpaccio it's uh, it's the same ideal shape and it's identical the whole way. you can see.

All my slides are pretty even for the most part. Yeah, just try to get it as consistently as you can. Okay, right there. Yeah, okay, right there.

So you get to use the full blade of that knife. It's that angle of the oh my God You make it look so easy. it's okay. I'm not using that.

No problem. we're not using that. Nope, Nope. Yeah, not using that.

Okay, down and then this. Yep, oh good. We're not using that either. It's all good.

Good effort. Why aren't we using this? Everything's edible. but remember, we're going for yeah. the quality here.

I'm like oops. I guess I have to eat it now, Huh? Definitely started this wide yeah and this high and as we went down towards the tail, it shrunk and it got more narrow. So what you have to do is you have to adjust your knife. see how I'm adjusting now.

Yeah, it's getting more thinner. So my knife is I'm tilting my knife like this to get it wider and I'm turning my knife like this for length so that it matches the last piece. I got. This is something I never would have even thought of.

To me, it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna eat it. Regardless of the shape, it tastes the same. Why does this matter? so much consistency? And remember you're a seizure Chef You're also an artist.

I'm gonna go like this. Yeah, it's hard. Then you got your last Wow right there. Okay, you got that awkward one right? So we're gonna fix it.

No way. Cool, huh? So it matters. So when I'm turning this, it doesn't look lopsided. It's round.

It goes in a circle. You know what I mean. So no matter how awkward the pieces are, it's even here. And it's even right here.

Yeah, it's in that Center You You have to love what you do. You have to love what you do because if you don't it's just like any other thing. And for me, it's not necessary that I love to cook I love to eat And for me going back to what I was saying about how I love the Japanese culture and I love how I was able to train like a samurai underneath my old Sushi chefs and being able to handle the sword daily. It's a cool thing for me like I'm still a little kid in that I'm gonna teach you how to roll now.

All right, because this is the fun part. This is a very important. A rough side. A smooth side.

Yeah. so rough rice or two. Whoa. Okay, on the Rough Side You start on your left side.

since you're right-handed one hand keeps it moving forward and down. the other hand keeps it in the middle. Let's do that. You're just moving it.

you're moving it around and you're covering the seaweed flat side. It's going to go with the Rices and have salmon right here. Okay, it's all about proportioning this whole line right here. Has to go cover everything inside and you're gonna leave yourself a tab.

So ready going in. Smooth touch, not squeezing, nothing nice and smooth. One time, one more over. Now you're thinking of like a house.

right? Like a like a dice. So you got your walls, you got your ceiling floor one time. that's it you fix the sides and you have a nice oh just like that I Want to taste test that so badly? Get in there. get in there are you really needs a little cream cheese? So good.

This I would say is more my speed. but how do you not like push down the rice too much where you flatten it that comes with time. All right. One oh yeah, one more time.

Okay okay now form like a square. Form that square. Don't push down. Oh yeah, you're right.

Yeah, do this. Slide it. So if your knife is covered in rice, you're not gonna get through this cleanly. Okay.

and then when you play it, you're gonna have all these little like crumbs and stuff. So you got to get that nice clean cut. Oh look though, look at that. it's perfect.

I Love this. Oh my family's in town for the weekend. Um I figured you know they flew in from Boston and I figured to do something special. So we got Chef roaming on Deck making some sushi tonight.

I'm a little nervous though because apparently Graham is also making does he has any experience picking Sushi prior to today? How many years does it takes Master to Rice itself? So we're starting them off right now. I got salmon I got avocado I made probably 80 of the rolls in here. They're not perfect, but you know what they're made with Karen Love excuse me guys here's the round number one. also would you like Wasabi and ginger of course.

Okay, oops I made a bit of a mess I'll clean that up. No crap. okay I'm sorry. It looks like they're enjoying the food though and I have a feeling they're gonna have a difficult time figuring out who made which role.

I Think by the time they get it, it's gonna look pretty close so this one's a little. It's got a little small piece of salmon and it looks a little disproportionate. So I got a good uh chunk for you guys here. this is the big one.

so we have stripe Jack yellowtail, salmon, tuna, and somewhat fatty tuna right here. So this is the good stuff right there. so enjoy. There's really a lot of ways to the Nigeria It's probably one of the hardest things to to grab the concept of because it's it's steps that you first have to memorize and then eventually it becomes muscle memory.

When you're putting it together, grab this piece all your grabbing species. You have your rice here right on my finger Wasabi thumbs on top. You're pushing this in it rolls over, finger blocks this off this hand again gets the sides. You turn it on, your finger, shape it again, plates facing you, fish is facing you now so the skin of the fish is facing you when you're ready to serve to the gas you turn.

this bad boy We'll give it to them like that. So now they see the fish. Oh my. God There is a method to all of it.

Are you serious? And it's lips? It rolls over, use your fingers momentum to roll it over. Now it's standing up. Fixing that again. Voila! I Mean it was like a Michelin star Sushi Dinner overlooking Las Vegas at Sunset and I Gotta admit Graham you did a fantastic job.

Oh like a pro. really? My first time ever. Yeah, hey so what do the numbers look like for an event like this? Uh, we spent about 600 700 in cost. fish, rice, seaweed.

We charge this person 160. We're making about an extra just just over a thousand dollars in profit at the end of the day. It's not about the money. Um, I'm really passionate about this.

I Love being a sushi chef I've put in countless hours Blood Sweat and Tears into this to become good, not even the best just to become good. And this is where that passion comes in because if you don't like what you do, no matter how much you try, it's not gonna translate to this beautiful thing that people experience as far as doing something like this to make extra money. I Would say it's not something that you could just get started with overnight and go to the store and get a few hundred dollars of supplies and then make a thousand dollars. you know, unlike cleaning windows or cleaning cars, there's so much more that goes into it.

And I could see how it takes people years just to get competent enough. and when you combine that with like getting clients making sure you don't have as much waste and then you know there's so much coordination that goes in this that you really have to have a love for it. Oh and by the way, Roman said that if this video gets 50 000 likes, we'll do Naked Sushi I'm not entirely sure what that is, but we'll do it with 50 000 likes. so make sure to hit the like button subscribe I'm exhausted.

it's like 9 15 now I think I'm gonna go home. Hey I'm home. Hey, what's for dinner? Let's just order pizza.