Omaha’s Sushi Secret— with Chef David Utterback
In Episode 129 of the Kitchen Confidante Podcast, Liren Baker talks with Chef David Utterback about Omaha’s sushi secret and sushi in the Midwest.
On the podcast, I recently chatted with Chef David Utterback, a multiple-time James Beard Award finalist and the first Nebraska chef to be nominated for Best Chef Midwest. Chef Utterback is the force behind three critically acclaimed Omaha restaurants — Yoshitomo, Ota, and Koji — with two new concepts on the horizon. The Washington Post has named Ota one of the best sushi restaurants in the country.
In this episode, we chat about his unexpected path to becoming a sushi chef, the transformative trip to Japan that changed everything, and why Omaha’s food scene deserves a lot more attention than it gets.
Listen to the full episode or keep reading for some of the highlights from our conversation.
How Did You Get Started as a Sushi Chef?
Becoming a sushi chef wasn’t always my plan. Years ago, I was working two jobs and playing in a band, and when rent got tight, a roommate who worked at a sushi restaurant mentioned they were hiring. I got hired immediately — I was Japanese, and in Omaha, that was enough. I spent my days cutting cucumbers and avocados and rolling hundreds of California rolls. Slowly, I worked my way up from prep chef to head chef, then to corporate chef. During that time, the restaurant grew from one location to about thirteen.
The real turning point came in 2009 when I traveled to Japan and Googled the best sushi in Tokyo. I ended up at Sukiyabashi Jiro — what later became one of the most famous and sought-after reservations in the world. At the time, I was the only guest of the day. I told them I was a sushi chef, and they laughed at me. But I was struck by witnessing a kitchen of professional chefs who were completely present and focused. The kitchens I’d worked in were a different world. I didn’t even know that restaurants like that existed, or that a regular person could walk in off the street and eat there.
That experience changed everything, and I decided to make sushi my career. Back then, there were fewer than ten omakase sushi counters in the entire U.S., which meant I had to teach myself. To this day, I’m one of the very few people running a sushi counter without a formal apprenticeship. I travel to Japan twice a year, eating at as many counters as I can and continuing to learn from people who are operating at a much higher level.
Tell Us More About Your Restaurants
Omaha doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. We’re in a flyover state, which makes it hard to show the rest of the country what’s actually happening here. The James Beard Awards are one of the few ways Midwest restaurants get noticed nationally. We have one of the best food scenes in America—it’s just a well-kept secret.
My three restaurants are all different, and together they offer something for everyone. Yoshitomo, my first restaurant, blends a Midwestern sensibility with a fine-dining approach. Ota is an omakase counter focused on the best ingredients and the most technique, built to recreate the kind of experience I had in Japan. We run a tuna program that I’m especially proud of, serving both Japanese and Atlantic tuna every night, making us the only sushi counter I know of to do so anywhere. Koji is the most accessible of the three, family-friendly and built around the greatest hits from both restaurants. Across all three, the goal is to guide guests into a unique experience. We no longer offer things like California rolls by default, because there’s so much more to explore.
Right now, the U.S. is in a real sushi boom. A decade or two ago, you could count the omakase counters in New York on one hand. Now there are hundreds, and every major city has one. The quality is rising everywhere, and I think we’re just getting started.
Learn more
Listen to the full podcast episode with Chef Utterback here. You can follow him on Instagram @davidyoshitomo.
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